Love I Try to Follow: Comida de Chile

Continuing posts about our trip to Chile I thought I would touch on a topic that we get asked a lot and you might be wondering as well. "What is the food like?" people want to know! To be honest, it is not the best. Most of the restaurants seem to serve all the same food, the main color of food on my plates were usually yellow and it was all so heavy.

Eating at a gyro restaurant near the university- this might become a regular place for me

I did eat some foods that I liked and I think I will just have to learn what tastes good to me. Typically I just picked something without really knowing what it was because I hated asking a billion questions. Can you imagine asking a waiter here something like "what is a steak?" They were dishes that were so normal to them that they were difficult to describe so I just went for it and ate what I could.

Tomato and pork sandwich - not too bad

Eating in the mall- it was the easiest place because we did not have to split the check between 11 people- waiters really had trouble understanding that concept

One food that I think I can get used to eating regularly is avocado. They eat it on everything and you can even order an avocado salad!

It's a pretty salad isn't it?

Another food I will never get used to is the hot dog. Chileans LOVE hot dogs! I HATE hot dogs! What makes it worse is all the stuff they load on top of it. The completo is sauerkraut, tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo and they do not just put a little of each on but a TON.

WOAH!

Need a tasty treat during your day? No problem! There are plenty of options. One that they really love is manjar (aka Dulce de leche). Ask for a desert and it will most likely be all over it. Or in the case of the picture below they will squirt it into some fried bread. Mmmm! Thankfully they also have ice cream. For the few days we were there we became regulars at this one place in the mall that used real fruit and some block of white stuff. They put it in a machine and out came ice cream! I do not really understand it but it tasted awesome so I did not ask questions.

It is filled with nutritious vitamins I promise

Good ice cream is a must

We will never be short on candy either because these stands were everywhere- we loved their chocolate

One wonderful thing about the food that we rarely experienced in the restaurants but plan to take advantage of in our own cooking is the fresh produce. It was everywhere and not just in grocery stores. On most streets there were at least one fruit stand that had the most beautiful fruit. In another part of the city there was a produce truck that look liked it came to your door step. In Santiago we went into a few markets and I saw some of the biggest, most beautiful produce I have ever seen. I cannot wait to taste it all!!