comida

The first week when I arrived and had rice and grated carrot for lunch and supper for three days straight I did think am I going to make it. However since then my food has undergone a significant change.

There is still a lot of rice. When I used to have lunch and supper at home every day I probably had rice 10 times a week. The other times would be pasta or quinoa. When I first arrived after a week of no meat I asked Tota if she was a vegetarian and she said yes. Since then I have realized that yes is a Chilean vegetarian which eats meat once a week instead of every day. Once we were sorting out food in Serena and Anne who is a legit vegetarian said she didn’t eat meat so couldn’t have a hamburger and the Chilean solution was a hot dog.

Anyway, I have meat on the weekends, during the week with the rice I have lentils which I have grown fond of, chick peas or some other bean. The first month I had tomatoes every day, I have grown to love them. I also have grown to love marmalade. Tota makes her own apricot marmalade and it is delicious. My breakfast every morning, was her home made pan which she can make out of anything, last time it was pan with quinoa and oats, marmalade and black tea with sugar. Then I finished all the marmalade and now have avena, oatmeal, with palm syrup.

The big Chilean thing is palta (avocados, palta is a solely Chilean word) and manjar (similar to dulce de leche). Every sweet pastry, cake whatever is made with manjar, and I have palta 4 or 5 times a week. They use it like butter spread on bread with a bit of salt it is delicious.

The wife of my teacher always asks me have I eaten this have I eaten that, referring to the typical Chilean dishes, in truth I simply eat very simple things. Chileans don’t use spices, when we asked for extra spices on a mexicana pizza, we were given a little bowl of peppers with the seeds cut out! They flavor things by adding tomatoes and palta to everything.

Finally I eat lots of grapes. They signify good luck and as everyone has a grape vine they are easy to come by. Or if you don’t happen to have a grape vine, you can walk by a orchard/pasture/field of grapes and put your hand through the fence.

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