Food may not be the first thing you think about when traveling to another country, but it actually plays a big part in the trip. I was a little nervous about the food in Chile, but it turned out to be better than I ever expected. Honestly the food is one of the things I will miss most about chile.
Fresh fruit and eggs with hotdogs
I’ll start with breakfast. Everyday for breakfast they offered lunch meat and cheeses, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs with hot dogs, toast, cake, and cereal. I usually had fresh fruit and cake—I know, cake??? I will for sure miss being able to have cake for breakfast everyday without being judged. The fruit was some of the best fruit I have ever had—strawberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew, and grapes—all of them were very good.
Cake for breakfast!
My lunches and dinners usually consisted of dishes containing empanadas, fried eggs, and mayonnaise. Empanadas are a baked, or sometimes fried dough with filling inside. They’re kind of like big raviolis made out of dough instead of noodles, and there are so many different varieties. I had cheese, beef, shrimp, spinach, and veggie filled ones. All were equally as good. I definitely want to learn how to make empanadas at home because they were just so good. I’m pretty sure I had them with most of my meals.
Cheese and beef filled empanadas
I was surprised by the amount of fried eggs the Chileans eat. I’m not a huge fan of eggs, but I actually loved having a fried egg on top of normal dishes that we already have in America. My very first meal in Santiago was a sandwich with sliced beef, cheese, and a fried egg, and it was so good. The egg really made the sandwich. We also hade fries one night with chopped beef and a fried egg on top. It was equally as good!
Fries with beef chunks and a fried egg
A weirder trend in Chile is the use of mayonnaise, on EVERYTHING. Sometimes mayo would be on things like burgers and chicken sandwiches, like in the U.S., but the Chileans take it one step further and put mayo on pretty much every sandwich.
A very popular dish in Chile is actually called an Italiano. This is a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, and tomatoes. The colors of these toppings are the same as the Italian flag, hence the name Italiano (that one took us some time to figure out). This did not sound very appetizing to me, but we are here to experience the culture, so Lisa, Anthony, and I tried it one day for lunch. This was probably the only thing I didn’t like in Chile. Lisa didn’t care for it either, but Anthony enjoyed it. The combination of mayo and avocado was weird to me. The Chileans really love hot dogs, though. One day we went in their local grocery store, and in the freezers that are in the middle of the isle that we normally fill with turkeys near Thanksgiving, were filled with hot dogs. I have never seen so many hot dogs in my life.
I have noticed that the Chileans eat a lot of meat in their meals, especially beef. I already talked about the shredded beef sandwiches and the fries, but I also had many more great dishes with beef. At Mestizo, I had a beef ragout, which was shredded beef over gnocchi with a white sauce. It was amazing and one of the best meals on the trip.
Meal at Mestizo
I also had a burger for lunch one day. At first I was unsure about ordering a burger because we have burgers at home, but I’m glad I got to try it because the Chileans do theirs a little differently. Everything was the same—burger, cheese, lettuce, tomato—but they also put fried shredded potatoes on top. I really enjoyed this on my burger because it added an extra crunch. They were very similar to the potato sticks snack you can buy at home.
Chilean burger
Probably my absolute favorite meal of the trip was a traditional Chilean dish called charquican. The stew consisted of potato, carrots, peas, pumpkin, and onion, with a piece of braised beef laid on top. I can’t even describe how good it was. I am definitely going to figure out how to make this at home.
Chilean stew was my favorite meal!
I also tried a few desserts while in Chile, my favorite being the tres leche cake from Mestizo. It was layered cake with milk and whipped cream. It was very moist. Dulche de leche, which is pretty much caramel, is also a very popular treat in Chile. I tried dulche de leche fudge and it actually tasted a lot like the caramels with the cream centers. I also had dulche de leche gelato. It was pretty good, too, but I don’t think dulche de leche is my favorite flavor.
Tres leches
Overall, I loved all of my meals with the exclusion of the Italiano hot dog. I was really surprised by this and kept waiting every time I ate for the food to be sub-par, but it was very excellent every time. I don’t understand how all of the Chileans are so fit with such good food. I’m hoping to learn to make some Chilean dishes so I can have my favorites again.