Chilean Food 101

Thought you all might be interested in some of the food that they eat down here in Chile. Though it's not too different from anything you've eaten up there in the states..they definitely don't have a Mexican/Chinese/Thai/Italian restaurant on every corner (or even in every city) so in that sense, there isn't as big of a mix of food like we find in the melting pot of restaurants in the United States.

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They do, however, have a Pizza Hut at the mall in Concepcion...a place that I have been known to go every so often just to eat mozzarella cheese and taste something from home. Keep this one on the dl though will you? It isn't a pretty picture when I am face-full of carbo-loading goodness! :)

First thing on the docket is zapallo! (Since I already had this in my kitchen to take some pictures of). This is one of the staples of Chilean soups. Yes - Chileans make a lot of soup, and it is delicious! Usually they will put a bunch of things in their soups, from beans to potatoes to carrots and noodles, most things you probably put in your soups....

The one addition that they have hear is this beautiful squash that they chop into little squares of flavorful goodness. Now, you may be saying - Missy, I ALWAYS use squash in my soups, this isn't really a Chilean thing - then whoops, I guess I had just never had squash in my soup before arriving here and having it at nearly every lunch we go to!

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Anyway, back to zapallo...I looked up the name of this particular squash and it is called Crown Prince and they are HUGE! So, usually they are cut into big chunks and sold at the market for about 40 cents a chunk.

Here's a picture of the chunk I bought today:

Cut up for a soup:

And of course there is no picture of the soup because Jordan and I downed it like crazy people, it was soo good! And seriously, the added pop of the squash is fabulous!

So, now that you've had your first introduction to some Chilean food, I hope to continue this as a sort of series or something.

Have a great day,

Missy