Comida (FOOD)

Y’all are probably all really curious about I’ve been eating down here in Chile. So just to clarify the food here is NOTHING like Mexican food. If you’ve been envisioning me eating tacos and enchiladas and spicy foods you are mistaken (and weird if you’re imagining what I eat….)

For breakfast every morning I have a small bowl of oatmeal, a piece of toast and usually an orange. Occasionally, I also have some freshly squeezed orange juice too! It’s kind of a plain breakfast but I really like because it’s not that different from what I eat for breakfast at home in Texas.
Lunch is by far the biggest and most formal meal of the day. And believe me when I say that lunch is HUGE! My family had to start giving me smaller portions because I never eat all of my meal. We usually start off with a salad of lettuce, pealed tomatoes (I still haven’t asked why they peal tomatoes, but I still think its weird) and maybe some broccoli. They don’t use salad dressing like we do. They use salt, oil and vinegar or lemon juice as salad dressing. Sometime we have soup too or whole artichokes that we dip in mayonnaise. (side note: I hate mayonnaise and skip this part of the meal).If we don't have soup or artichoke then we will eat empanadas of jamon y queso (ham and cheese). Also they’ll give me just a piece of bread to put pebre (basically salsa) on. Then we have the main course, which varies day to day but almost always has potatoes or rice and chicken many times. Pastel de papa, arroz con pollo, ravioli, portono con riendas (I think that’s what it’s called, it’s a bean and noodle soup). The other dishes have names that I’ve forgotten. But you get the idea. And for dessert we eat fruit! I really like having kiwi but oranges and apples are good too. Sometime Nancy and Adrián will have bananas with honey (platanos con miel) but I’m allergic to bananas so I just stare at them longingly while I eat my kiwi.
Dinner is small and informal and not called dinner. We say tomar té (to have tea) which, I think is just precious and wish more people in the states drank tea! So we’ll have tea with sandwiches of ham and cheese and sometimes after going to the feria (farmers market) we’ll have palta (avocado/guacamole). And if they’ve been to the panaderia we’ll have some kind of pastry for dessert! I especially like this pastry called a berlín, that has a cream filling and powdered sugar on top! Delicious!

Since my meals at home are already prepared/paid for I haven’t eaten out since I got here. I only buy ice cream! And let me tell you, Chileans LOVE their helado (ice cream). Even when I first got here in the dead of winter they were nomming on ice creams cones ALL THE TIME. There’s one ice cream place right on the beach that I have become a regular at! It’s soo yummy and the perfect start or end to a stroll along the beach!

Okay dearest readers I’ve done enough procrastinating in the form of blogging/skyping/cleaning/eating and should probably write my paper that’s due the day after I get back from BUENOS AIRES!! Did I mention that I’m spending my Chilean spring break in BUENOS AIRES!?!?!?! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! So obviously my new post will be all glorious pictures from my wonderful spring break!

Besitos,
Gaby