On my first night in Santiago, Lindsay, Garv, one of Garv's co-workers/friends, Diego, and I went to out for some drinks and a meal. One of the distinct differences between Chile and the United States is that Chileans do everything--wake up, arrive at work, eat lunch, stop working, eat dinner, go to bed, go out on weekend nights--about two hours later than Americans (for me, this is ideal. I like to go to bed late and sleep in).
We went out to an area called Bellavista, which is a restaurant and bar district. We started our night, somewhat ashamedly at an "Irish pub." We went there because it was the only bar with a significant amount of people. We were "early" (9:00 PM) when we got to Bellavista so most of the bars were pretty empty. One that we went into had no people there. When I say no people, there were literally no people there. I put Irish pub in quotations, because it really wasn't an Irish Pub, so it really wasn't a shame to go to an Irish pub in Chile. I've found that an Irish Pub is sometimes a euphemism for bar and it was nothing like an Irish pub. It was very much a Chilean bar.
I included a picture of the bill and you'll notice that I paid, $12,200 for drinks. Not to worry, it only cost about $25. You'll also notice the drinks called schop, which is tap beer, and copa vino tinto, which is a glass of red wine.
I've compiled a long list of types of food I want to eat while here: Chilean, seafood, empanadas, Peruvian, Argentinian, Patagonian (southern Chile and Argentina). Chile is not a food culture. What this is means is that you're not likely to find a Chilean restaurant in the US. Other examples of nationalities that are not food cultures are American, British, Irish, German, or any Scandinavian. That does not mean that they do not have distinctive types of foods, it just means that they're not as delicious as French, Spanish, Italian, Greek (notice they're all Mediterranean), Mexican, Chinese, or Japanese.
One of the highly recommended restaurants in Bellavita was Azul Profundo, a seafood restaurant. The decor was a little cheesy as it was a slightly fancier version of the Outrigger (a restaurant in Okoboji). The wine selection and food selections were not, however (not to dismiss the Outrigger because it is excellent and we eat there a lot since it's in our front yard at the lake--it's just not Chilean seafood). We ordered a bottle of Carmenere, which is the most common grape in Chile. I'd never seen it in the states, but I'm guessing that if I would look for it, I could find it. It's very good and very much like a Malbec, which is my favorite wine. As for food, I ordered mussels, scallops, and shrimp in cheesy quinoa. It was delicious.
As I was composing this, I kept saying aloud how strange it was that I was talking about food so much. And Garv made the comment that I've done a lot of eating since I've been here...But we've done some historical and cultural things and we'll be doing some more and I'm itching to write about them.
One of the highly recommended restaurants in Bellavita was Azul Profundo, a seafood restaurant. The decor was a little cheesy as it was a slightly fancier version of the Outrigger (a restaurant in Okoboji). The wine selection and food selections were not, however (not to dismiss the Outrigger because it is excellent and we eat there a lot since it's in our front yard at the lake--it's just not Chilean seafood). We ordered a bottle of Carmenere, which is the most common grape in Chile. I'd never seen it in the states, but I'm guessing that if I would look for it, I could find it. It's very good and very much like a Malbec, which is my favorite wine. As for food, I ordered mussels, scallops, and shrimp in cheesy quinoa. It was delicious.
After dinner as Azul Profundo, we went to a bar in which an expatriate bar crawl would be rolling through. We met some people from other places and shared our impressions of Chile. Then we headed back to the apartment with detours for some gelato (I became hooked on it in Italy last summer) and to listen to a drum corps that was pounding away in the bar district and entertaining the late night revelers.
Monday, July 7
From 10:00 AM to 1:00, Lindsay and I went on a walking tour of the city (more to follow in a later blog post). After the tour, our guide recommended Patagonia Sur for lunch. This sounded ideal as it would allow me to hit another type of food I wanted to try. We arrived there at 1:30 PM, which would be equivalent to arriving for lunch at 11:30 AM in the US. Even though it's winter here, it was about 60* F so we were able to sit outside. My drink was a pisco sour del Patagonia. A regular pisco sour is the national drink of Chile and is made of pisco, sour mix (go figure), and raw egg which is then shaken or blended to a froth. It's very tart and one needs to be in the right mood to have a regular pisco sour. In the Patagonian version, whiskey and and honey are added which dulled the tartness and was the perfect drink. Basically, it was a whiskey sour (a BV and Squirt, Dad!) but the honey was a great touch. For my meal, I had a vicuna sandwich. Vicunas are wild relatives of llamas and alpacas. It was similar to a ribeye steak sandwich that one could have in Iowa, except for the avocado smeared on it.
Apparently, I've gone all in on being a foodie. So if that's the case I might as well go all the way...For dinner we went to a pizza place near Lindsay and Garv's apartment at about 8:30. We had empanadas for an appetizer, which we've done for every single meal since we've been here since Lindsay is in search of the best ones. Tonight's were the best so far because the dough enclosing the cheese tasted like a pastry. And then the pizza was amazing--the combination of the dough, cheese, olive oil, and Italian salami made for the perfect greasy mess...
No comments:
Post a Comment