Artisan fairs of Los Domincos and Santa Lucia (Ferias de Artisaniea), Parque Arauco,

Saturday out on the town, and I went looking through 2 large artisan fairs. The first is located close to where I am staying, in the region of town known as Las Condes. If you get on the metro, it is the very last stop of Linea Uno (Line 1) heading west. It is by a pretty well known convent/church called San Vicente Ferrer which  I took a picture of outside, and in the garden inside:

Quite nice actually. There were avocados laying on the ground, and a small hedge maze. That was free, and worth the 5 minutes I took to step in and out. Then I went next door to the Artisan Fair of Los Dominicos:

Of all of the Artisan places I have seen (and I have seen a few), this is one of the nicer. There is the typical gamut of Chilean touristy stuff:

Lapiz Lazuli: A kind of stone that is unique to Chile, it is blue and pretty. It is used to make lots of jewelry and is also carved into all manner of figurines. 

Stone figurines: Pretty nifty little carvings of animals in a variety of semi-precious or pretty stones. I can remember once I took  a bunch of elephants my mom had to show and tell and broke some in transit when i must have been in kindergarten. I felt sooo bad, I remember still today. 

Indio Picaro: It is a little wooden carved indian, and when you try to pick him up, his phallus pops out. They are not classy, but it is definitely something that Chileans world wide recognize as their own creation. 

Wood Cuttings/carvings/sculptures: There is no shortage of artisans in Los Dominicos, where you can see the people actually making their stuff. I got these pictures of a few people working and their wares-

Fun story about the mermaid. First, there is a legend in Southern Chile, a place called Chiloe, where they say that the fisherman who don't return are entranced by mermaids. This is probably common to lots of sea towns, but still interesting. Also, the lady who told me about her mermaid works, also does replicas of the bow ornaments that Pablo Neruda used to have in his house (or I guess that are still in his house, since it is a museum now). 

Alpaca and Wool Products (although I would imagine that most of these come from Peru or Bolivia): These are ubiquitous in any artisan market anywhere. I have seen so much that it hardly elicits a second glance anymore. But everyone eventually drops some money for some nifty scarf or something, as I did. I might spend some money on this guy's scarves though, since they are, as I said, pretty nifty.- 

COPPER Stuff: Plates, jewelry, cups, key-chains. All kinds of stuff. Chile is famous all around the world for its copper. I bought a plate this time, and I have seen some copper etched plates of the LDS Temples in random corners if you can believe it. I guess the merchants have realized that the missionaries are suckers for that kind of stuff. (As am I).

Clay stuff: This stuff is everywhere. When I was 19 and came with my mom, she made me carry back about 30 pounds of it I believe. You can make pasterl de choclo in the earthen bowls and it is nifty. Traditional stuff. 

Instruments: I dig instruments. I would love to buy a bombo (big wooden drum with leather hide on both top and bottom) right now. Alas, I cannot carry such a thing back with me. Here are some interesting instruments that my new friend Diego showed me- 

 This is called a Trutruka. It can be wound in a circle and is often sold like this> but these were not. It can be blown into and is an Mapuche instrument.

This is a Chilean guitarron, and it it looks like it might be crazy hard to play. 

Oh, and there were animals everywhere in Los Dominicos. Some for sale as pets such as parrots and such, and some dogs and cats just hanging out. -

After all of this fun, I went to a large park and a mall next to it, both called Arauco (name of indigenous tribe). 

Santiago: Work

I wish I had some exciting details to report, but sadly, I do not. I have been stuck working most of the time, and when I did venture out, I neglected to take my camera. First of all, my work:

As you can see,  I have a nice view. What you can't see, is that I am isolated and alone, which is an honor, but also lame. There is a lot of smog in Santiago.

I could tell you all about work in a Chilean Law Firm... but it is not going to be exciting for you. I will just say that I am useless, except for translation, and even then... useless. It is a hard fact to accept.

In more exciting news, I tried Congrio Frito. Sadly, I did not have a camera, so here is a picture online. Congrio, is Conger Eel. It was delicious, even if they look unappealing in real life. I also recently ate Machas a la Parmesana, which were also delicious. (Parmesan on mussels).

Sea food delights a plenty.

I wish there was more to say, but in reality, nothing overly interesting has happened. Perhaps tomorrow I will sally forth and find something interesting.

If you go to Chile...

Well, here I am in Chile. I think that this blog will be a bit long, but I will try to drag it out. In quick succession:

Malu and I arrived.

We met Ricardo and his family, who got as at the airport, and was an all around excellent guy. He was very welcoming and helpful, and he and is wife Pabla play guitar and sing great. Observe:

*Side note, you will notice mention of Las Condes in the song, and in the post song conversation. Keep this in mind for subsequent posts when I will be posting pictures of Las Condes today. 

Malu and I familiarize ourselves with the Metro and Bus system of Santiago. 

I am still tired because I pulled an all-nighter for a horrible post exam Law Review write-on that was due the day we flew out. 

Malu and I went to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso. There was nothing that we did that I haven´t discussed at length in previous posts here, here, here, and here, but it was good times since Malu had never seen the place. 

We saw Iron Man 2 in the Viña del Mar Mall, which was fun. 

We went to Limache, and barely caught up with my mother´s cousin before we left. He arrived in the nick of time to visit.

We went to Villa Alemana to visit my cousin Roberto. It was also good times. 

We went with Roberto to the Zoo in Quillpue, which I believe that I visited when I was 8. It was trippy, back then, it seemed like a really long trip by train, but it only is a little ways inland in actuality. 

Malu left Sunday morning to Peru :(

I buy groceries. 

I perform a massive cleaning of my filthy hovel. 

I started my externship. The building is upscale, and I will post a picture of my office view. (More on the work in subsequent posts).

That brings you up to date. There are a few things that may warrant a bit more comment. While in Chile, Malu and I found a random guy on the street that cooked chorizo (sausages) and stuck them on bread. This cost a dollar, and we scooped on lots of pebre and it was delicious.

*The second one isn't a completo, she just looks funny so I thought I would share. 

Malu tried her "completo" which is Chilean for "nasty foot-long hot dog slathered with grotesque amounts of avocado and mayo." Also known as "vianessa", you can learn all there is to know about an completo at this dudes blog.

Did I mention that I hate avocado? I do. Chileans love it. Malu hates avocado as well, so... she also feels as I do about the completo, which is to say: detest. (that is a lie, she actually didn´t mind hers, but that was only after she scraped off the majority of what makes it nasty in the first place and essentially ate a normal hotdog.)

The bus and metro system in Santiago is pretty nifty I must say. It isn´t perfect, but it sure beats paying for cabs or walking. While it is expensive (as are many things here in Chile), it is worth it. 

Chileans love their centers of commerce, and they are all out buying. There are people buying everything everywhere. I am glad to see that the US has succeeded so completely in exporting materialism, because frankly, the Chinese need more money. 

My room. This could merit a post all of its own, but I will decline to go into such detail. Basically, I found it online, it is tiny, it is in a house, and the landlords are a French girl (maybe a year or two older than me) and her live in Chile boyfriend. I have a soft bed. The shower is functional and has hot water. The place is close to my work, and ideally situated very close to a super market. That is about it for pluses. Now the minuses. As I mentioned, the room is small. How small? Lets just say that Malu looks large in it. I live on the 2nd floor, and share a bathroom with the two other renters, who each have a larger room than I (and I suspect that they pay less rent aswell). They are slobs. Nice enough types, but the place was disgusting when I arrived. The kitchen, the bathroom, and the living area (which, consequently, are all also tiny). They all smoke (except frenchie, she is 4 months pregnant. She may smoke, but I haven´t seen her much), and so I smoke too. Supposedly, they aren´t supposed to smoke indoors, but its winter and they must, apparently, smoke. So it sucks for me. My room is situated above the theatre (projector and many speakers), area of the landlords. The live in watches movies/TV untill 1 am or later every day, and loudly. Come to find out, sound passes just as easily as smoke through ill fitted boards. 

It is only a month.

That is my mantra these days. 

I also suspect that my room floor is not 100% flat. This is because my chair has wheels, as does my desk, and if I sit there long enough, I move backwards to the door. Also, it is noticeable when laying upon my bed. I digress. The room is sufficient, and I have decided, post super cleaning performed by yours truly, that I most care about the shower and bed in a living area. Everything else can (and in this case, does) suck and it does not matter.

And now you have seen the entirety of my living space. 

 

At long last... foods.

Food Blog Well folks, as promised, here is the blog about some of the foods that I found to be blog worthy during my travels. I realize that I have been stateside all summer, but here it is, and I guess better late than never?: Anywho, here we go: 1) First up. Rocoto Relleno. I have probably written about this one before so I'll be brief. Additionally, this picture was taken by my friend Joe, as were the next few items. I have these pictures, so I'm throwing them into the mix for more substance. Rocoto is a pepper native to the Andean region that is comparable to Habaneros on the Scoville hottness chart. I find them to have the best flavor of hot things that I have tasted, but I'm incredible biased since before Peru, I had no tolerance for anything spicy. I initially had my baptism by fire (a pun you see) because I was trying to deaden my tongue so as not to taste a certain food that I disliked and repeatedly had to eat when I first arrived at peru. I ended up loving both the peppers, and the dish which I was trying to suppress. (It was tortillas made from egg and day old rice if you are wondering). ANYWAY- Rocoto Relleno is THE signature dish of Arequipa. It usually is served with pastel de papa, and chichorron de chancho (something like potato and cheese casserole and fried pork). This is called a "doble" in restaurants, and is usually pretty cheap. Probably around 10-15 soles. (under 5 bucks). The "relleno" -stuffing- consists of small beef chunks, peas, carrots, olives, raisins, and cheese. These rocotos can vary greatly in spicyness, so approach with caution. I like to cut up everything and mix it all together, rocoto, relleno, pastel, etc. My wife likes to just eat the filling and leaves the rocoto. She is a very lame Arequipeñan, but alas, I pull my weight and hers as well by eating enough "picante" (spicy food) for the both of us.

2) Kabab- A thing that Joe finds delightful, which I find pretty mediocre. This is actually a Peru fastfoodish chain that derives it's inspiration from the Turkey region of the world. Hence the name, "El Turko". They serve kababs and things of that nature. The chicken one is pretty tasty, but all in all, this item is sort of like including a review of Beto's Mexican food if I were writing about authentic US food (of which there isn't much). This isn't Peruvian in origin, but Peruvians seem to dig it. I'm pretty sure I slaughtered the spelling and whatnot, and Joe knows better, and I invite him to post an addendum to all of these foods that he tried.

3) Chinchuli- Another one of Joe's contributions, it is basically fried intestine. I'm not sure from which animal, and I'm fairly certain I don't much care. I never tried it. I am open to new things, but I figure, there are much better things to eat. Joe didn't like it much. So thats all I have to report on that.

4) Crepe- These are from France I believe, but like the kababs, they are liked in Peru. You can go to a place called El Crepisimo, which I also have probably written about, and get some awesome crepes. Some like the banana/nutella crepe, are sweet. Some are salty, like the ham and cheese. But they are mostly delicious.

5) Mate de coca- This is basically coca leaf natural tea. It tastes kind of minty and deadens the tongue a smidge. The members of the LDS church who may be concerned if this violates the "no-tea" rule should be assured because every authority from the prophet to my mission president has not only consumed it themselves for the altitude, but recommended it to others as a remedy. So there you go. It's really cheap, and VERY common in places like Puno and Cuzco. Drink some to deal with a headache or to help you digest all those Kabab/chinchuli's you've been munching on. Interesting side note, Mate (Tea) de Manzanilla is chamomile tea in the US. Took me years to realize that. I prefer Manzanilla to all others: coca, san luis, anis, etc.

6) Atomatada- This picture dosn't do it much justice, because the meat looks gristly, boney, and gross. BUT, it's delicious. And as for the meat quality, sometimes OCCASIONALLY the meat is all of the aforementioned, but you can usually scrape off enough good stuff to get by. Atomatada is sautéed tomato and beef or chicken, generally served with potato and rice. It's salty and tasty. Also, while potato and rice might sound starchily redundant, if you stay in Peru for any length of time you will accustom yourself to it and find it works out fine.

7) Paneton- This stuff is good, but I don't much like it anymore. I think I've mentioned this before, but as a missionary I was in Peru for 2 years. That meant 2 Christmases, and since this is a BIG part of the Navidad celebration in Peru, I was given LOTS of it. It is usually served with hot chocolate, and divided up at any and all social events surrounding the holidays. It is basically a fluffy lemon cake-like loaf that has little gummy things and raisins sprinkled throughout. That's right, it's the Peru equivalent of fruitcake, except that paneton is actually edible. It's common for employers to provide a paneton for each of their employees before Christmas break, and no Christmas party is complete without at least one paneton. I've seen paneton advertised with chocolate chips in lieu of the gummies, but I've never been fortunate enough to try it.

8) Truncha- This is trout. In Cuzco and Puno, it's pretty popular, and I liked this particular restaurant located about 30 minutes south along Lake Titicaca from Puno, in a little town I wrote about earlier called Chiquito. Anyway, there is a pretty well known restaurant in the plaza, I forget the name, but it's the only one, so if you find yourself there, you will undoubtably be able to locate it in short order. Their specialty is trout, and I thought it was great. It came with... shockingly, potato and rice.

9) Pollo a la piña- Pineapple Chicken. I'm not sure if this is strictly Peruvian, but it is my mother-in-law's best dish, among many good dishes. It has specially fried chicken (rather, chicken fried in a special way), and the sauce consists of chives, carrots, peppers, sweet and sour sauce, and pineapples. On rice of course. It is delicious. Really, delicious.

10) Papa a la Huancaína- This is just good ol potato with a special sauce. The sauce has peanut, ají amarillo (yellow pepper), cheese, and some other stuff. I'm not exactly sure, but its good. It usually is served on a bit of lettuce with a hard boiled egg and perhaps an olive. It's not a main course, but it's filling so be careful not to order this when you aren't filling particularly hungry in addition to your main course.

11) Calzone- These are served in various pizzerias (pizza stores.. obviously). While not Peruvian, they have some AWESOME ideas of them. One, the Hawaiian, has not just pineapple and mozzarella and ham, but also peaches and even more mozzarella. It's a beautiful thing and you can find them even in fast foodish chains in the food courts of the malls or stores like Plaza Vea (the Peruvian version of Wal-Mart). The one pictured in here was devoured with much glee during the Fiesta de la Candelaria in Puno. If you are going to eat at a Pizzaria, there are several great ones I can recommend. In Cuzco there is one called "La Romana". and my favorites in Puno are "El Buho" and "Pizzeria Jhutmay" (The owners of the latter are LDS, and there is an awesome woven picture of Jesus Christ right by the main desk). I believe they can be found easily enough, just jump into a taxi in the main plaza and ask the driver, they know where they are (Puno isn't all that big). Shouldn't be more then 10 blocks from the plaza. Anywho, this calzone was a calzone de carne, and it had hamburger meat and cheese and eggs inside. What you can see on top of the calzone is what really makes it shine, rocoto molido (which is ubiquitous in all resaurants and can be used on most foods to make them even more awesome and spicy), and garlic sauce. The garlic sauce seems to be garlic with mayo and lemon, I'm not certain but it's so good I am tempted to use a credit card to separate a few lines out and to snort them straightaway. Believe me when I say that I am a fan of the calzone. Also, all of these pizzarias serve what is called "pizza a la leña", which is pizza over firewood in special adobe ovens. Great stuff.

12) Torta de Mil Hojas de Chocolate. Thousand layers cake, chocolate style. This was really good, and for my birthday. This was too sweet, and impossible to eat without milk, but still good. This cake has many layers, as the name implies, and each layer consists of manjar (which is something like carmel, but better), and a wafer-like crusty material. The second type of cake here was just some normal variant of chocolate, but it looked and tasted really good, so I threw it in. Notice the manjar. It is my opinion that all desserts should include manjar, this stuff is sooooo good.

Now going a bit farther south, to Chile: 13) Ají Chileno- This stuff is kind of like tabasco sauce. I'm a rocoto snob, so I found it infuriatingly inferior to Peru's picante stuff, but it's not bad. They (Chileans) don't get as into the spicy element with quite the same gusto as Peruvians anyway.

14) Argentine Steak. Steak,.... From Argentina. While that may sound pretty silly to include, you wouldn't think that if you've ever tried it. My cousin Claudio has an awesome (previously described) restaurant in Limache, and this is what he served me during my visit. It's a bit of bovine heaven on a plate.

For the sake of brevity, here were the other noteworthy items served during that meal (Pictures in order): ensalada, pan, and pebre.

Chileans and Peruvians alike are big on some version of salad, whether it is like the one pictured here, with some cabbage, lettuce, carrots, potato salad, beets, tomato, tuna/mayo, and lime some other combination or variant, they usually serve some salad. It's healthy, and good for you. Word of caution to tourists, sometimes lettuce is hard to clean, so don't eat it in dodgy looking establishments. Chances are, you may contract some mean parasite that will make you long for death. Pan, bread, is ubiquitous and fresh wherever you roam in Peru/Chile, so eat it often and enjoy. Chileans like "pebre" on their bread, which is: onions, cilantro, tomato, and lemon. I LOVE pebre, as do all good Chileans. 15) Carne Molido- This is greasy, meaty, and pretty tasty. Basically pureed hamburger with mashed potatoes, it probably isn't very good for you, but it's good tasting. There are onions thrown in there somewhere I believe, and I put ají on mine and it seemed to get even better. For those of you who are wondering why I didn't mention Lomitos or Super-completos thus far, I'm sorry. I haven't had my camera when I've eaten those things. I'll get them next trip though, never fear.

16) Helados- A critical part of ANY trip to Peru or Chile, are the helados (Ice Creams). We have lots of good stuff in the States, most of which I haven't even tried, but I have to say that ice creams in S. America are awesome. This one is called a "Mega, Frambuesa". Raspberry. It is really rich and delicious. Kind of steep, this one cost me about a buck fifty, but it was worth it.

There are MANY different types of helados, and to do full reviews of each would require more photos than I have and more time than I am willing to devote to the subject. I will just mention two from Peru that I really like, and recommend, after that, you really can't go wrong with helados. First, Huracan. These are kind of like Orange Dreams from the US, if you know what those are. Fruit popsicle-like stuff wrapped around a vanilla creamy center part. They have strawberry (my personal fav), orange, maracuya (passion fruit), and mango. Try them all. These run only 2 soles, so less than a dollar. Second, Frio Ricos. These are kind of like Drum Sticks from the US, but WAY better. They have lots of flavors, like Cappuccino (not Mormon friendly in all likelihood), Apple, Chocolate carmel, lucuma (a delicious fruit that makes an even better ice cream flavor),etc. They are ever changing up the new big flavor so I couldn't tell you what to go for, but I am a sucker for anything with a chocolate cone. (FYI, the Frio Rico Black and the Cappuccino one both sport the chocolate cone). They cost about a dollar. 17) Last but certainly not least, Empanadas. Specifically, empanadas that have some seafood in them. Both Peru and Chile have empanadas, and if you are in Peru, a "triple" (Chiken, ham, cheese) is really good, and I die for the Arabe (rocoto, hamburger, onion). But in the world of empanadas, Chile will always reign king in my opinion. If you can get up to a place called "Con Con", you can have the most awesome seafood empanadas ever. But for my visit, a place called "Los Vilos" supplied me with my empanada fix. There are several kinds, crab, shrimp, fish, squid, oyster, etc. But my favorite is the shrimp one. It's delicious. Empanada de Cameron, can't go wrong.

Food is one of my favorite ways to discover a new culture, and I hope the things that I have listed have peaked your interest to explore some new foods. In Provo/Orem, there are 3 Peruvian restaurants and 2 Chilean restaurants. They are obviously limited in menu but I frequent them occasionally and if you must go somewhere in Utah county, I'd say for Peruvian food, head to "La Carreta". But, if you can wander up to West Valley in Salt Lake, "El Rocoto" is even better. For Chilean food, I'm not sure about SLC, but here in Provo I'm given to understand that "Pantrucos" is the place to go. In any rate, I'm going on a long posting freeze because I'm going to be stuck here in Utah for the next foreseeable future.