Brittany: Hello everyone and welcome back to Coffee with Gringos brought to you by Dynamic English. My name is Brittany. I'm your host and this is my lovely host, Jesse.
Jesse: Hello. Hi, guys. On today's podcast, on today's episode, we are talking all about Chilean food. So, both Brittany and I live here in Chile.
Brittany: Right.
Jesse: How long have you been here?
Brittany: Two and a half years.
Jesse: Two and a half years. I'm going on about nine years. So, chances are I have maybe tried more of the food than you have. But, Chile is an interesting place because based on the geography, we have different foods in the North as opposed to the South. And it's not so Americanized. I don't know for you, if there's a lot of differences between Chilean food and what you eat in South Africa.
Brittany: For sure. And also, having lived with a family in Chile and going to friends' houses in Santiago, I do feel like it depends from family to family, the eating habits.
Jesse: Absolutely. Yeah. But also, as I mentioned, from the North to the South, because we spoke before. You have been to Chiloe?
Brittany: Yeah.
Jesse: I have never been there. Yeah, so we have a thing here in Chile called ‘curanto’, which they dig a hole in the ground and put a bunch of meat.
Brittany: And they cook it on the rocks.
Jesse: They cook it on the rocks, right. And then cover it with like palms.
Brittany: Like palm leaves, yeah.
Jesse: So how was that?
Brittany: It was very meaty.
Jesse: Very meaty. But it's a lot of potatoes.
Brittany: Potatoes, yes. And also kind of like, I want to say a gravy. But it was more of like a soup. Not a soup, kind of like a broth. That makes it kind of spicy which surprised me.
Jesse: I like spicy food. Yeah. Okay, so that's good. But I need to get to Chiloé because that's, I think, one of the few Chilean dishes that I have not tried.
Brittany: Yeah, you definitely need to go.
Jesse: So, if we're starting our day off, Brittany, what is - let's talk a little bit about Chilean breakfast.
Brittany: Oh, Chilean breakfasts.
Jesse: What is your typical Chilean breakfast?
Brittany: Honestly, most Chileans I know don't even eat breakfast.
Jesse: This is true. A lot don't even eat breakfast.
Brittany: But from talking to my students and obviously living with Chileans, a piece of bread like marraqueta or hallulla.
Jesse: ‘Hallula, okay.
Brittany: Hallulla with, like, cheese, maybe palta, you know.
Jesse: Yeah. Or a mashed up avocado. That's really popular. Yogurt, fruit. To be honest, Chilean breakfast is kind of boring.
Brittany: No, not when you were colonized by England.
Jesse: Well, I'm not sure what that breakfast entails, but for me, breakfast in Chile is normally a pretty basic meal of the day, right. It's pretty simple. You know, sometimes you might mix some granola with a yogurt, but there's nothing really ‘wow’ that stands out for me.
Brittany: Definitely not known for their breakfast.
Jesse: Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say breakfast is the staple. Now, what is, is the lunch. Here in Chile, we typically have a big lunch.
Brittany: Yeah, it's the biggest meal of the day.
Jesse: It's sometimes huge. And you have to go take a nap afterwards because you ate so much.
Brittany: Yeah.
Jesse: So, if we're talking about some of those lunch plates, what are some of your favorites? What have you tried?
Brittany: Cazuela with chicken or beef, porotos a la rienda - if I’m saying that correctly, or is it wrong?
Jesse: Yeah, I think it's Porotos con riendas.
Brittany: Something like that.
Jesse: Which literally translates to beans with reigns, like from a horse. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically beans, spaghetti noodles, and little pieces of hotdog.
Brittany: Yeah. Like vienna sausage.
Jesse: Not my favorite. Not my favorite. But, ok, it is a really popular lunch time. You know.
Brittany: What else? I mean, I think we could go on and on about the different traditional Chilean foods that are eaten for lunch, right?
Jesse: Yeah, like pastel de choclo. Oh, have you tried that? Okay, so that's like a corn, basically, it's kind of like a corn cake, but it has olive, an egg and normally chicken inside of it.
Brittany: And minced beef.
Jesse: Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then do you put sugar on top of your pastel de choclo?
Brittany: But the ones without meat, apparently, that's what you put sugar on.
Jesse: I put sugar on all of it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Or tomatoes?
Brittany: Oh, yeah, that’s good.
Jesse: Tomatoes. Okay. Speaking of corn, what about Humitas?
Brittany: Love humitas. For me, it's kind of similar to almost like sweet corn. Do you have sweet corn, like mashed sweet corn?
Jesse: In the United States, we have cornbread.
Brittany: Oh right, so it’s kind of similar.
Jesse: So, it's kind of similar, but we actually bake it into a bread. Yeah, and here it's just kind of left as a mash. For those of you outside of Chile, ‘humita’ is very similar to a Mexican Tamale, except instead of meat, we use corn. But the idea, the concept is the same.
Brittany: Mm hmm.
Jesse: They're wrapped in corn husks and then boiled. Yeah. So, same idea as a Tamale. You mentioned the Cazuela.
Brittany: The Cazuela, right.
Jesse: Yeah. We have something very similar in the United States. It's actually a Mexican dish and it's called ‘Caldo de res’, and it's basically the same thing. It's basically our Cazuela.
Brittany: And is it like, a little bit spicier?
Jesse: Oh, no. It’s basically the same recipe. I think the only difference is that here, if you notice, we use a lot of zucchini or zapallo. And in a Cazuela here, there's usually a big piece of zapallo or zucchini. And in Mexico, no. So, but yeah. Altogether, pretty good.
Brittany: And what do you think about the different Chilean salads? Because I feel like they're quite diverse with their salads.
Jesse: They can be. You know, my favorite is just the basic. It's a very simple, it's called ensalada Chilena. And it's just tomatoes, onions and some lemon juice. That's it. But it is pretty, pretty good. Yeah. I don't eat a lot of other salads and one reason that I don't eat a lot of salads here is because a lot of salads come with palmitos.
Brittany: Yeah, I’m familiar with palmitos.
Jesse: So, what are they -
Brittany: Palm hearts? We don't have them in South Africa.
Jesse: Yeah, I mean, we have them. But for me, I don't like the texture.
Brittany: No, it’s odd.
Jesse: It's a very strange texture for me. So, if I see a salad and it's covered in palmitos, it's probably not for me.
Brittany: Have you seen that you get like - palmita or palmito?
Jesse: I don't know, palmitas or palmitos.
Brittany: You get palmita pasta like made from palmitas now.
Jesse: No, I've never seen that.
Brittany: I need to try it.
Jesse: I don't know because if the texture is anything like the actual vegetable.
Jesse: But I will say for salads, like, you know, it's interesting to me that you say salads because have you been to a restaurant here and you order sort of the, we call it a ‘colacion’ or the group and they'll say, oh, you have your main plate, your coffee, your tea, your little salad, and maybe like a soup to begin with.
Brittany: Right.
Jesse: And then they bring you a salad and it's one vegetable on a plate. Like, is that a salad or is that just a vegetable? Yeah, it's just literally a tomato cut up. Yeah. “Ensalada, señor.” “Oh. Ok.” So, I don't know, salads for me - because in the United States, whenever you order a salad, it's typically chef's salad, cobb salad. It's got multiple ingredients, multiple vegetables. And then, of course, a dressing.
Brittany: Always a dressing.
Jesse: Always a dressing.
Brittany: It's the same in South Africa. Yeah, but I feel like here, the salads are almost like, separated. My boyfriend thinks it's sacrilege to put tomato in the same bowl as lettuce.
Jesse: No.
Brittany: I'm like, but why, guys? Why?
Jesse: Why? But you should put the tomato, the lettuce, the peppers, cucumber, all of that.
Brittany: Maybe some feta cheese. Do you do the feta cheese thing in the U.S.A?
Jesse: I'm actually allergic to feta cheese. Yeah, I know. I love Greek food, but I can't.
Brittany: That’s terrible.
Jesse: I can't do feta. Yeah, that's not a good result, me and feta. But I understand. So, yeah -
Brittany: Like, everything together and like, it's a massive bowl, but here, things are like separate. Like, for example there are the tomatoes, the onion and the avocado. Then you just have, like, the lettuce here. I don't know if you've noticed that, like going to a Chilean person's house.
Jesse: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I've been served a plate of shredded lettuce with some lemon juice on top.
Brittany: “There's your salad.”
Jesse: “Here's your salad.” Okay. So, I think our definition of what you and I probably think about of a salad is a little more produced than in Chile.
Brittany: But I'm not going to lie, I actually really like it. Whenever I go to a friend's house and I eat their salads, I’m just like “that was super refreshing.” I love it.
Jesse: And there is something about the simplicity of it, because it's like, okay, you're still getting your vegetables, but it's just maybe not so produced. Yeah, I don't know.
Brittany: Yeah, exactly.
Jesse: Now, what about sandwiches? Are you a sandwich person? Because here in Chile, lunch, a lot, for a lot of people, is just some sort of sandwich. And we have a lot.
Brittany: And for me, what Chileans call a sandwich is not a sandwich.
Jesse: Okay. What do you mean?
Brittany: It’s more like a burger.
Jesse: In some ways, yeah.
Brittany: Yeah, that's a lot of the things. And I'm not complaining because I like most of the sandwiches. I mean, I like every sandwich that I've tried.
Jesse: Okay, so churrasco.
Brittany: Churrasco Italiano.
Jesse: Chacarero.
Brittany: Chacarero. That, that's an interesting one.
Jesse: See, I think the Chacarero is my favorite because it's got all the weird, it’s got green beans. Like who puts green beans on a sandwich?
Brittany: I think that's what bothers me.
Jesse: That's what that's what I initially was like, “Yeah,it’s got green beans? I'm gonna try this. I like this.”
Brittany: And it's a little spicy.
Jesse: And it’s a little spicy. It can be.
Brittany: So you would like that.
Jesse: What about, like, the barros? Because there are several, like, barros jarpa, barro luca.
Brittany: I like that one. It like, has nothing except for cheese and meat.
Jesse: Okay, I don't know the difference between the two, but I just know they're like, it's basically bread and meat. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, I don't eat very many of those.
Brittany: We keep it simple, you know?
Jesse: Yeah. If I'm going to do that, then I'm going to probably go with the Chacarero. Yeah, yeah. Now, what about the sandwich? Like, do you get into the, like ave pimenton, ave de mayo, any of those like sort of basic -
Brittany: So, the only time I've ever seen that, is when you go and buy a sandwich that's pre-made, like in the window of, I don't know.
Jesse: You haven't tried that?
Brittany: I have. And it’s kinda like, it's kind of bland.
Jesse: “Kind of bland”? Are you kidding me? I've never tried any of those sandwiches - ave mayo, ave pimenton, ave-this. No, they're terrible. They have no flavor. It's literally two pieces of bread cut in a triangle. But again, there's a lot of people that will just grab and go for their lunch.
Brittany: Exactly.
Jesse: But yeah, it's kind of interesting that you say it's more like a burger, because here in Chile, we do have a lot of American style fast food. But I feel like those sandwiches are Chilean fast food.
Brittany: 100%.
Jesse: And that's a big part of, I think, the diet here.
Brittany: Yeah, yeah.
Jesse: I mean, how many times - like empanadas. We'll talk about empanadas.
Brittany: Love empanadas.
Jesse: But do you ever, I mean, you see people walking around and it's like, “Oh, what was your lunch?” “Oh, an empanada and a Coca-Cola”.
Brittany: Well, that's the thing is I feel like Chileans actually don't eat a lot. Because if lunch is your main meal and you're only eating your main meal of the day, and you're only eating an empanada, that's like nothing. I'd be starving.
Jesse: It's true. Yeah, well, it's true, but, you know, and we'll talk about that later because we're going to talk about dinner. But if we're back on empanadas, if you have to pick one empanada, what's your Chilean go-to empanada?
Brittany: Easy peasy. Okay. I would definitely choose the Pino.
Jesse: Yeah. Which is your traditional ground beef, onions.
Brittany: With the olive. I don't really like the olive thing. Like, that's weird to me. Just like one whole.
Jesse: I don't know why they just put one olive. So, it's kind of a letdown.
Brittany: And why don't you remove the pip, guys?
Jesse: You know, I think that's really common here. So leave the feed in. And so, yeah, if I had to pick one, and they’re kind of hard to come by here in Santiago, but anytime you go to the beach, you get the camerones con queso.
Brittany: Oh, that's delicious.
Jesse: But those are fried empanada.
Brittany: Hmm but fried empanadas are like heaven on earth.
Jesse: No, any of them that are fried, they're amazing - machas, locos.
Brittany: I don't know about that one. In an empanada?
Jesse: Yeah, so with cheese and fried.
Brittany: Ok with cheese, maybe.
Jesse: Alright, well, speaking of machas and locos, what kind of fish are you into? Because here in Chile, we do a lot of fish.
Brittany: We do. We do. I like the typical - reineta. And what's the other one with the -
Jesse: Oh, we got my merluza, reineta, salmon, tuna.
Brittany: Salmon, right. It's quite cheap here, at least in comparison to where I'm from, so - and also congrio. I don’t like congrio. That's eel in English, right?
Jesse: I'm pretty sure it is. Yeah.
Brittany: Yeah. So, that's like very fishy.
Jesse: See, I like it in sushi.
Brittany: Oh, no.
Jesse: Yeah. But I don't, I don't really eat it by itself.
Brittany: What about in a soup. Because that's quite common.
Jesse: See, that's one of my favorite lunches if I, any time I go to the beach, we have a dish here called paila marina. Have you had that?
Brittany: I've tasted it, yeah.
Jesse: Okay. And again, too fishy? Yeah, but it's got all of the different all of the different shellfish in it, in a nice, nice ‘paila’. Which is the terracotta pot thing. So I would say any time I go to the beach, that's usually my go-to.
Brittany: And what about like, ordering, for example, when I go to the beach, I typically order like an entrada. So, a starter of like different types of shellfish. So like mussels.
Jesse: See, in the paila, I’ll experiment. But if I'm going to order maybe an appetizer, or the entrada, I think my favorite is the machas a la parmesana.
Brittany: But that is delicious.
Jesse: I mean, if it's a good machas a la parmesana, you have to. If the restaurant serves it, like, you have to. Yeah, you have to order it. It’s so good.
Brittany: Agreed.
Jesse: So yeah, I would say that's probably my, my go to when I'm on, when I'm at the beach. Yeah. Now, if I'm here in Santiago or maybe in another part, then I'm usually going with meat. Meat, meat, meat. Because we eat a lot of meat here.
Brittany: We do. I mean I feel like in South Africa as well, so I’m kind of used to it.
Jesse: Yeah, no. I'm a big fan of the beef, chicken. Not so much the pork, but we -
Brittany: Pork is kind of big here. Like at an asado or -
Jesse: You know, pork is really big. I don't know if you've had Malaya. Do you know what that is?
Brittany: To be honest, I actually don't know the names of the things I'm eating. I’m just like, “Give it to me.”
Jesse: You’re just taking random parts of animals.
Brittany: Like yeah, okay. That looks good.
Jesse: Yeah. No, you would know, Malaya, if you have Malaya, it's like this. It's kind of long. It's white, usually, and it's like the, I think the back side of the pig. But it's really chewy and it's very salty. But it's a really, really popular thing to have at barbecue's here.
Brittany: Maybe.
Jesse: Normally, they'll cut it up in little pieces and serve it around.
Brittany: So, no, I don't think so.
Jesse: I'm not a big pork guy, but.
Brittany: Yeah, it can be strong. Yeah. Yeah.
Jesse: So, you'll eat the beef here? Yeah, the beef. And a lot of our beef is actually from Brazil and Argentina, so it's pretty good stuff. Yeah. What about the other animals that we have here in Chile? Have you tried like llama?
Brittany: No.
Jesse: Or sheep, like Cordero?
Brittany: Yes, because I don't feel like that's super uncommon. In South Africa, we eat lamb a lot. Lamb shank, lamb chops.
Jesse: Okay.
Brittany: For me, I have a love-hate relationship with lamb, because again, like with the pork, it can have, like, quite a strong, almost like gamey flavor and I don’t like that, you know.
Jesse: I gotcha.
Brittany: But in the North, in La Serena or Ovalle, like around that area, they eat a lot of lamb. What is it called? Like lamb ribs? Which is interesting. I've never had lamb ribs before. And it's actually on, on, on the barbecue it’s really good. I like it.
Jesse: So, it's a rack of ribs, just like pork ribs or anything.
Brittany: Am I wrong? It's not from a lamb. It's from the grownup one, the sheep? I don't know?
Jesse: Yeah, a sheep, or is it not from a goat?.
Brittany: Oh, yeah, it could be from a goat.
Jesse: Or a llama.
Brittany: No, don't say that.
Jesse: What's the difference between eating a llama and eating a sheep?
Brittany: Because I've eaten sheep my whole life but never a llama. Have you had llama?
Jesse: I feel like I did when I went to Peru. No, no, no, no. Because when I went to Peru, I remember eating guinea pig as well. They eat guinea pigs.
Brittany: Yeah. Yeah. So, I imagine it's kind of like a rabbit.
Jesse: It's just like rabbit. Yeah. So, yeah, but we're talking about Chilean food today, not Peruvian. All right. So, we've talked about some of our lunch, breakfast. Here in Chile, we don't really do dinner. Have you noticed that?
Brittany: Have I noticed that?
Jesse: Actually, when you get hungry at 9 p.m. and there's no dinner.
Brittany: Like every time.
Jesse: Yeah, like every day.
Brittany: Because when I lived with a Chilean family, we had a nice lunch. It was like, wholesome. But then dinner, it was the same as breakfast. It was like a repeat, once, once. It was like bread, cheese, ham, palta mashed like you said.
Jesse: Maybe sometimes a jelly or a marmalade.
Brittany: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jesse: Tea, coffee.
Brittany: Tea, coffee. No milk.
Jesse: No milk?
Brittany: No milk in my tea and my coffee.
Jesse: But let me ask you, coming from South Africa, is that not so different from there? Because, I mean, I know England was a big part of South Africa. So, do you not have tea time in South Africa?
Brittany: We do, but tea time is not a meal. Tea time is in between lunch and dinner. And it's, it's maybe you're going to have like tea with milk and sugar. As you please, as you please. And then, a slice of cake. And then dinner time is like a full on cooked meal.
Jesse: Okay. See, and that's strange for us in America because we're always taught like you can't have your cake until after all of the rest of the day's food and your tea time is normally at, what, 4 p.m.?
Brittany: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I would say so. Yeah. And dinner at like six, seven.
Jesse: Well, and it's strange that we, here in Chile, a lot of our food has been influenced by Spain. But we have tea time or onces at what, 7 p.m. Yeah, something like that. And in Spain they don't begin until 10 p.m..
Brittany: Yeah, exactly.
Jesse: Yeah. It is a little strange.
Brittany: It is.
Jesse: It can leave you a little bit hungry late at night.
Brittany: Yeah. Have you lived with a Chilean family before?
Jesse: I have. And the first time I sat down for once, I was very surprised. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. This is dinner? Because I'm used to, you know, dinner being meat, potato salad, vegetables, bread, rice, a dessert. You know.
Brittany: You go to bed with a full belly.
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Brittany: Stuffed.
Jesse: No, here. it was so big. And I remember, I never will forget my first day because the first lunch was a huge lunch and I thought, “Wow, I'm going to get so fat because if my lunch is this big and I get dinner.” And then dinner was just a little, little piece of bread and a cup of tea. I was like, “Oh, I'm not going to get so fat.” So yeah, that was a bit of a surprise for me.
Brittany: For sure. And when I was living with a Chilean family, I lived there for about six months and I did get fatter. Yeah, I picked up weight because of how often we ate bread.
Jesse: That's the other thing. Yeah. Chileans love bread.
Brittany: 100%.
Jesse: There’s lots of bread here. If you had to pick, what's your go-to bread? Are you a marraqueta or hallulla?
Brittany: If I could choose one bread, I would definitely choose pan amasado.
Jesse: Okay, that's a whole other story. Whole other story. So, for those of you, if you don't know what pan amasado is basically like, just a really fresh bread. It's cooked really fast. It's kind of difficult to find in Santiago.
Brittany: It is kind of. But it's cooked in with a lot of butter. That's what I’ve heard.
Jesse: It's a lot of batter, but it's just like slapped on the grill, like on a flat grill and cooked. Yeah. Or in a, what do you call it, a fire oven? Yeah. The only time I ever get pan amasado is when I go to the countryside.
Brittany: I mean, everybody tells me you shouldn't be eating it every day because of the heavy batter. It’s quite fattening. But, so that's probably why.
Jesse: Well, that's probably why the old lady in the countryside that sells me my pan amasado is round because, yeah, she makes some amazing pan amasado. Yeah, it is. Well, I know. What about sopaipillas? That's another type of bread here.
Brittany: I have only had sopaipillas like, three times in my life. I don't know. My Chilean friends, for those of you who are out there, you guys are not educating me well enough on Chilean cuisine.
Jesse: No. Because you need sopaipillas. You can you can top them. Like you can make them sweet, you can make them spicy. You can put pebre, which is like a pico de gallo. Pico de gallo, pebre. So good. But yeah, but you can also make the sopaipilla sweet.
Brittany: Like how? What do you put?
Jesse: With, like, butter and honey.
Brittany: Oh, it’s kind of French, not French, German. German people do that on bread.
Jesse: Well, speaking of sweets, a lot of our sweets and our desserts here in Chile. Well, where do they come from?
Brittany: Germany.
Jesse: Germany. So, Kuchen, are you a fan?
Brittany: I love kuchen de nuez.
Jesse: Kuchen de nuez. It's like, what would that be? Like nut cake? Nut pie?
Brittany: So, actually, I think it's pecan nut pie.
Jesse: Pecan nut?
Brittany: Yeah.
Jesse: Is that - I think you just invented a new word.
Brittany: I did no such thing.
Jesse: I think you did. Because it’s pecan or pecan. But I've never heard of Pecan nut.
Brittany: Pecan? Pecan?
Jesse: But we don't have to say nut after it. It's just a pecan pie.
Brittany: Pecan pie!
Jesse: We don't say pecan nut pie.
Brittany: Why do you say “pecan”? Where are you from? Pecan.
Jesse: Now you can’t say pecan. Yeah, it's like tomato, tomato.
Brittany: We can't even agree on our own language. That’s insane.
Jesse: But I will agree with you. We have that in the United States, something very similar around Thanksgiving. It's a really popular dish.
Brittany: Okay. So, Kuchen de nuez but what other - I know that there's a lot of sausages like.
Jesse: Oh, no, Chilean food is definitely influenced by Germany.
Brittany: 100%.
Jesse: Bunch of sausages. Bunch of cuts of meat. But I would say mostly in the desserts and breads, that's where the German influence I think I see the most.
Brittany: Okay, so Kuchen, what else?
Jesse: I mean, un Berlin, you know. You go into a donut shop and they're like, “un Berlin”. Like, so any of those creme-filled donuts, any of those pastries.
Brittany: I didn’t know that’s German.
Jesse: Most of those are German.
Brittany: I mean Berlin, the city.
Jesse: Yeah. So now, there's a lot. But like I said at the beginning, it depends on the region. So, I don't want to stereotype any foods and I don't want to generalize about Chilean food because it really is different from north to south. Yeah, but there are some things that I think are just, you have to try. If you're going to visit Chile, you have to try.
Brittany: Absolutely.
Jesse: Now, what are the things that you would avoid? I know that we've talked about prieta, which is blood sausage. You're not going to eat it.
Brittany: I'm not.
Jesse: Is there anything else in Chile that you've been like, “It's not for me”?
Brittany: I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, but Kuchi Frito? It's like the seaweed thing.
Jesse: Ah no - cochallullo.
Brittany: Cochallullo
Jesse: Hold on, hold on. Say it again, coochie frito? I like that word. That was fun. We just we're inventing new words here, guys.
Brittany: Yes, we are.
Jesse: Yeah. No, that's cochallullo.
Brittany: Cochallullo, yeah. It just doesn't look appealing. Doesn't smell fantastic. Like when I see it at the supermarket.
Jesse: It's apparently really good for you.
Brittany: Well, it’s seaweed.
Jesse: It's got, like, so many vitamins and minerals.
Brittany: Fiber, yeah.
Jesse: You know a lot of that cochallullo, we actually send to Japan.
Brittany: I can imagine.
Jesse: Japan eats a lot of it.
Brittany: Like that general area, yeah.
Jesse: Think that's the main, the main market for it. Yeah. Yeah. It is kind of weird. It's kind of, it's a strange texture, but I like the taste.
Brittany: Ah you’ve had it before. Is it kind of fishy?
Jesse: Not so much. It's more salty. Like it tastes like the ocean. Yeah, because it came from the ocean, but not fishy. It's more like, I don't know, like salt watery and, you know, but once you cook it and make it into a soup and all that. Okay, so you refuse the cochallullo.
Brittany: Yeah, and I think we've also spoken about this before. I don't want to eat the innards.
Jesse: Right? Yeah. Like any. No, no intestines, no tripe.
Brittany: But what about you?
Jesse: See, I don't know that there's anything I won't eat.
Brittany: Mm.
Jesse: Because I think I've tried a lot. But one thing I don't like is the palo del cordero. Sheep.
Brittany: Palo? What is Palo?
Jesse: Palo? It's basically like a shank. So I think they'll take the whole leg of a or the side of a sheep.
Brittany: Oh yeah, I’ve had that before.
Jesse: And you just roast the whole thing. And I don't know, it's, it's like you were saying earlier, it's a little too gamey.
Brittany: Yes, it is.
Jesse: And so, for me, it's not really my, my favorite.
Brittany: No, not your cup of tea.
Jesse: And they tend to bring it out on every holiday.
Brittany: Yeah.
Jesse: It's like, “Oh, here's more cordeiro.” Okay. But it’s not necessarily my favorite.
Brittany: I remember I went to Fiestas Patrias, like an asado, and the family, like the uncle was so proud of this big leg of lamb. He bought it out and showed all of us. And I feel like that's the worst thing you can do, because when you see the animal first before it's cooked, then it's like really hard to eat it.
Jesse: Well, for me, it's just the size of the cut of meat. It's just a little large. And it's a little strange that we're going to eat that whole thing.
Brittany: For sure.
Jesse: Yeah. So what, what else, Brittany? Are there any, any, any other foods that kind of, stand out to you?
Brittany: I just think in general, and I think we've spoken about this, the style of cooking, the style, the different spices used here, the lack of.
Jesse: The lack of spices, yeah.
Brittany: It's just like that. That's what has stood out to me.
Jesse: And you know, I would just say I'm going to probably end talking about I don't know, I don't think they're Chilean. I think they're actually from Argentina. But I think my favorite, too, if I have to pick any foods, I have a sweet tooth. I am all about the sweets. So for me it's the cuchuflí and the alfajores. So, I don't take Chilean sea bass and I don't take charqui or anything back to the United States. But what I do take back, are cuchuflí and alfajores. Every time. Big bags and I distribute them to my people. So that's my, that's how I share Chilean culture.
Brittany: It's an easy thing to pack in.
Jesse: It's easy and they're delicious overall. And if you get hungry on the plane, then you've got your snacks.
Brittany: So, I do feel like, what is it? The cuchuflitos? That’s the thing, this word is just coming back.
Jesse: So, you're confusing a cuchuflí, which is the bar filled with manjar and chocolate, and cochallullo, which is seaweed.
Brittany: That's yeah, that's my problem I think. And I really find that, okay so for example, you mentioned the cuchiluto.
Jesse: The cuchuflíto.
Brittany: And that and, -
Jesse: She's inventing words now, guys. Cuchuflí.
Brittany: Cuchuflí. Uh huh. It's way too sweet for me, but it's not only that specific dessert, I find that things in Chile, desserts and sweets are much sweeter here than what I'm used to. So, for example, a carrot cake. Like here versus in South Africa, it's way more sugar. Or almost just like more artificial flavouring.
Jesse: But can you really have too much sugar? I mean, let's be honest. Yeah. Well, and carrot cake. I mean, carrot cake is pretty universal. So -
Brittany: It is.
Jesse: I wouldn't necessarily say that’s Chilean cuisine.
Brittany: No, it's not.
Jesse: Kind of like the lemon cake from Starbucks. Yeah, not really Chilean.
Brittany: On that note, I am famished.
Jesse: I know. I'm hungry too. We've been talking about food this whole time.
Brittany: Literally. Wanna go get a sandwich with me?
Jesse: Maybe. Let's see what, churrasco?
Brittany: No. Churrasco Italiano.
Jesse: Yeah. For me, it would be the chacurrero.
Brittany: Of course.
Jesse: All right. Excellent. Well, we thank you guys so much for watching today. If you're listening to this podcast, be sure to give it five stars wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're watching the YouTube version of this video, be sure to leave us a comment below and tell us all about your favorite Chilean food. We would love to hear from you and be sure to tune in next time. Until the next time. From all of us at Dynamic English and here at Coffee with Gringos. We thank you. Take care.
KEY VOCABULARY, PHRASES AND SLANG
Odd or Weird (adjective) = both are synonyms for strange
Example: For me, it’s very weird to eat a late dinner.
Let down (phrasal verb) = to disappoint
Example: My friend forgot about my birthday party and she didn’t come, she really let me down.
A go-to (noun) = a person or thing that you go to for help or because that thing or person is the best
Example: When I’m feeling sick, my go-to medicine is paracetamol.
Gamey (adjective) = food that has a stronger, meatier flavour, usually from a wild animal
Example: I don't like the taste of llama because it is too gamey.
Stand out (phrasal verb) = when something stands out to you, it is something that catches your attention
Example: The friendliness of people in Brazil really stood out to me.
Famished or starving (adjectives) = suffering or dying from hunger, also used in English to exaggerate hunger
Example: I’m so starving that I could all the food at this restaurant.
Bland (adjective) = food that does not have much flavour or has a weak taste
Example: When you are sick, you should eat bland food.
Sweetooth (noun) = a person who likes to eat sweet things
Example: My daughter has such a sweet tooth, it’s very difficult to get her to eat broccoli.
Dressing (noun) = a sauce for salads
Example: My favourite dressing is balsamic vinegar with olive oil.
Be into (something) (phrasal verb) = if you’re into something, it means you really like it
Example: I’m really into Argentine Rock music.