Today for lunch I didn't feel like cooking because I've been sick in bed all day, but I was pretty hungry and craving what is to me a really Chilean lunch even though I'm not sure it qualifies as a plato (dish). When I mentioned it to Italo, his jaw practically fell to the floor since I almost always insist on 1 of 2 things: picking up takeout or going to la vega and cooking some elaborate meal. So when I suggested something easy and inexspensive, it was surprising.
What was it you ask? 20-minute white rice, a tomato, and one of those frozen hamburgers from the grocery store although I would have been happy with any meat. What makes it so Chilean to me is that it was arranged on my plate so that the tomato juice dripped onto my rice making it kind of a soupy concoction and I ate it all with a dollop of MAYONNAISE!
One thing I love about a meal like that is that it's so filling and inexpensive, but what I have always complained about in the past is the fact that a "meal" that is a very common lunch special or menu at countless restaurants here is (to me) something you make in college when you're too broke to go to the grocery store so you throw together whatever's left. Granted, I'll never consider it a culinary treat, I will admit that I overreacted a little bit and that it leaves me totally happy and satisfecha (full)...sometimes.
My question is what are other people's not-so-Chilean Chilean cravings? Rice, tomatoes and meat are certainly not what I think about when I think of Chilean cuisine. Instead, I think of cazuela, pastel de choclo and machas a la parmesana, but perhaps it's the combination and the memories of eating it with my host mom while I was studying abroad here (think the Clos commercials in the metro when he remembers la despedida de su hijo) that instantly remind me of Chile.
5 comments:
That meal you just described tooootally reminds me of Chile! Ha. Especially the tomato juice mixing with the rice. Classic. In fact, it's making me hungry!
i dont like hamburgers or tomatoes though I know thats SUPER chilean purely from the fact that i remember specifically trying to avoid that exact meal many many times. also for that reason ive never craved it.
but i do like mayo on rice now, which i originally thought was disgusting, but now i just think the food lacks so much flavor and mayos a pretty decent flavor option.
haha, abby, you have to com over to our place for a tomato juice and rice fest!
lydia, as a former fighter, just give up and eat it! :) it makes your life much easier :)
hehehe I find that Chilean food is just so blah that the most ridiculous things give boring things flavor. I like ketchup on rice now...and noodles...and mashed potatoes and whatever white blah substance my MIL has ever served me. Surprisingly, Rodrigo got me into it! When there is no ketchup left, I have to just kind of mix everything on my plate together, but I still can't eat mayo. There's just something about it that makes me gag!
Welcome back! I love the tomatoes and rice thing too, even rice-mayo (chilean mayo--so good). Speaking of rice, I love the way they cook rice in Chile-"graneado" with onion, garlic, peppers and carrots and cooked slightly before adding the water. Much better than regular white rice.
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