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Chile Foods - Pictures and information

Traditional Food in Chile ~ Comida tipica

Food in Chile is not spicy, though Chileans do love adding hot peppers to many foods. Most often, hot sauces are served on the side. If you don't like heat, then don't add hot sauce to your meal.  Here are links to my Chile foods pages below. For travel to Chile see  Chile travel section.

 

Traditional Foods of Chile

If you're not planning to travel to Chile, but would like to try some traditonal Chilean Foods, why not get a Chile Cook book? Have a look at some available on Amazon.com:  Cooking the South American Way, and The Latin American Kitchen, or The South American Table.

Chile Foods Pictures and Information ~ Click and see Food in Chile

Traditional Foods of Chile are tasty comfort foods, simple home cooking with no pretensions, but a good meal with simple ingredients. The seafood and fish is usually very fresh, since most of Chile is close to the Pacific Ocean. I've inclued pictures of a traditional meal I had at the El Hoyo restaurant in Santiago Chile, and a seafood meal in Renaca, on the seaside.

Crusty Chile bread called marraquetta. Typical chilean food called cazuela, made with beef or chicken. Cup of coffee on a tray with a cookie, typical in Chile. Sign at the Santiago restaurant El Hoyo that serves traditional Chile foods.A market in Santiago Chile with local fruit and vegetables piled high.Local seafoods typical of Chile, served on a platter as a sampler. *
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Comida tipica / Typical Chilean foods General info

I thought that traditional Chilean food would be hot and spicy, liberally laced with chilis and hot sauces, but the food in Chile seems more like traditonal British cooking than spicy Mexican. In fact, some dishes are quite bland, so there's hot sauce like pebre to spice it up!

McDonald's abound in Santiago, with the menu adapted to South American tastes : The beef patties seemed to be beefier, a hamburger dubbed 'McNifico' (say it) came with a lovely avocado sauce like a mild guacamole, and the the buns reflected Chile's excellent breads. McDonald's also catered to the Chilean food passion for soft ice cream, and served up cones from counters that opened directly onto the sidewalks.

Names of foods (and plants) can be the trickiest to translate, so I prefer to have a particular food and a native language speaker right in front of me to be sure we are talking about the same thing! I've included the Spanish name of the foods from Chile when possible; And Chilean native and friend, Carmen, has kindly elaborated on some of the Chile foods.

A Word about Napkins:Napkins in a  wine glass on a table in a restaurant in Santiago Chile

In casual restaurants and coffee bars, napkins were set out on counters and tables as they are shown in the photo at the top of this page:

Small squares of highly-unabsorbent, single-ply tissues carefully fanned out inside a glass or tumbler and placed on each table.

I confess I had to watch other diners to confirm that these were indeed napkins and not drink coasters before I used one.

Of course, when I went for high tea at the Ritz-Carlton in Santiago's El Golf, (this is the only Ritz-Carlton in South America!), the napkins, as all else, were first rate.

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See all Chile Pages ~ Full Picture Index ~ Click on a Pic and Go!

flowers of Chile - floribunda in red.Passport image of Canadian passport cover - partial image only.A vineyard in spring, Casablanca Valley in Chile. National Park in the Lake District in Chile, with volcano and river.Dawn in Puerto Natales, Chile - mountains and boat reflected in water.City Square in Puerto Montt, Chile Volcano and lake in Puerto Varas Chile, young men drumming in park.Shops on Street in Santiago Chile.Entrance to park in Santiago chile - Cerro St Lucia Port of Valparaiso Chile - ships on Bay.Beach on  the Pacific Ocean at Vina Del Mar  Chile.stack of travel books and travel guides.Small suitcase in orange red color for travel. Glaciers on volcano *



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  • Carmen in Casablanca y Valparaiso - July 22, 2008, 8:15 pm
    I have my own/family recipe for a nice hot pebre: green chilies, coriander leaves, and mayonnaise.

    You slice the chilies, and mix everything inside your mixer machine (I tried to find the translation for that, but I couldn’t) to crush and mix everything and get a creamy sauce.

    Don’t forget to keep the seeds! With crusty bread (Marraqueta) it goes wonderful, but also for potatoes, meat, soups, etc.
  • Karen - July 22, 2008, 8:45 pm
    Hi Carmen!

    Thanks for fine tuning my descriptions -- much appreciated! I inserted most of your comments beside the food pictured.

    And I will try your variation of pebre.
    Now let me return the favour!

    What we call chives are thin, hollow green stalks up to 12 inches tall that grow in a clump, and taste mildly of onion.

    What you know as cebolla perla, I'm thinking is what we call 'pearl onions' - Small white onions about the size of a ripe grape that are often pickled.

    Chukrut or coleslaw is sliced cabbage, though I'm thinking that Chukrut sounds like the French 'choucroute', which we call sauerkraut (its name in German) -- a finely sliced cabbage that's salted then fermented, and served cold or hot.

    For 'coleslaw', we would mean finely sliced fresh cabbage mixed with vinaigrette or mayonnaise.

    Isn't this fun!!??! I love the way our words for foods can sound the same the world over!

    Thanks again!
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