Trip to Chile Part 2: Best Things I Ate

A.  Preparation


During my recent trip to Chile with Sausalito’s Mayor, Herb Weiner, which I described in my post a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to try a number of traditional Chilean dishes.  In preparation for our trip I did quite a bit of research about Chilean cuisine and found the following English sites to be of the most assistance (I welcome suggestions about others that I may have overlooked):

~ Wikipedia’s Chilean cuisine site


~ The food section of the Chilean government’s This is Chile site


~ Tasting Chile, the site of an American named Margaret Snook who has lived in Chile several years.


~ Eating Chilean, the site of an American named Jim Stuart, a former college professor who moved to Chile when he retired.  Jim’s entries have in many cases a historical perspective that I found very helpful


~ FoodyChile, the site of a young American named Colin Bennett whose market tour Herb and I took while in Santiago


Unfortunately my Spanish is not good enough to allow me to make efficient use of Spanish language sites, although I did in particular enjoy visits to the site of the Círculo de Cronistas Gastronómicos de Chile, a Chilean culinary society.

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Empanadas at Chile Lindo

I am afraid I have been very negligent about posting here.  Last year I became interested both in Chile and in Sausalito’s sister city relationship with the Chilean coastal city of Viña del Mar.  One thing lead to another, and now Virginia Reginato, the Mayor of Viña, is coming to Sausalito the week after next with a delegation of “Viñamarinos.”  I have been helping to coordinate that effort and it seems I have little time for anything else.

While I probably should be studying up on issues facing Chilean municipalities, my attention has instead, not unexpectedly, been drawn to matters of Chile's cuisine.  One thing I came across was Anthony Bourdain’s encounter with the famous Chilean “completo” while on a visit to Viña during the filming of a “No Reservations” episode in Chile.  However, I have learned that the true national dish of Chile seems to be ……the empanada!

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