August 31st; A year has passed

The music with this last blog from South America is a compilation of the music we encountered in Santiago this month.

Looking at fun things to do in the weekend we found a cooking class on line that sounded really promising so we decided to go for it together with our friend Coco. We were hoping to make good Chilean fare so that we could confidently cook up a storm in Te Horo! The class included a visit to markets that we had already visited quite a few times during our stay here. Nonetheless the visit with 'our' chef of the day Gerardo proofed to be very interesting. It's great seeing the food through Chilean eyes, learning about the origin of lots of exotic foods like this seafood that looked very alien...

We haven't bought meat in any of the markets we have visited, walking in halls that smell of raw meat and looking at all these very recognizable animal body parts makes me want to go vegetarian every time. The 'lard' that you see above the trotters is used a lot in the Chilean kitchen as cooking butter.

The colours and exotic fruits (lots of fruits now from Venezuela as more immigrants move into the area) are just lovely. It's clear when you walk around here that most Chileans do not work at the markets, the majority is from Haiti, Venezuela, Peru and Brasil.

And here we are getting underway with the first task of the day; chop chop chop! We were just with the three of us which was actually nice as it gave us lots of time to chat with Gerardo and with the sommelier that would join us later. They were both lovely and as we were really interested in learning about food, culture and wine, we had a great time together.

After the chopping we started further preparations to make ceviche with leche de tigre (tiger milk, a very nice dressing for which we now have the secret recipe). We prepared the filling for the empanadas de pino and learned that raw onions are always covered with some boiling water for a few seconds to make them less 'sharp', we'd never done that before but have to say the filling turned out yum.

In the meantime it was also time to learn how to make a decent Pisco Sour, and basically any 'sour' with this recipe. Gerardo doesn't use the raw egg white on the rop as most eggs can't be trusted and he doesn't like to buy the fake egg white powder. Shake shake shake your boogie :-) Turned out really nice our Piscos! We've bought two 1L bottles of a nice pisco and stuffed them in our backpacks ready to go home, so we're good to go for welcome home drinks at Sims Road.

Another lovely lady who was helping clean up our mess had already prepared some Sopaipillas, one of the most sold types of street food anywhere in Chile (together with moto con huesillo, a very sweet drink with dried peaches and freshly cooked husked wheat). The sopaipillas are made with pumpkin and definitively will try it at home too. With the sopaipillas, but also with empanadas or bread you eat Pebre in Chile. Pebre is like a condiment made of tomatoes, lots of coriander, raw onion and merken herbs.

We can't take the merken back home so we'll have to improvise a bit on this one but with lots of coriander and garlic who will know :-)

After making the dough and filling the empanadas we felt we deserved that toast, they looked great.

And even better after the visit to the oven.

Time to plate up the ceviche, all very professional of course like on Masterchef with lovely large freshly made croutons. During our work we had already tasted a fresh bubbly wine that you drink before you eat, to help clean the palate. We should remember that at home..... The ceviche was accompanied by a very nice sauvignon blanc from the wine area close to Santiago, Casablanca. Normally not our favourite as we don't like the acidity, this one turned out to be a nice surprise. After the ceviche it was time for our empanadas with a very nice dark carmenere, a typical Chilean wine. Very tasty empanadas and the wine was just beautiful. As we had already learned during an earlier winery visit, this carmenere is unique to Chile as only Chile has old carmenere vines that survived a bug that killed all the vines in Europe (mostly in Portugal and Spain).

Here we are plating up the dessert which was also very interesting. A non bake merengue that we prepared earlier with boiling hot red wine, put in a glass and covered with a red sauce also containing wine and topped with a crunchy walnut topping.

I may even try this non bake one at home, a merengue that you actually have to bake in the oven is not my thing (no, no home made pavlova, even after 12 years - I have friends that are really good at that!). After the cooking class we were feeling very energised and relaxed at the same time so decided to have a walk around in Barrio Italia. Just a very cool neigbourhood where we of course did find another nice hangout for some Aparol spritz to end a very lovely day with Coco, we are really going to miss this great girl (yes, she is only 33 :-)).

On Sunday we hit the town again to check out a large art fair where 150 Chilean artists were exhibiting and selling. Similar to the large art fair in Wellington. Canada Dry was clearly a sponsor but had at least asked artists to design some great original can work.

We both loved this concept of using black and white images and using colourful threads to make it an unique art piece.

There was also a competition going on where exhibiting artists were paint large letters. We loved this one with Chilean wildlife.

And the king pinguins we visited on Tierro de Fuego.

Just walking through the neigbourhoods of the city lets you soak up the atmosphere, colours, people that live there. This is a side street in the arty Lastarria neighbourhood.

On your way to the markets walking along the river that runs through Santiago you see lots shelters, tents and cardboard structures where large numbers of homeless people live. Most of them are men and most are (according to our Chilean friends) mentally ill. Chile simply does not take care of the mentally ill, no places in institutions and not affordable if there are places. It makes you feel sad and bad at the same time. Especially if you watch how indifferent most children already are to them, it's just a part of city life that you have to ignore...

On our way back home we listened to some great music which is also included in the little clip Hans made. A group of red nosed clowns were having their picture taken on the steps of the modern art museum. Parks in Santiago are full of people in the weekends, just spending time with friends and family, playing games, sports, making music - very nice. A bit further down we saw another clown, trying to round up kids for his next show. He wasn't that successful which may have had to do with the fact he was playing Michael Jackson music...? We thought is was funny anyway :-)

Hans had been challenged again by Andre his new tennis mate so went for another game and even for a third yesterday! It's lovely to make new friends that feel like you've known them for years, if only NZ wasn't a 10 hour flight!

After we did all the 'car stuff' that we had to do to have the title transferred to the French couple that bought (and already paid!) for our car we had more time to revisit some areas. So we went back to the Bio Bio area, a large messy market area which we love - little shops everywhere and all the weird things you can find here. Also a market hall again with lots of pig heads...brrr. We bought dough cutters for the exact right empanada shape, we are professionals now!

An evening visit to the modern art museum that was closed last year. Some nice stuff and also some ??? stuff

One more night to say goodbye to our Chilean friends Anto, Ivan and Jaqui. Last year in September we visited the fundas for the Fiesta de Patrias with Anto and Jaqui and had a lot of fun. We also spend a weekend with Anto and Ivan at her parents place in Curacavi, just outside Santiago. I still have to laugh when I see the clip where I talk to the turkeys. Lovely people and great new friendships. Who knows they may visit us in NZ someday. To share between the 4 of us we ordered the famous Chilean pub fare (this was a very fancy version) to combine with our 'chop'. Lovely night and another goodbye .. Tonight we have dinner with Coco and Saturday our last lunch with Leonie and Andre - and then we're off home. Wow, a year has passed - a year we will never forget with so many awesome experiences and adventures - a Sudamerica nos encanta!!!