Eccentricities about Chilean things that bedazzle me beyond belief!
Remember this Sesame Street Song?
Well, that's me in Chile, some things, are definately NOT like some other things! Every day, I oggle at things and wonder why they aren't quite right.
Cookie monster, HELP!
PART 1 - LA COCINA! - (The kitchen)
Chilean kitchens I've noticed tend to be very simple and hallway shaped rather square, sometimes with a little table, sometimes not. Family eating is for dining rooms! There is almost always lots and lots of cabinets and off of or near the kitchen is where you'll find the itty bitty Japanese looking washing machine. (People tend not to have dryers here, which makes sense! Plenty of natural heat!)
Some of these things don't seem like they belong for me:
- Itty bitty cups for espresso, do Americans drink espresso?
- Lots of different sized plates and bowls. You never have just one plate for a meal! There's the bread plate, the salad plate, the lunch plate, the dinner sized plate, new plate for dessert! and all the little plates for under cups and bowls and perhaps a napkin! Chileans love plates!
- Napkins deluge! The use of napkins here is off the hook! THEY LOVE THEM! Just yesterday, I was watching a Chilean t.v. channel and there it is, a 15 minute special on the use/folding/display layout of plastic like thin little napkins in sandwich fast food joints! Crazy! There is a style to their use as well....you have to sort of grab a handful and dab at your lips....the thin ones at restaurants don't do much accept perhaps smear the oil and food around a bit.
ONWARD! To the kitchen!!!
This switch shown here to the left is the inspiration for this blog! It DRIVES ME BATTY! It is not normal to bake here, in fact, I know no one who does, so why would you need degrees on your oven gauge if you only use the bloomin' thing twice a year I guess? Welcome to my hell! NO 350 DEGREES!!! Just those little pictures of different sized flames!?!?! What is that?!? As well as the fact that in most ovens you have to turn the gas on manually by a switch and stick your head in with a lit match to get the thing running! Of all the things that concern me about moving to Chile, this is the biggest. Am I considering to purchase an oven and mail it here? I just might do it!
Every single Chilean household has one, like rice makers in Thailand! I have most definitely fallen in love with them! They turn off by themselves, make however much water you need and they're super fast! I will NEVER go back to non electric tea kettle life! No running from the loo to switch off the kettle! Nudge, nudge Londoners!
Even though Rodolfo is a scientist, a fortune teller prophesized he would marry a gringa who could cook well a year before we met. He always looks you in the eye while raising a glass and he will never ever hand you the salt directly during a meal. Bad luck. You have to put it on the table and they pick it up from there. I don't think this is purely a Rodolfo thing, Chileans in general hold to strong beliefs in luck. I know Chile isn't the only place either, but there does seem to be quite a lot of guidelines for good luck involving food here.
I am mystified by the multitude of options for sugar, errr...non sugar here. Chileans adore sugar, but they love fake sugar even more! Especially while chowing down a portion of Mil Hojas (literally, 1,000 layer cake with 1,000 calories in it) I think it's a guilt thing, same as the States, but here, everyone does it with a look like adding this fake sugar is actually helping their waist line shrink....I have news for them....
Milk is kept at room temperature in boxes. I KNOW!
Chileans buy milk in large quantities in these boxes and store it in their pantries for when they need it. To use, you simply cut off a corner with a pair of scissors.
I don't believe it tastes as good as our fresh cold goodness, but it's definitely efficient and there when you need it without going bad as quickly as a half gallon.
(Chileans tend not to drink as much milk as we do, it's pretty much just for coffee or cooking and almost never straight down the hatch unless it's strawberry flavored. Rodolfo thinks I'm nuts eating cereal with milk, here they use a liquidy yogurt)
Herbal tea comes in a lot more options then Chamomile and sleepy time!
Mint and Chamomile are definitely still around, but then there are a million more to try and apreciate! I just love this box because, there's Lipton right there plane as day....I get that, but looking at that pile of assorted "herbal infusions" on the right...it's like, wow.....there's real herbs here!
A LACK OF MEASUREMENT
Just like my problems with ovens, generally speaking, measuring cups are difficult to find. Unless they've purchased them in the States, there is no call for them. Nobody bakes! My first visit here, I became catatonic in disbelief, "how do you survive without measuring cups!?!" But soon discovered that a coffee cup and a sugar spoon work in a pinch!
- Do you have anything sitting in your kitchen or pantry that's unusual?
- Is there an item of food that you would consider traditionally from your homeland or childhood?
- Any traditional food behaviors passed down in the family for luck?
No comments:
Post a Comment