Right foot red, Chilean marshmallows, and LOTS of processed meat.

I just finished playing a competitive game of Twister with the other students who live in my house. We haven’t yet tried the team version, although now that I know someone owns a Twister board, the two-person version should be introduced to South America very shortly. One funny thing about playing Twister in Spanish: I felt like I was in kindergarten, thanks to the whole right/left-foot/hand-color combo. I know all of these words in Spanish, but regardless, it took me an extra five seconds of processing time for each move…my 11-year-old host sister thought that was pretty funny.

In other news, I have done a fair amount of hands-on investigation of the Chilean supermarket system since my arrival in Conce. For some reason (my enjoyment of food, perhaps?), I really enjoy going to the grocery store and exploring the different options for where and what to buy. As I mentioned a few posts ago, there are little, family-run markets on every street. They usually sell fruit, veggies, milk products, baked goods, bread, etc. Then there are supermarkets, which are like those in the States, and which come in two sizes: (1) normal and (2) abnormally large. The normal ones are very useful, but the abnormally large ones are excellent for searching for gems, such as specific American foods/ingredients (i.e. chocolate chips, canned cream of chicken soup, cantaloupe…). There are a whole array of products here which have the same names as foods I’m familiar with, but which taste completely different. Example: marshmallows. I wanted to teach the people in my house how to roast marshmallows (actually, my original goal was to make s’mores with them, but graham crackers appear to not exist here), so I bought some seemingly-normal marshmallows at the normal grocery store. When I got home and tested one, it was exceedingly sweet and vanilla-flavored, unfortunately not at all like a “real” marshmallow. However, when I made a trip to the abnormally large grocery store, I found some “real” (i.e. American) marshmallows! They cost about $4 for a bag (I have no idea how much they cost in the States, but it must be less), but I was willing to make the sacrifice in the name of cultural education. Marshmallow-roasting lessons (over the stove, of course) to come soon.

There are a number of things I find interesting about grocery stores here:

1. Mayonnaise. This is another food which tastes slightly different here than in the States. The Chileans LOVE it. They eat it in disgustingly large quantities (in my opinion). The reason why this picture is here, however, is because it's sold in large, plastic packets in Chile! You can buy it in a jar, but it's MUCH more expensive. Jam, ketchup, mustard, spaghetti sauce...all sold in packets.

2. Milk is sold in boxes here! It doesn’t need to be refrigerated until it’s opened…apparently, Chilean milk is more pasteurized than milk in the States, which means it has a better shelf life.

3. Almost all of the lanes have a ‘theme’: there’s the express lane (less than 10 items), the super-express lane (less than 5), and then the interesting lanes, like this one, which is for ‘Preferencia Futura Mamá y Preferencia Minusvalidos’, which basically means it is for pregnant women and handicapped customers.

4. This is Santa Isabel, the normal-sized grocery store closest to my house. I visit it frequently.

A couple of weeks ago, after many trips to the assorted grocery stores of Concepción, I decided to try their fast food. There are a couple of popular chains, but the most popular, from what I can tell, is called Doggis. Like how we have “burger joints” in the US, this is a “hotdog joint.” They sell all types of hot dogs, which in Chile are usually known as “completos” (translation: completes!)(note: At Doggis, they’re called ‘hot dogs’, I think because anything in English is considered cool. But anywhere else, they’re ‘completos’).

Lesson about completos: Basically, they are hot dogs “complete” with lots of toppings. The typical American hot dog of ketchup and mustard is weak in comparison. Chilean completos are loaded with sauerkraut, avocado, tomatoes, cheese, etc (you pick your combo), and of course, mayo. SO MUCH MAYO. I ate a completo at La Fuente Alemán, the most famous place for completos in Conce, but I asked for the mayo on the side. I received my completo on one plate and my mayo on another—the amount of mayo was about the size of a tennis ball. Woah.

But back to Doggis…I didn’t partake in a completo there, rather, I had a few mini-empanadas and an ice cream. All the portion sizes are smaller, which is quite sensible. The normal-sized ice cream (the only one available) was like a child-sized ice cream in the States (although at ice cream stores, the portions are considerably larger). The completos that are sold at Doggis come in three sizes: 15, 18, or 22 cm. At first, this sounded huge to me, until I remembered that 1 inch = 2.54 cm (or something similar). Therefore, the 22 cm-dog is smaller than a footlong. Not enormous.

If you are interested in viewing the menu (and all the hot-dog combos offered) at Doggis, you can go to their website! http://www.doggis.cl/ To see the menu, first click ‘Productos’ (in a purple box), then ‘Menú’ (to the left, in a set of yellow tabs). Press your cursor over parts of the menu to enlarge the image. Note: $1000 Chilean pesos = ~$2 USD.

Enough food-talk for now.

Good night, friends!

Love,
Tiernan

P.S. Tonight there was a soccer game, which is a big deal here. Chile vs. Venezuela. The disappointing part about soccer games here is that there doesn’t have to be a winner. At the end of the game, the score was tied: 2-2. There was no sudden-death, no kick-off, nothing! Next time, I guess...