VOZ

A couple weeks ago, I headed up to Cajon del Maipo to help out with a Voz photoshoot for my internship. In all, it was me, Jasmine (the founder of Voz), and some of her friends, including a professional photographer. While I helped Jasmine with odds 'n ends and took pictures, two of her other friends served as models. Enjoying the beautiful views of Cajon del Maipo from the roadside, we spent the day pulling over whenever the scenery looked particularly inspiring.

This past week, the fruits of our labor paid off. Voz launched it's official website and educational video using the footage and photos we took that day. If you want a sneak peek, check out the pics below. The featured items are prototypes of VOZ's first line of products. The real deal can be found at:

Educational Video and Fundraising Platform (if you feel so-inclined, donations will be greatly appreciated!):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/voz/voz-empowering-ethical-fashion

&

Official VOZ website:

http://www.madebyvoz.com/

Getting Ready

Lights, Camera, Action!

A Sampling of VOZ's Products

Smiles at the End of the Day

Home-stay Thank You Dinner

I treated my host family out to dinner the other night in celebration of a great quarter together. We went to a local Chilean restaurant El Parron with the intention of ordering something my host Mom cannot easily cook at home since we all know her Chilean dishes are the best. : )

We ended up getting a parrillada. In Spanish parrilla means grill and parrilladas are an assortment of grilled meats. Served family style, ours featured pork chops, steak, chorizo, longaniza, blood sausage, entrails, and baked potato.

Although the blood sausage and entrails, weren't quite my cup of tea, they were my host Mom's favorites, and overall the food was delicious. Aside from the parrillada, we started off with the typical bread and pebre, a bunch of cheese empanadas, and french fries (by Gaby's request). Overall, it was a great night!

La Parrillada

My Host Mom

Gaby

Her Happy Daughters

The Complete Family

More Chilean Street Food

While on the topic of food, I've decided to talk about a few other classics.

Completos

I first hinted at completos in one of my earlier blog entries "Chilean Fast Food" although at the time I didn't realize that hot-dogs were indeed a type of completo. In Chile, completo, literally "complete," refers to hot-dogs and sandwiches that feature a key set of condiments: avocado, chucrut or saurkraut, americano or pickled carrots/other veggies, mayo. Often times, they also come with tomato and lettuce and are served alongside mustard, ketchup, and aji, a pepper sauce.

Over the past couple months, I've come to love completos (without mayo)- why don't we have these in the states? While my favorites are sold by a local restaurant called Elkika, I stopped by another cafe to try out their version the other day.

As shown by the poster below, restaurants feature a wide variety of other completo-type sandwiches, including the "Terminator" pictured below with bacon, fried onion, cheese and fried egg!

Chorillana

A large plate of french fries topped with bacon, fried onions, fried egg and the like. Sold for about $10 and frequently shared among a group of friends.

Empanadas

A Chilean classic- the best ones I've tasted are either fried fresh on the street or baked in dirt-ovens like the ones pictured here. Every once in a while, I get lucky and stumble across one of these nooks while traveling outside of Santiago, where large ones only cost about $1.40. The home-made meat pino filling at these nooks is always a treat!

Castano, "the Starbucks of Chile," can be found at least every other block in Santiago and also features empanadas. Although, there's don't compare in quality and flavor to the ones of independent eateries.

Tunas

Tunas, or cactus fruit, are definitely one of my favorite fruits here, and my host Mom serves them regularly after dinner. While the seeds can be a bit hard to chew, I find their exotic flavor refreshing- for me, they taste like ripe green melons and have the texture of raspberries.

Charquican

My host Mom made me to this Southern specialty the other day. It's a base of mashed potato and squash with peas, carrots, bell pepper, corn, and chopped meat mixed in.

Manjar & Other Chilean Sweets

Manjar, manjar, manjar! Also known as dulce de leche, this sweet treat is adored by Chileans and can be found in a variety of products.

Pure Manjar

sold at grocery stores in packets and containers

Pastel o Torta de Mil Hojas

This classic dessert features layer after layer of manjar, a wafer-like pastry, and powdered sugar. My friends bought me a slice of this rich treat for my birthday.

Assorted Pastries

Caramelos

At just 5 cents a pop, I frequently stop by a street vendor and snack on a couple of these while walking home from class. The ones with nueces, or walnuts, are my favorite

Manjar-Flavored Yogurts and Flan

Chocolate-Manjar Milk

Other Notable Sweets:

Rocklets

the Chilean equivalent of M&Ms

Chocapics

like Coco-puffs, but shell-shaped

American Fast-Food in Chile

When walking along the streets of Santiago, the presence of American fast-food is omnipresent: billboards, snacks, restaurants- you name it. Many rebrand themselves for the Chilean market. For example, several fast-food joints like Pizza Hut are sit-down restaurants with waiters here. In addition, I particularly enjoy seeing the cultural twist American brands incorporate into their Chilean products. See for yourself below.

Subway

Here, I find the combination of "Se Puso" in Spanish and "Heavy" in English quite entertaining. The prefix "Mega" has also been adopted from English. Not sure why, but it grabs my attention.

McDonald's

I wish "el Cono Oreo" existed in the States- it has a slightly bitter taste that I like. As an interesting side-note, McDonald's capitalizes on its ice-cream in Santiago: in addition to the traditional ordering counter inside, they position special windows along the sidewalk that only sell helados, or ice-cream.

Cheetos

When I came across, Cheetos sabor mani, or peanut flavor, at a large grocery chain called UniMart, I couldn't help but try them for myself. The puffs are actually shaped like peanuts and have a surprisingly mild and sweeter flavor in comparison with the typical salty and cheesy Cheetos. Not sure I'd buy them again, but definitely worth a taste!

Burger King

They have ads all over the city. The latest and greatest is their toda la carne a la parilla, or all grilled meat, burger. Haven't dared to order one and don't think I will.

A Walk Down Avenida Providencia

I just completed my last final for the quarter, and it's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by. As of today, I've officially been living in Providencia with my home-stay for 10 full weeks. That said, I realized this blog was missing a significant entry: my daily walk from home to the Stanford center. And so, the other day I brought my camera along with me and tried to capture some of the more iconic sights.

Avenida Providencia is one of the main streets in my sector of Santiago. To get to class, I could have taken a number of other routes and side-streets and enjoyed doing so once in a while to change things up. However, I realized I also found comfort in passing by the same sights and sounds day-in, day-out, so most days I ended up going straight along Providencia.

Even though I'm sad to be moving out of Providencia later this week, I am definitely grateful that I still have plenty of time left in Chile. Over the next month or so, I'll be doing a lot of traveling and then I'll finally settle down in the south, to focus on my Mapuche textile internship with Voz.

Home

The Micro

If I'm running late for class or just plain tired, I always have the option of taking the micro bus or metro (subway). Both conveniently pass close by my home-stay.

The Skyline

Recipe for Success???

Considering the fact that I walk by this restaurant daily, I couldn't help but include the sign in this blog entry...still haven't dared to eat there.

Nuts 4 Nuts

Given that Chileans love their maní, or peanuts, Nuts 4 Nuts does quite well. It's a popular chain that has stands throughout the city, and the smell of their freshly honey-roasted peanuts and almonds is irresistible. Luckily, I get to pass by 3 carts on route to Stanford.

Check out their video and website at: http://www.nuts4nuts.cl/historia-luis-martinez.html

Los Leones

Named after these statues, the metro stops close-by.

Avenida Providencia

Street Vendors

Classic of most large cities, they sell magazines, newspapers, snacks, and sweets. I must pass by over two dozen of these each way.

Condorito

One of the popular magazines sold by street vendors. When asked to describe Chileans in a nutshell, people point to Condorito, an iconic cartoon character. My host Mom has a couple Condorito magazines floating around the house, and when flipping through them, I found the humor quite distinct. Although Condorito comes in a variety of editions, I found the punch-lines a bit too cheesy and crude.

Flower Stands

Cafés

Sidewalks are lined with small, independently operated cafés. For lunch, one of my favorite things to do is to stop by a slightly secluded café like the one pictured above and order el menu del día. For just $4-7 USD you usually get bread, a salad, a main dish, and a drink/dessert. The main dishes tend to be Chilean specialties, like porotos granados, pastel de choclo, bistec/lomo/pollo con arroz, o cazuela.

Menu del Día

Bicycles

I pass by a couple racks of government-owned bikes as well. Don't know too many of the details, but I've heard that you can register via a public program to use them for free! (although I'm not a big fan of bikers in the city- bike lanes are rare so cyclists tend to weave among pedestrians on the sidewalks)

Tobalaba

My journey ends just a couple blocks from this metro stop at the Stanford center.