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.