PART ONE: EMPANADAS AND WINE; OTY'S LUNCH
Santiago is one place that made me feel at home, literally.
Thanks to enterprising tour organizers, I was able to visit private homes there and eat delicious home-cooked meals even though I didn’t know a soul.
During a two-week vacation, I spent more time eating with the locals than in restaurants, and I tasted dishes so pleasing that I begged for recipes so that I could reproduce them at home.
Instead of the usual perfunctory visits to museums and historic buildings, I started with a tour to Penalolen, a blue collar neighborhood far off the tourist track. In one of the modest homes there, I sipped red wine and ate empanadas stuffed with beef, onion, olives and hardboiled eggs.
My hostesses were Maria Espindola and her sister Lya, both in their 80s. Their kitchen was so tiny I could barely squeeze through, but the house was as neat as could be, and roses bloomed in the small front garden. In honor of my visit, the sisters played a recording of vintage American pop songs.
Glaucoma has robbed Maria of most of her vision, but she can manage simple household tasks and chats cheerfully, dim eyes sparkling. Never mind that mismanaged pension funds have left her barely enough to live on.
My guide, Hilda Cerda, next took me to Vitacura, a neighborhood of elegant homes and condos. There we had lunch with her sister, Pilar Cerda Espindola, who goes by the nickname Oty.
Both are divorced, a difficult state for women because divorce was legalized only recently in Chile. Hilda earns money by conducting innovative tours. Oty cooks for tourists in addition to working full time as an insurance agent.
We sat at a pretty table set with yellow and blue dishes and a decanter of white wine. New Age music accompanied our meal, and refreshing breezes drifted in from the garden.
The main dish was charquican de cochayuyo, a hearty casserole of potatoes, onions, yellow squash and a sea plant (cochayuyo) that looks like a tangle of long sturdy roots. Exotic to foreigners, it is everyday fare for Chileans.
Oty set out a bowl of sliced tomatoes and lettuce, which we spooned onto our plates and seasoned with condiments from the table. Formal salads aren’t common in Chile, I learned.
For dessert, she brought us each a small whole papaya in a bowl of syrup. This delicately flavored firm fleshed variety from La Serena is not edible unless cooked. I’ve never seen a papaya like it.
After lunch, Oty slipped outside to pluck boldo leaves for a tea that is said to aid digestion. The mild tea was lovely. Before leaving Santiago, I bought boxes of boldo teabags in a Lider supermarket. That’s the one part of Oty’s exotic lunch that I can recreate at home.
For personalized tours of Santiago and surroundings, contact Hilda Cerda at h[email protected]. To arrange a meal with Pilar Cerda Espindola, go to http://www.chile-travel.com. Scroll down and click on Oty’s Family Dinners.
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