This morning we stumbled upon the mechanics version of the Land of Lost Content. It was a museum full of old cars which had been imported to Chile. There were lots of American cars but above were the French contingent. There were also two Land Rovers and an MG 1300 circa 1960.
Several years ago I got a bee in my bonnet about sun dried tomatoes. What does this mean, are the tomatoes laid out in the sun for birds to peck and perhaps poop all over them! We eat an awful lot of sun dried tomatos in the UK, where do they all come from? No one seemed to know and my investigations on the web just threw up marketing speak about the qualities of different brands but no photos of tomatoes being pooped on.
On our cycle ride a few days ago we came across huge area with grapes laid out in the sun - they are producing sun dried raisins - I am still not convinced, we eat a lot of raisins and the field shown would not keep Sainsbury's going for long.
Neither Gill nor I speak Spanish, this has not been a huge problem on the holiday, most people are keen to help or want to sell you something and a mixture of pointing at menu items, addresses in guide books or the odd mime gets us by. We have not had to resort to animal noises for food and in four weeks and probably 50 restaurant / cafe meals we have only had two cock ups.
The first was when I ordered Chorito expecting a strong sausage (it was written badly in chalk on a board, that is my excuse) but got a huge bowl of mussels. I am not keen on mussels, they seem a lot of work for not much taste but I managed to eat them all not wishing to lose face.
Yesterday was cock up number two.
We walked along the sea front to a restaurant called 5unshine. It had another sign advertising Stella Artois and the place looked quite trendy – just the sort of place for us. First warning sign - we were the only customers. Second warning sign - they had Argentinian wine as well as Chilean. Third warning sign - it is the only restaurant we have been to where, as soon as we placed an order, we were not given some bread and a chilli / onion dip. (picture above of the normal fare).
Fourth warning sign – None of the food seemed to tie up with our idiots guide to Chilean food.
Although the tables were set with knives and forks as soon as we placed our random order chop sticks were delivered – we had a very nice but unexpected Japanese meal, the six staff looked after us very well, we were still the only guests when we left. (we ignored the Argentinian wine and had a nice bottle of Chilean plonk).
The plate opposite is of very nice slow cooked pork with potato which I had for lunch yesterday.
Apart from those misunderstandings we have eaten quite well. In particular the bread always seems to be home made even in the scruffiest cafes although it tends to be a little bland. On the subject of bland, the cheeses, or the ones we tried, are tasteless. I had goats cheese with figs a few nights ago, the figs were fine, the cheese was like dry bread. As I have already mentioned in the blog Conger Eel isn't, it is a small cod.
Two national dishes we tried are; Empanadas which look like Cornish pasties and can be filled with anything, cheese, jam, meat, vegetables or fruit. In most cases we found the pastry to heavy. The other is sweetcorn or maize used as a potato equivalent or mixed in with mashed potato which is really good especially as a “shepherds pie”.
The picture opposite is from a walk we did this afternoon. 3 miles up hill in a National Park, we were the only people there, an exhausting but enjoyable afternoon.
Whilst we have been enjoying ourselves in Chile a highly trained team of ornithologists (my big sister Jill) have been studying the photos we sent back and have the following results:
There are only 26 species of Ibis in the whole world. We photographed the imaginatively named Black-faced Ibis. There are two sub species – the other, found in northern Chile, has an even blacker face.
I think it is a Cinclodes – but which one?
Grey-flanked Cinclodes which has the same sort of colouring as the photograph, tail slightly rounded to square, lives from sea level to 4200 metres. Open grassy and rocky areas. 17-18cm
The other 2 look slightly browner in the book ,
Dark Bellied Cinclodes, tail slightly rounded . Habitat coastal rocky beaches , shores of lakes rivers up to 2500 meters 18-20 cm
Seaside Cinclodes tail rounded Habitat Rocky beaches – an intertidal bird. 21-22 cms
The white markings on the wing make it a dead ringer for a Chimango Caracara.
It is a larger than the Brown Pelican, has more white on the head, has more pink showing on the lower bill and in breeding plumage has a bigger bare patch round the eye.