Flash back to our first day here. We had just gotten off of an overnight flight during which we hadn't really managed to sleep, and we entered a new continent with a new language and a new season. With the summer sun shining down on us, we wanted to get some food to revitalize us for the day ahead. Stumbling around exhaustedly near our apartment in Providencia, we found a little café called El Clapper right outside of the Manuel Montt metro stop.
We wrote about this in one of our first blog posts, and little did we know that we would become regulars. Once An and I learned that the free lunch tickets our Universidad Mayor hosts gave us could be used at El Clapper, we started going there more and more. Very affordably priced and very delicious, it quickly became a staple. Also, their bathroom has quotes written on every imaginable surface, and I found some I really liked!
El Clapper feels cozy and homey because it is small and there is only one waiter. We had talked to him on the first day, learning about how he had traveled here from Venezuela two years ago and has been enjoying Santiago. He understood that we wanted to speak Spanish with him to practice, and I really appreciated that he stuck to that. Sometimes, people here hear us speaking English to each other and therefore assume that we don't speak Spanish. In South America, most people believe that "los norteamericanos" (North Americans) only speak English. It's been nice chatting with our favorite El Clapper employee in Spanish each time we go.
Besides the friendly atmosphere, the food is so good. An and I have gotten into a routine. She orders the spinach quiche and I order the pesto gnocchi or the pesto spinach ravioli if they don't have the gnocchi. We have two glasses of tap water and split an unsweetened mango juice.
I eat faster than her, so I divide the pasta in half and eat it while An savors the quiche. Once she is finished with her half of the quiche, she initiates the trade, passing the black plate with the quiche up and over the white plate with the pasta as we swap with the plates in our left hands. If you'd ask me, I'd say we've turned it into quite the art. There's something so nice about splitting the food. It really feels like a shared experience between us both, plus we get to eat two delicious foods instead of one.
Whenever we wonder where to eat, it's pretty likely that one of us suggests El Clapper and that the other one easily gives in. It's funny how in only 3 weeks we have managed to make so many memories at this place and have become "regulars" of sorts. If (or hopefully when) we return to Santiago, we will certainly visit El Clapper first thing. Plus, we can let our lovely friend Rider (the waiter) know that we're coming. As we said goodbye to him today, he asked for our contact information. An and Rider now follow each other on Instagram, and I continue to be amazed by the random, quality connections we've made along the way this trip.