Day 6: Comida

We have eaten some good stuff so far, most of it not authentically Chilean but all delicious! Some of the pictures below are of homemade food. But most of the ones that look really good likely were made by professionals...

Our primary food has been homemade avocado toast, easy and filling. I think the people at the grocery store think we are crazy for how often we come in and buy produce. We often eat avocado toast for breakfast, have done it for lunch, and just ate it for dinner.

Other highlights include local lunch specials which offer a fresh fruit juice (see the vibrant mango one above to the left) along with a soup and salad or pasta/meat dish. The bottom set of pictures was my lunch today. I ordered the "zapallo" soup, not knowing what zapallo was but simply knowing it was a vegetable. It was delicious! When we saw zapallos (an orange squash, possibly a pumpkin) in the fruit market today, it was nice to resolve the mystery.

Right above the pasta, there's a picture of An at the same cafe with pastel de choclo, a baked dish of meat, olives, hard boiled egg, raisins, and onions. She thought it was really good and had a nice conversation with our waiter about the preparation that goes into the dish.

I won't describe all of the pictures, but the last one I'll write about is the big group picture. It was windy but beautiful as we sat on an outdoor terrace of the Costanera Center, the tallest building in South America. After our afternoon session of teaching, we were very hungry and our Universidad Mayor teaching assistants took us on a walk to this huge shopping mall building. Matías, featured here between An and Sebastián, filled us in on some local suggestions. The Costanera Center is like a bigger and fancier version of Boston's Prudential Center.

From atop skyscrapers to in our own little apartment, we've eaten around the city and look forward to trying out new foods and places in the next few weeks.