In the United States, we are a food centered culture. Lots of cultures around the world are similar. We eat for celebration, we eat on holidays and special occasions, some of us eat when we're sad, and others eat just because their just bored. It's been nice to see that this aspect of American culture, isn't so different from Chile.
The first day that I arrived, I sat down to a Sunday lunch with my host family. It would be the first lunch of many where my family patiently listened while I tried to produce some sort of coherent Spanish. We had a simple salad, only lettuce, carrots, and a little tuna on top. Everyone else was dressing their salad with with oil, salt, and lemon juice, I did the same, only to find out I quite like salads without ranch dressing! The next course is a little fuzzy, but it was a large course (something that we would normally think of as a dinner plate), and then coffee and a sweet treat for dessert. This was probably my first introduction to the Chilean schedule of eating.
For the average Chilean, their breakfast is quick. They'll usually have a piece of fruit, some bread, and then they're out the door or on their way. Their lunch though, is slightly different. Lunch is the heaviest meal of the day for Chileans and it comes at around 3:00 PM in the afternoon. During dinner one night, my host mom handed me a fork, spoon, and knife from her drawer of spare cutlery. She told me to keep them in my backpack and to wash them when they were dirty. I would soon find out that this also is very common for students in Chile. Since lunch is their heaviest meal, they often bring, salads, soups, pastas, beans, or rice, occasionally, but not always accompanied by some sort of meat, meant to be reheated in one of the university's many microwaves. Since these meals can't be eaten with your hands and a recent campaign against plastic bags and cutlery has come about in the Valparaíso, reusable utensils are a must. Dinner is an entirely different adventure. In fact, most Chileans don't eat dinner at all, they have something called "once" (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish). "Once" is what my American family would call "picking" or what some might think of as an evening snack. Chileans eat "once" between 8:00 - 10:00 pm and sometimes as late as 11:00 pm (as the name suggests). It usually consists of bread with butter, some sort of lunch meat (salami, ham, or turkey) and mantecoso, a Chilean cheese. Once is always a la carte and served with a warm cup of tea or coffee. Dinner has been a tough concept for my friends and I to adjust to. Most of our families graciously warm us up an extra serving of lunch to subsidize our once.
Personally, I'm just happy to be surrounded by those who love food, socializing over food, and well -- eating food!
The first day that I arrived, I sat down to a Sunday lunch with my host family. It would be the first lunch of many where my family patiently listened while I tried to produce some sort of coherent Spanish. We had a simple salad, only lettuce, carrots, and a little tuna on top. Everyone else was dressing their salad with with oil, salt, and lemon juice, I did the same, only to find out I quite like salads without ranch dressing! The next course is a little fuzzy, but it was a large course (something that we would normally think of as a dinner plate), and then coffee and a sweet treat for dessert. This was probably my first introduction to the Chilean schedule of eating.
 |
| Lentils, beans, and barley. A staple in our house! |
For the average Chilean, their breakfast is quick. They'll usually have a piece of fruit, some bread, and then they're out the door or on their way. Their lunch though, is slightly different. Lunch is the heaviest meal of the day for Chileans and it comes at around 3:00 PM in the afternoon. During dinner one night, my host mom handed me a fork, spoon, and knife from her drawer of spare cutlery. She told me to keep them in my backpack and to wash them when they were dirty. I would soon find out that this also is very common for students in Chile. Since lunch is their heaviest meal, they often bring, salads, soups, pastas, beans, or rice, occasionally, but not always accompanied by some sort of meat, meant to be reheated in one of the university's many microwaves. Since these meals can't be eaten with your hands and a recent campaign against plastic bags and cutlery has come about in the Valparaíso, reusable utensils are a must. Dinner is an entirely different adventure. In fact, most Chileans don't eat dinner at all, they have something called "once" (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish). "Once" is what my American family would call "picking" or what some might think of as an evening snack. Chileans eat "once" between 8:00 - 10:00 pm and sometimes as late as 11:00 pm (as the name suggests). It usually consists of bread with butter, some sort of lunch meat (salami, ham, or turkey) and mantecoso, a Chilean cheese. Once is always a la carte and served with a warm cup of tea or coffee. Dinner has been a tough concept for my friends and I to adjust to. Most of our families graciously warm us up an extra serving of lunch to subsidize our once.
Personally, I'm just happy to be surrounded by those who love food, socializing over food, and well -- eating food!
 |
| My host mom keeps me healthy, despite my resistance :) |