"Viva Chile" Part 3: "18" Cuisine

Sixteen years ago, as Chileans were in the process of recovering their government and their collective sanity after way too many years of internal struggle, there was a feeling that Chileans were moving too rapidly and too completely away from the customs and principles that had bound them together for so long. They were abandoning their traditions, their traditional cuisine, their music, and their national dance, the “cueca”. To reverse this trend, they established the “Semana de la Chilenidad”, to be held in September each year around the “18”, to at least for a week focus Chileans on their heritage. And for the past 16 years, during the “Semana de la Chilenidad”, they have had their children take “cueca” classes, learn the words and music to their most traditional songs, read books about Chilean history, recite poems written by one of Chile’s favorite poets and educator Gabriela Mistral, draw pictures of the Chilean flag and their hero Bernardo O’Higgins, and in general focus their attention on Chilean traditions.

One of those traditions Chileans are intent on saving, one that is front and center during the “18” celebration, is the “asado”. Chileans, like their neighbors to the East, the Argentines, are carnivores. Beef, pork, and lamb are the mainstays. At a Chilean “asado”, if someone declares himself a vegetarian, they serve him chicken! In the countryside, especially in the south, they prepare “asado al palo”, which is a whole or half a lamb skewered on a long eucalyptus pole, slow-roasted over hot coals. Delicious.

Various cuts of beef, from “filete” (tenderloin), to “palanca” (flank), to “lomo liso & lomo vetado” (sirloin), and other sundry lower-cost cuts that would remind you of chuck steak, are usually simply grilled over charcoal. Lamb chops, pork chops and pork loin are grilled and served as snacks, finger food, washed down with corpulent cabernet sauvignon or the more recently popular Carmenere, as you wait for the main course, the grilled beef.



Ximena and I spent the Bicentennial holidays in and around Santiago. Each day, an “asado” was on the menu. One day we spent at an “asado” on the outskirts of Santiago, at the home of a wonderful woman who was the Peace Corps secretary when I worked on the staff there from 1976-79, Patricia, and her family. Another day we drove to a lovely lakeside retreat at Laguna Aculeo, for another “asado” with Ximena’s nephew, Carlos, and his family.






On the “18”, we lunched on two traditional favorites, "pastel de choclo" and "ensalada Chilena" at home with Ximena’s mother, Ana Luisa, and sister, Paz, and then visited the “fondas” at a huge park nearby. There were horse shows in the arena, “cueca” dancing throughout on small wooden platforms, kite flying in the adjoining fields, “juegos criollos” (traditional games) like “taka taka”, “rana” and “rayuela” for the kids, and folklore concerts throughout ( Los Jaivas, Huasos de Algarrobal, Los Huasos Quincheros, Los Cuatro Cuartos).

To top it off, on the final day of the 4-day celebration we joined Ximena’s cousin Pablo, his vivacious wife Paula and their lovely family for, what else, an “asado”. Pablo is a master at the grill, and besides the "chorizos", "longaniza", chicken (for my "vegetarian" sister-in-law), and of course grilled "lomo", Pablo always throws a few "prietas" on the grill. These blood sausages, typical at most "asados" in Argentina and Chile, when grilled to perfection, as they were the day we were at Pablo's home, simply melt in your mouth, especially with Chilean tinto to help.



The ubiquitous “empanada”, especially the one filled with “pino” (mixture of diced beef, chopped onion, black olive, piece of hard boiled egg, flavored with cumin) is one of the classic “18” foods.

Another is Chilean sausage, either the “chorizo” or the “longaniza”, both mostly pork. The Chilean “longaniza” was made famous in the city of Chillan, 300 kilometers south of Santiago. If a foreigner wants to impress Chileans with his knowledge of Chile, when the subject of “longaniza” comes up, and it always does around an “asado”, you have to quickly state before anyone else does, “Of course the best longaniza are from Los Pincheira” and you’re in. This is especially important to do if you are standing around the grill with other family and friends instructing the host, who is doing the grilling, what he is doing wrong, how he is turning the meat too often or not often enough, etc. Apparently Chilean grillers need lots of advice on how to grill, because every “asado” I have ever attended the grill is surrounded by many experts on grilling willing to share their knowledge. Chileans have picked up the Argentine habit of snacking, prior to the main course, on “choripan”, which is a grilled “chorizo”, sizzling hot off the grill, wrapped in a crispy roll and seasoned further with dark red “salsa de aji” made from roasted “cacho de cabra” peppers ground up with a bit of olive oil. Or you may also be served “pebre”, a green mixture of cilantro, onion, and oil, similar to Argentine “chimichurri”, used to season meat. Of course no Chilean “asado” is complete without “ensalada Chilena”, a salad of feathered onions (slightly scalded in hot water to tame the taste a bit), fresh tomatoes, oil, and topped with parsley.

But the real champion of the Chilean “18” cuisine is the “anticucho”. The “anticucho comes out of hiding for the national holiday. Throughout the rest of the year you may find one at the occasional Saturday afternoon family picnic, but for the most part Chileans save the “anticucho” for the “18”. This “18” mainstay is like a shish kabob, a skewer with chunks of meat, roasted over an open fire. It has its origins in the colonial period, probably brought from Peru, like so many other foods and drink much to Chileans’ chagrin. There are many kinds of “anticuchos”, including the truest but these days the scarcest one, made with beef heart. Most common is beef, sometimes mixed with chicken (for the vegetarians), longaniza, chorizo, vienesas, mushrooms, onion, and red and green sweet pepper. As these skewers are grilled, they splash a mixture of garlic, cilantro, salt, lemon, vinegar, or even beer on them with a parsley sprig to keep them moist and flavorful. It is recorded that in 2004, in the town of Quilicura near Santiago, they produced the world’s longest “anticucho”. It was 200 meters long, contained 400 kilos of meat, and 5,000 slices of onion and red sweet pepper. I could not find information on how many people it took to eat the thing, or even that they actually ate it. But I’m quite sure they did.

At the “fondas” we visited on the “18” in Santiago this year, every food stand was serving “anticuchos”. I have not seen so many “anticuchos” in one place ever. And when you wash them down with a glass of “terremoto” the mixture of “pipeno” wine (which is the classic unfiltered fresh wine from the country that huasos like Claudio my father-in-law swear by), pineapple ice cream, and Fernet Branca, you have no choice but to join in with the rest of Chile and exclaim, “Viva Chile!!”, and “Viva el 18 de Septiember!!!”.

Written in Leesburg, Virginia on October 30, 2010.