Like this:

Am in need of some light relief after a looong day at work, and some not so lovely flat hunting (more about that another time). So what better way to break the blogging silence with some pictures of lovely food?

Before we get to the lovely bit, let’s have a look at the much-discussed Chilean classic, the completo. A hot dog with tomato, mayo and smothered in mayo. Yum.

Cross-section of a completo. Not the best photo, but it's sort of tricky when you've got one of those in the other hand...

It tastes a lot better than it looks, although Anthony Bourdain was defeated by one when he came to Chile. They are actually really quite nice, if you scrape most of the mayo off. And ignore the frankfurter.

But what about ‘proper’ food? The consensus here amongst expats is that while dishes in restaurants are can be* pretty bland and over-salted and unexciting, the fresh ingredients are awesome: good quality and pretty darn cheap by UK standards. And so they are. Hence why each complete comes with such a copious layer of avocado. Every Saturday, Stu and I go to the source of such goodness, the feria (market), and haul back half our bodyweight in fruit and veg and sometimes flowers:

Goats’ cheese, oranges, carrots, basil, coriander, strawberries, aubergines, peppers, chilli peppers, honey, figs, limes, lemons, avocadoes, a cucumber, garlic, spinach, porotos granados (beans), spring onions, zapallo (squash), tomatoes and bananas. Not much, then.

It’s now a Saturday ritual. We’ve started to get recognised by caseros (stall holders) and have some regular stalls now. And if we don’t go, either because we still have loads of food left over, or because we’re away, I miss it. Although there’s some imported stuff, we’re a lot more in touch with the seasons here, which is great – I discovered membrillo (quinces) but also frustrating (we can’t buy basil at the moment to make pesto). I love discovering new produce that I’ve never cooked with before:

Stripey aubergine, broad beans, feijoa (a fruit that tastes unfortunately like a synthetic air freshener, damn you airfreshners for upsetting my taste of fruit).

I think we’re eating a lot healthier than we were in the UK due to planning our meals around feria produce. In fact, we’ve both lost weight since we’ve been in Chile (which is a pain, as how on earth am I going to find new work trousers that’ll fit?). Although I do think the weight loss is probably really down to the almost complete lack of good cheese and good chocolate, but that’s a moan for another day.

Our home cooking isn’t all healthy healthy healthy, though. Current addiction: lemon curd. So easy and so cheap to make when lemons are about 70p per kilo:

Mmmmmm.....

We go through one of these jars a week. Makes up for peanut butter being expensive. And lemon curd is soooo good with meringues and hand-whipped cream in a parfait courtesy of Nigel Slater (who is just known as Nigel around here, and whom I would love to adopt as an honorary uncle. How cool would that be?)

Parfait. And in the background, our wall mosaic, a la Color Me Katie.

So, in short, Chile is good for us. We’re becoming better cooks, and eating more healthily. OK, apart from the completos. And lomitos. And barros lucos. We’ll talk more about fast food another day.

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