Cochayuyo (Durvillaea antarctica)

OK.  It is actually the local sea kelp.  They are selling a lot of it right now on street corners and at the ferias (farmers markets) so I had to buy some and then ask Marcela to show me what to do with it.  She warned me ahead of time that it would not be on the top ten list for the kids but I figured why not try it.

We haven't seen it served in people's homes or at restaurants so I did a bit of investigating and found the following:

Like many other traditional Chilean foods (chilies, garlic, lamb) it is associated with poor, rural, and even worse, indigenous Chileans. In her PhD dissertation, Identities, Racial Mixing and Social Differences in Osorno, Chile: Readings from the Anthropology of Food,Chilean anthropologist Sonia Monecino Aguirre argues that:

This is what has occurred with luche [another seaweed] and cochayuyo among the middle and upper classes; they are an adult feminine taste [what does that mean?????] rejected by children and youths, as well as adult men. We have encountered cases where women “clandestinely” with their employees, or even alone, prepare dishes of cochayuyo that only they eat, preparing another dish for the rest. …..Cochayuyo is an important social marker associated with poverty, and in the past, as a vicarious substitute for meat, thus it has negative symbolism among the social scale of foods.[5]

So I decided to not so clandestinely have Marcela prepare a dish and then place photos on my blog - hah!

Bought at the Farmers Market this morning

Prepared by Marcela

and the reviews are:

Rob - tasty - sort of like mushrooms
Sarah - tried it and spit it out - so much for an "adult feminine taste"
Renee - what is that smell?
Jonathan - ew, gross (without tasting it)
Elisa - no comment


Experiment over.