Flor de la Pluma

- Feather flower or wisteria.

As some of you may know one of my favorite flowers is wisteria.  I first fell in love with it one spring when I lived in Durham, North Carolina and now I always try to plan a trip to my folks house in Palo Alto when it is in bloom.  It doesn't seem to grow well in South Bend but I may need to try when we return.  I have descended upon a city with an incredible amount of wisteria and I am in heaven and my kids are sick of me saying "oh my god, those are so beautiful."  I can't do justice to how much wisteria is draping all over the city but the good news is that I learned that the type of wisteria that blooms here blooms a second time in autumn!  We went to the house of one of Rob's colleagues on Sunday for an asado (BBQ with a lot of meat) and they had two immense vines of wisteria surrounding their house.  I just sat there trying to separate out the smell of meat and wisteria running for a full whiff of wisteria periodically.  Here is a shot of their wisteria and then a few others from around town.  I just can't get enough of it!

At a park

At Rob's colleague's house

Around the corner

Just hanging over the street

It is like a weed here - I love it!!!!  (I apologize to those in the northern hemisphere who prefer spring over fall)

Also - just an aside - I am starting to do more work for Notre Dame and I have been searching for a quiet "cafe" where I can work.  It turns out that from 10-12 in the morning the Estadio's cafe is open with nobody there.  Cortado doble and me - it worked well.

Lo Saldes - A local bakery

About three blocks away we have one of the better, I think, chain bakeries, Lo Saldes.  Rob and the kids were disappointed that the facturas (a group of pastries) that we eat in Uruguay and Argentina were not part of this culture but have gotten accustomed to the local baked goods.  They seem to favor things with manjar (dulce de leche) and meringue and often have more of a doughnuty rather than crunchy texture.  The cakes are highly-influenced by German cakes and are often tiered with at least one layer of manjar but also layers of what I think is bakers cream (creme patissiere) and fruit also show up.  This bakery also serves coffee and you can sit inside or out (with free wi-fi). 

Doughnuty things with cream or manjar inside

Other goodies also filled with cream or manjar and topped with fruit or chocolate

Meringe thingy

These kind of look like little pacmen but they are doughnuts loaded with manjar (dulce de leche)

Bins of fresh bread - you see these at bakeries, supermarkets, and corner stores, even the 7-11 equivalents

Empanadas

Looks like a pizza but.....

two pino and three cheese

A quick word or two on empanadas.  I think that you see them in most Latin American countries but each one has a different spin on them. The name comes from "empanar" which means to coats with bread.  The two pictured above are pretty typical although you do see them with mushrooms, seafood, plain meat, and other things.  The cheese ones above have a flakey crust that Renee and I prefer.  The pino ones have more of a baked pizza-ish dough.  It is the most typical type of empanada here. Inside is a mixture of beef, onions, raisins, black olives and hard boiled eggs.  Renee prefers the cheese, Jonathan prefers the pino and Elisa can go either way.  Mama is just happy that she can get away with a quick and easy "meal."

We are headed to Buenos Aires on Wednesday morning for five days.  I am sure we will have many empanada and factura pictures to post from our visit.  Rob has spent the past week pumping everybody up for good food and desserts.  We may just eat our way through the city.....

La Vega - the shuk

As I wandered the alleys of Santiago's main "shuk" I wished that I had my brother with me with his fancy camera and years of practice taking pictures. The market has been around for over 100 years and apparently the booths are passed down from generation to generation.  I don't really need to replicate the smells, especially of the area surrounding my friend below, but the colors and energy were perfect.  Diedre, the woman that I met from California, invited me to have a coffee and go shopping with her at La Vega this morning.  I would not have thought it would be so crowded on a Sunday morning but it was really bustling.  Here is a quick glimpse of it.  We are headed to Buenos Aires for Rosh Hashanah for five days so I did more observing than buying this time around. l'll attempt to take the kids and a cart there next time.  

Greeted by a Jewish vegetarian's dream

There are many more stray dogs than cats in this city but the cats seemed to have found their nooks in the market.  I even spotted one lying gingerly on a pile of eggs ;-)

Dried peaches to make mote con huesillo

Diedre and the beautiful artichokes at 5/$2

The scene

Cabbage on steroids (next to iceberg lettuce for comparison)

I searched high and low for kidney beans but found this same assortment everywhere

They grow pumpkins huge here and sell them in chunks

Not quite strawberry season - soon, very soon

Chicks and ducklings for sale (Jen Lindley - want one or two?)

Click here for a video of the chicks and ducklings.

Finally Watched a Notre Dame Game and Lights Out

We finally headed to the California Cantina, a local restaurant/bar that shows international sporting events including NFL and NCAA football games.  I e-mailed ahead and confirmed that they would show the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game, one of the few that was during the day this year and therefore would work for the whole family.  We headed down (about a 15 minute drive towards the center of the city from our place) after our morning Estadio activities and ordered lunch.  We were told that there are normally a lot of Irish fans but there were only two others there today.  We had to leave in the middle of the third quarter when Notre Dame was down 7-12 but in the end they won 15-12 but it was ugly.  Rob and I (and Jonathan) got a kick out of watching it - the girls were bored.

This is before the food was served

I am finishing typing this out as we are having a power outage that is affecting 93% of the country's population but somehow the internet is working in my apartment even though the electricity isn't.  Odd.  The news said that thankfully there was a generator at the stadium where the Ricky Martin concert was being held so it is still being held (that was actually the third bullet point under the news item!)

Renee is at a Bat Mitzvah right now which is bound to be memorable!  Perhaps I can get her to finally blog about something.

The Apartment

So here is a quick overview of where we live.  It is in a mostly residential neighborhood and it looks like most of the larger apartment buildings were built in the past ten years so we are surrounded by houses.  There is definitely something nice about living in a smaller space.  There are enough separate areas in the apartment that we are not all on top of each other but I am sure that we will be ready to return to our house come next June!

It is about a 15 minute walk to the metro, a 45 minute commute by walking and metro to Rob's work, a 10 minute drive to the Estadio, about 20 minutes to the kids school, and no commute to my chair.  There are a few neighborhood shops including a panadaria (bakery)/corner store, fruteria, place that just sells roasted chicken and delivers it to your house, a viennese cafe, a few pastelerias (bakeries but with mostly cakes), take out pizza, sushi/chinese restaurant, dry cleaner, etc. I took some pictures but forgot my office  - next time. We are on the ninth floor and if you zoom in on the picture I am there waving.

Medinacelli, 1144 - back view

Front view (with Chilean flag)

Elisa and Jonathan's room

Renee's room

Our room

Living room (it all came furnished and may be a bit fancy for our lifestyle!)

Dining room

Main balcony (we have two others but this one faces the best mountains)

The kitchen and Marcela making a kuchen de manzana (she, unfortunately, does not come back with us in June)

The playground

The monkey on the playground

Día de las Glorias del Ejército (Day of the Glories of the Army)

or just plain Army Day.

We started the day watching a Today Show type of TV program which had people sitting around talking and laughing with intermittent side programs on various aspects of Fiestas Patrias including how to select and cook the best cuts of meat for your BBQ (mmmm), the circus (apparently another staple of September in Santiago), traditional bands, songs, and dances, etc.

We decided to check out a typical Chilean place for lunch that was one step up from our normal empanadas and Barros Lucos.  After some googling (it is actually a verb in Spanish now "googlear"), I found El Parron that completely fit the bill.  We could have had this for $40 for four people but....

Parilla (BBQ)

Below are some photos from the meal.

It was like eating in a festive sukkah (with Pippi)

Gnocchi in a cream sauce with mushrooms - mmmmm

Salmon - can't go wrong there

Reineta - a typical chilean white fish (the one that got us sick at the beach!)   This one was better!

A girl and her chorizo (#4)

Mote con huesillos

A cortado to finish the meal

The two major things to note are that Jonathan and Renee both ordered chorizos which are loosely sausages.  Jonathan discovered them at a birthday party where they are served with bread (pan) and become a "choripan".  Their serving came with four and Renee ate them all and Jonathan only ate two because mid-meal he discovered that a tooth was loose and proceeded to wiggle it enough to warrant a visit from the Raton de Dietes (if only he believed....).

The molar that was

Alberto (abuelo) tried one as well and declared them tastier than those in Argentina and Uruguay - not quite sure why and not sure I'd understand why either.

The other item of interest that did not go over as well was mote con huesillos which is typically served off of trucks on the corner during the summer or at fairs.

mote con huesillos

It is dried peaches and wheat in a syrup and served really cold.  I had one at the fair last week and it really hit the spot but it didn't go over as well at the restaurant.

After lunch, abuelos went for a siesta and we watched some of the military parade on TV.  It was a bit eerie to watch all of the various groups "goose-stepping" in front of the reviewing stand where whatever leader (general?) of the group was saluting with the president on one side and a clergyman (perhaps a bishop?) on the other.  I definitely needed a spanish-english and a chilean culture translator for that one.  The kids were not impressed but I kept thinking what an interesting propaganda event this must have been in different times....I know that the US has an Armed Forces Day but I don't recall ever seeing this type of display on the TV!  Perhaps it just wasn't part of my upbringing?