Chile is one of country in South America; this slim country took placed at the border of Pasific Ocean, south part of South America. From the geographic structure, it was not surprised if this country culinary had several characteristic, but one item should remained, Chile cuisine did not used a lot of spices and condiment. So, if you do not like spicy food like Indonesia food, mexico food, or others spicy food, you can choose this Chile cuisine. “At the north, you’ll find sea food as main cuisine, at the central area, you’ll find farm food like vegetables and fruits, and at the south, you’ll find meat and sea food,” said Fernando Egaña, Chile chef which famous in Cocina Aventura (Cuisine Adventure) show in Canal 7.Raw and basic ingredients/material is the most important in Chile cuisine. Maybe, a lot of kind of ingredients (also good in quality too), made people in Chile didn’t need spices to wrapped it. With 4,000 km of beach lines, sea foods become prominent. One of sea food cuisine is ceviche (cubic chopped fish). Ceviche didn’t cook on fire, just ‘cooked’ with kaffir lime water. So meat cooked because the kaffir lime acid. Cheviche served with ensalada chilena, chopped bombay onion and tomato in olive oil.
Other sea food is sopa marinera, sea soup. All of sea food set in small chopped with clearly gravy. The taste felt fresh, because didn’t add with a lot of spices, the taste of ingredients become prominent. Because the raw material was good in quality, the cuisine results tasty too.
Other food is anticuchos, from cow meat with skewer. Desert dish such as leche asada and arroz con leche .The famous food is empanada. In other Latin countries you’ll find this food too, because empanada came from Iberia Peninsula, and then spreaded it by Spanish and Portuguese.The shape seems like pastel cake, there are skin and meat content. Empanada could be eaten as a side dish or prime dish.Pastel de choclo con pino de carne is corn casserole meat added. The corn grated, wrapper the meat, known as covered pastel. Inside meat, sometimes you could find olive fruit.
According chef Fernando Egaña, Chile cuisine more luxury and tasty to ate if the food served with Chile wine, or with pisco, brandy from muscatel grape, known as Chile national drink.
So, which one cuisine did you prefer? Spicy content or lower spicy content? Every food has own characteristic, but if you like food basic on the original tasty of the raw material, beside Japanese food, please consider Chile food to become your favorite food.
Adopted from ‘Masakan Cile yang Tanpa Banyak Bumbu’ written by Diah Marsidi, source : KOMPAS. Adopted and translated by reog.