Culture Shock! Chile - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

Food 143

it can be very dangerous if the can explodes. Manjar is
spread on bread like peanut butter or Nutella, and the large
containers available at the supermarkets testify to the fact
that it is extremely popular. It turns up in countless cakes
and sweets, such as panqueque celestino, crepes, torta mil
hojas and manjar relleno—a sweet doughnut-like fried pastry
into which warm manjar is poured.
Picarones are Chilean doughnuts and they also come in
a pasados version with caramel sauce. Calzones rotos (yes,
torn underwear! in Spanish) are strips of dough with a hole
sliced in the middle and one end is pulled through to give it a
twisty shape. Then of course there are Spanish churros, long,
round, fried pastries sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. On
many street corners you will find hawkers selling cuchuflí,
small tube-like cookies filled with manjar.

Chilean Fruit

You’ll find some interesting and tasty fruits in Chile. Some of

them are listed below:

„ chirimoya (custard apple), often served fresh. A favourite is

chirimoya alegre, the fruit is sliced and served in a bowl of

orange juice

„ papaya, preserved, not fresh, served with its own syrup

„ lúcuma, never eaten fresh, often used to flavour cakes and

ice cream, reminiscent of praline

„ tuna, prickly pear

„ chupones, found in the south, offshoot of a type of cactus

plant that is chewed

„ plátano, banana, often served sliced and drizzled with palm

tree syrup

BEVERAGES

Alcoholic Beverages

One of the first things that people associate with Chile is its
wine. The central region of the country has an ideal climate
for producing wine—warm summers, rain-free autumns,
moderate winters and a mild spring with no frosts to kill
young vines. Critics liken Chilean wines to French wines