Chile: Land of the Asado

So on Sunday I rounded out my 4th straight day of asados, or barbecues. What a great stretch that was! Chileans love to grill, the meat ranging from choripan (chorizo + pan, or spicy sausage + bread) to pork to steak, and basically any other type of meat you could grill. Thursday night I had an asado with David, a Chilean friend of mine I met through a university program designed to help each of us practice our Spanish/English, David's brother, a friend of his, and my boy Shu. We grilled out on the 14th floor of his apartment complex. The views were incredible, and even better once the sun went down and the Santiago lights sprung to life. I can't get over how massive the city is. The lights stretch until the mountains in all directions. It's a city of close to 6.5 million people, but there are so few skyscrapers, that everybody is spread out horizontally instead of vertically as I am used to in major cities. Aside from certain small parts of more "downtown" areas, Santiago is dominated by one and two story houses and buildings. We ended up eating the meat in the dark, as we couldn't find the light switch on the roof, but had an absolutely great time. In the process, I discovered a great beer (imagine that, at a barbecue!). Austral, which is brewed in Punta Arenas, the southernmost major city in Chile (and for that matter continental South America) and is exceptional. I'd tried the standard Lager before, but on Thursday tried the Calafate Ale, made in part from a special berry (calafate) only found in Patagonia. I'm not usually a flavored beer fan, but the calafate was mild enough to add just the right hint of flavor.

The next couple of days of asados were at a friends' apartment or organized by CAUC, the university group that welcomes exchange students and plans events for them, and. Both a lot of fun, even though the security guards at the friends' apartment decided that we weren't allowed to grill on the rooftop deck. Instead we cooked on the stovetop in the apartment and carried the food upstairs, kinda unfortunate. Sunday was a special day here at my house. My dad Leo and brother Luca both had birthdays. After going swimming in the morning with my brother and his friends, I spent the afternoon and evening relaxing with my family and EATING! Leo really outdid himself on the grill this weekend (yes, he chose to cook his own birthday meal). After having my share of shish-kebabs, I dug into the biggest, juiciest steak I've eaten here in Chile. Delicious! There ended up being so much extra food as well that I had to politely keep declining more. Thankfully, I've gotten to eat the leftovers the past couple of days.

We also ate our fair share of deserts, including cake, ice cream, and homemade chocolate chip cookies made by yours truly. After emailing my real mom for the recipe and chasing around for brown sugar and baking soda (the two hardest things to come by) I got to work with the help of my brother and cousin and we whipped up some pretty impressive cookies. A couple of notes. Cookie dough gets WAY bigger when cooked, good to know for next time. Also, baking soda is bicarbonato de soda in Spanish speaking countries if any of you ever have the need to know. I had some trouble tracking this down, figuring out what was baking soda and what was baking powder here, and finally understanding that i had the right stuff even though my family never uses bicarbonato de soda for cooking but instead for cleaning. In the end, the cookies turned out great and my family loved them.

I'm particularly proud of the gifts I gave my family. Luca got the biggest bar of Toblerone chocolate I could find, 400 g, and loved it! My dad got a pack of homemade Dos Equis beer. Good story behind that one. Leo looks inexplicably similar to "The Most Interesting Man in the World" from the Dos Equis commercials. If you guys don't know them, definitely YouTube it. His picture is also in the picture below (the TV personality that is). So I figured it'd be a great idea to get him some Dos Equis. Only problem is, it can't be found here in Chile. So as a solution, I bought a pack of Austral Lager, the closest tasting beer I know of here, printed off my own Dos Equis labels, and wrapped it up. It turned out great and both of them loved their presents.

Last bit for tonight. I ran a 10 km race today at La Católica. It was a race put on by the PE department, and unlike most races in the US, wasn't done for a charitable cause, but instead to encourage exercise. It went great and I beat my goal.