So this past wekend was a long one due to the fact that it was Colombus Day. It was kind of interesting to see that they celebrated it here in Chile, even though they changed the name of it to "Day of the exploration of the new world," but still. A South American country, celebrating the legacy of centuries of conquest, exploitation, and brutality by the colonialists? It seems kind of roundabout to me, and I honestly never really liked the idea of "Colombus Day" because Colombus was a complete ass. Maybe if they changed it to the name they have here, or celebrated the indigenous that lived in the states beforehand, or something to take the focus off of Colombus's crew and made the meaning of the holiday something other than HE. . .but whatever. It was a three day weekend, and I was about to experience in every way what chilean asados mean.
Now for those of you who don't speak the "Spanish," asado means bbq. In Chile, men take bbqs are seriously as China is about violating human rights (Seriously, throwing the Nobel Peace Prize winner's WIFE under arrest too? What are you thinking??). Asados by NO MEANS are just times where guys put meat on the grill and fire up the gas tank. It's a time of family, friends, music, drinking. . .the food just compliments the overall merry mood of being outside and enjoying life with the people you love. But my god, do they compliment well. I should mention that a great majority of the grills aren't gas operated as well. . .you have to fire it up either with coal or wood, and since you're usually cooking for a huge group of people, this means starting the fire up takes up a special importance. Every guy it seems has their own method to start up the fire, whether that be arrange the wood pile in a certain way, or using a certain amount of newspaper and waving it a certain way around the coals before setting it down, to literally making a Molotov cocktail with a wine bottle and throwing it into the grilling abyss. . .it's awesome. Sooner than later, I'm going to have to figure out my own style and when I do, I'll let you know. . .hopefully you see it for yourself if you come and visit!!
Anyways, about my past weekend. . .it was purely with my host family for almost the entire time, which was actually pretty great because I got to hear an enormous amount of Spanish and practice. I picked up on a few key phrases here and there that apparently are said nowhere else in the Spanish speaking world. I just hope I don't walk away in over a year speaking Spanish and then have Spanish speakers go "Huh??" every time I start talking. In any case, it was on Saturday when the whole fam and myself piled into the family and drove to the beach, to a little town called Hanga Roa. Apparently no one on the staff recognizes the town, so I might be stating the wrong place. . .although I'm 99.9% sure that was it. Anyways, after about an hour and a half of driving, we pull up to this HUGE house where the parents of my mom live. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. . .it had the feel of an old house, full of antique furniture, amazing wooden floors, and fireplaces everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It was actually pretty chilly and cloudy (what a bummer) so they had 2 fireplaces going on in the hallways of the house.
I walk outside to a view of the coast in the distance (the house was set more or less on a hill, so the beach was on a down slant), along with rose gardens to my right and an actual playground on my left. Directly in front was a huge outside eating area, with two MASSIVE wok-looking bowls of seafood paella, avocado, tortilla española (scrambled egg and potato mix), crackers, smoked sausage, different types of cheeses, homemade sangria (easily the best I've ever had in my life), and bottles upon bottles of wine, red and white. Needless to say, I was blown away. It was an impressive spread, and the fam took me in like one of their own as they served me a great portion of EVERYTHING while talking about international travel, their families, and the grandparent's upcoming cruise trip. After the paella, they came out with three different types of cakes. After the cakes, they brought out their french-press for coffee and fruit bread. Incredible. After a brisk walk around the premises afterward to settle the food down, I watched Narnia and The Da Vinci Code with the kids of the family, read some "Mountains Beyond Mountains" (excellent book, I recommend it), and went to sleep happy.
I woke up on Sunday to another cloudy morning. After a shower and quick breakfast, we left the grandparents and drove back to Santiago. . .but here´s the twist. We went back to our house ONLY so the kids could shower and change, and we dipped out in 15 minutes to a friend of the dad´s house for, you guessed it, another asado. As soon as we walked in, I was greeted by the family, offered drink and chips, and then was given a choripan (chorizo sausage in toasted french bread) which was delicious. I heard more talk of international travel (I guess quite the topic nowadays) and watched as steak after steak get grilled up, that complimented this massive salad that had some type of awesome cheese, olives, and sun dried tomatoes. I ate, drank, and played with the family's six year old girl, who had made a picture book in her school of songs in Spanish and French. Which she sang to me. Which was the cutest thing I've seen, more cute than that dog picture from the jungle. Sunday night I was finally able to catch up with Greg, kicking it at our friend Sebastian's house while drinkin microbrews, eating sushi, and watching the 49ers screw up every possible thing (and by them, I mean their qb) against the Eagles. God I hate the Eagles so much.
After being comatose from eating so much, I woke up on Monday and got myself to the gym to work out. Which really didn´t help, because I got back home and my family asked me if I wanted to go out to lunch with them. I said of course, not realizing that we were going to the mall and not coming back for another 4, 5 hours. We got to a restaurant called Tip y Tap, which had maybe one of the strangest meals I've seen. "Carne Crudo" was what they called it, and lemme try to explain this: So basically imagine a piece of good quality hamburger meat was on your plate, BARELY cooked. Like it's still very much raw. Mush it with your fork and spread it out on your plate. Now absolutely douse all the meat with absurd amounts of lemon, garnish it with onion and cilantro, and mix it all up. Finally, spread the meat on pieces of toasted flat bread and eat. That's crudo in a nutshell. I didn't order it because I didn't want to get something potentially godawful at first, but I did try it. . .and it didn't kill me, and actually tasted pretty decent.
After shopping in the mall, I came home, read, and laid around until nighttime. While I didn't necessarily go camping or have crazy adventures, I saw a big piece of how Chileans socialize: with CRAZY GOOD FOOD, amazing wine with something else, and lots of time to just sit and talk. This is something I could get used to, and I know for a fact that when we get our own place, asados will be a part of my weekend routine too. By the way, sorry for the lack of pictures, but I accidently left my camera at my grandparent's house and seeing as they went on a cruise, I won't get it for a few weeks. . .so here are a few pictues to give you an idea what went down.
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| basically what the weekend looked like, with more people, more food, and def more smiles |
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| This is exactly what the paella looked like, more or less. No joke. Except maybe a little bit bigger. |
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