As I said, produce is cheap. Here is Tara buying kiwis in Southern Chile. They were 10 for 50 cents. We saw them even cheaper as we got closer to where they were grown. As Tara would say, they were almost free.
A popular flavor in Chile is chirimoya. It is a fruit that is sometimes called a custard apple. It is a little custardy, but not at all appley. In any case, we first had it in Hawaii, but they are much bigger in Chile and they use the flavor in a lot of things. Here is Tara with our discovery of chirimoya cookies. 
They sell frozen vegetables by the pound in Chile. Tara loves anything sold by the pound. The selection was large even in smaller super markets:
In Chile, we finally found something that was tres leches flavored. I love tres leches, but had not seen it anywhere else. When we found ice cream, I saw no choice but to buy a liter of it. In my kindness, I gave Tara a bite or two.
Strangely, jam is sold in plastic bags rather jars in most of Chile. It also tends to be runnier. I poured the bag of peach jam that we bought into our old jam jar. Look at the concentration on my face.
While visiting Maribel and Jose in Temuco, we tried several things. We asked what these are called about five times and think it is something like calzone. They aren't at all like an Italian calzone, but more like fried dough. A good breakfast choice if you eat as much sugar and fried stuff as I do.
These are called tuna, like the fish, but don't taste fishy at all. They come from a cactus like a prickly pear, but aren't as sweet. No bad. Popular for dessert in Chile.
We mentioned the Completo Italiano in an earlier post, but they really are much better than the standard street vendor hot dog of America. A big hot dog on toasted bun with tomato, avocado, and mayo. All for $1. Also, note that Chile has yet another name for hot dogs. Who knew that the lowly hot dog could create so much confusion around a name?
In Chile, we found Churritos. The name implies that it is like a churro, but smaller. In fact, it is like a churro, but bigger. And not in the standard churro star shape. But still filled with dulce de leche, and still tasty.
The most famous drink of Chile is probably the pisco sour. It has some grape-based liqueur and lemon juice and I don't know what else because I don't drink. What I do know is that Tara had this wee glass of the stuff and I almost had to carry her home. Not sure if that says more about the drink or about Tara.
This picture is surprising because I let Tara hold my ice cream. Normally, I don't let anyone touch my ice cream. They had fun flavors of soft serve. These were a mix of strawberry and chirimoya.
The national sandwich of Chile is called the chacarero. It consists of a huge bun with meat (normally beef or chicken), tomato, greenbeans, peppers, mayonaise, and various condiments. Very big and very good.
We found these coconut candies that were a piece of coconut coated in sugary coconut stuff. Crunchy and tasty. As an added bonus, they were bright orange.
The most popular non-alcoholic "drink" in Chile is mote. Mote consists of a sugary tea with either corn or barley bits with a peach in it. They served this on our boat trip before we realized that it was a famous Chilean thing. Much to our benefit, everyone was too scared to drink theirs and I had about 5 of them. This is one in Santiago that was much higher quality. Strange, but not bad.
They really like peaches and the mote actually uses a re-hydrated peach. Look at the huge selection of dried peaches at the market. This was one of probably a dozen stalls just like it.
What would a country be without a new type of yogurt for Tara? Here she is trying her chirimoya yogurt, which she really liked.
Another popular street food in Chile is the sopapilla. It is a flat piece of fried dough onto which you add various hot sauces or condiments of your choice. Popular all day long and fried on the street. They normally cost about 20 cents. Here is Tara with hers and some hot sauce.
Maribel was nice enough to cook for us and did her best with some traditional Chilean dishes. Here was the tasty chicken on Chilean rice that she made us.
And here is a Chilean salad, which consists of tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. It was also very good.
We don't have any pictures, but Southern Chile also has terrific French fries everywhere on the street for very little money. We were really happy to be back in a land of french fries after passing through several countries where they were rare and expensive. Long live the potato!And that concludes foods of Chile. I hope that you have enjoyed it and tune in for our next episode: Foods of Peru.
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