More about food

Let's talk about food.  As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most interesting and unique things to discover in other cultures, and Chile is no exception.  Not only do they have different dishes, they also sell different food products at grocery stores, eat different types/sizes of meals at different times throughout the day, and have a different idea of what is spicy/sweet/etc.

One of the biggest things I have noticed (and have been very surprised about) is the lack of sweet potatoes sold here.  They are VERY popular in Peruvian cuisine, which is part of the reason I have been so shocked (since there are tons of Peruvians here - just look at how close we are to the border).  I've seen them one time in Jumbo, and I have never seen them at La Vega.  They're called "camote", and this week when I was at Jumbo looking through the frozen food section, I found them.  That's right.  Frozen pieces of peeled sweet potatoes.  Weird, right?

 

 I also finally found BACON!  I was waiting for my number to be called in the deli section so that I could buy some lunch meat, when all of a sudden I saw little squares of fatty meat wrapped in plastic.  I thought to myself, wow that really looks like a hunk of unsliced bacon.  I looked a little closer, and there it was, bacon! Like I said it was completely unsliced - you literally just buy a hunk of it and then have to slice it yourself.  It's not even cut in long rectangles so you can slice it like you would see bacon in the states.  The hunks are cut in little squares, so that when you slice it you get bite-sized pieces of bacon (pictured below).  Just for reference, the 9 teeny bite-sized slices that one hunk made cost about $6 USD.  It was pretty true to flavor except slightly saltier.  Sadie loved it.

Next up, a very fresh treat from the fish market. Unlike the two items above, this is a finished product we bought at a food stall in the fish market (as opposed to something we would prepare ourselves).  Thank goodness, because I wouldn't know where to start making it.  Below you will see an empanada de locos.  No, not a crazy empanada for all you people who think you know Spanish!  Locos is a shellfish here.  The consistency is kind of like a scallop - you can see them sliced in the empanada below.  They are actually pretty good.  Very tender and buttery.

And finally, I have been craving homemade cookies, so I attempted making snickerdoodles from scratch.  The main reason I'm posting this is (1) I couldn't find cream of tartar, so if anyone has any ideas of **good** substitutes let me know  - online ideas were not great, and (2) I didn't have a mixer.  Let me just put this question out there, has anyone ever creamed butter and sugar by hand and NOT with a mixer? If you have, you will understand when I saw that this was the first and last time I am doing that!  What a workout.  But, they turned out great and made me happy.