My South America Trip #20 – Lamb and Wine in Chile

In my last post My South America Trip #19, I mentioned the blog written by a North American anthropologist Jim Stuart living in Chile.  The blog Eating Chilean had its last post written in May, 2012.  I found it very interesting.  If you are going to Chile by yourself and you have time to go around to look for good Chilean food, and to understand the locals’ cuisine in relation to the social-economic structure, I highly recommend you to read this post-.Visitors guide-what to eat in Chile. The best in Chile is seafood, and we have covered a little in post #18.

As we had some dinners that we arranged on our own, some tour members found a nearby restaurant (the only one near our hotel which was near the National Park, instead of downtown) which served a “lamb” feast. We practically used the whole restaurant for a dinner and party.  I had taken a few pictures here. The lamb we ate that night was roasted over open wood fire, the most common way of cooking lamb in the Patagonian region.

As my favorite food is not meat, I found this lamb feast not really my cup of tea.  Little that I knew that lamb has one of the lowest consumption rates by  the Chileans till I read the blog Eating Chilean.  The author Jim Stuart said that very few Chileans eat lamb, although the number is rising recently.  One of the reasons is economic:  lamb is comparatively quite expensive. The growing number eating lamb may suggest that the Chileans in general have improved economically.  This is consistent with the World Bank’s ranking:  “The economy of Chile is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank  and is one of South America‘s most stable and prosperous nations,” 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Chile

In the last post of Eating Chilean , it cited a review of the meal that President Obama was served in March, 2012 by the Chile President:

“… but a plus for the Patagonian lamb, Chile’s least favorite meat (more horse is eaten in Chile than lamb). Maybe it will encourage more Chileans to eat it. ”

Well, I guess the lamb that President Obama ate must be better than the one we had in Chile!

Before I end my posts on Chilean food, I have to mention the wine in Chile.  As bottled water is nearly the same price as wine or beer, and drinks are not covered by the tour, very often we ordered wine in Chile. I drink wine, but only occasionally.  Some of our friends drink wine at all meals!  Therefore, I usually followed!  Let me quote what Jim Stuart said in his blog, which may be helpful to you if you intend to visit Chile in future:

Eating Chilean by Jim Stuart

“What to drink 

 

Wine, of course, but also beer, pisco, mineral water and soft drinks.Chilean wine is good, inexpensive and available almost everywhere.  …….. They are good wines, comparable to or better than the common table wines in Europe. 

 

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Chile and national, international and “artisanal” brands are commonly available….”

 

As Chile is quite famous in its wine industry, our tour ended in visiting a famous Chile winery Vina Undurraga located south of Santiago. There was wine-testing of course.  Here are some of the pictures I took at the winery. It was a good “at the end tour” because if you get drunk, it won’t affect your itinerary!  You are going home anyway!