At Fuente Oficial, Santiago. Most restaurants in Chile have Menu del Dia — which will come with an appetizer (or in this case, tapas!)……a main course (I went for the menu pacifico, tuna AND salmon!)……a dessert and coffee!I mistakenly bought this — ONE LITRE of PRE-WHIPPED CREAM– in a tetra pack, instead of milk!Churros. CHURROS.When a friend handed this to me, I said “What is it?” It’s called mote con huessillos, a very traditional Chilean drink + snack. At the bottom is a husked, cooked wheat and whole peach (pit still in). You eat that with the spoon, while sipping the juice, which is made of honey, water, and cinnamon. REALLY nice!Another Menu del Dia example, from a little village in the Andes. The starter was bruschetta, salad was sliced tomatoes and cucumber. Main course was Cazuela — HALF A CHICKEN, with rice, potato, corn on the cob, and squash, all in chicken broth. And dessert was…a banana!You can get mussels in a tin, like tuna! This makes me weep with happiness.This was my first asado, the Chilean barbecue. NO VEGETABLES ALLOWED.Ketchup. In a pouch. Why do I find this weird? A bottle isn’t more natural. It’s…just what I’m used to.Marraquetas, Chile’s version of sliced bread. Which is not sliced, is precisely baked to come in 4s, and is more like a bun. Perfect for chorizo at an asado, for example.I admit to being confused by some Chilean words: in any other Spanish-speaking country, this would be torte de limon, but here, it’s pie!I can’t explain how good these cookies are. I’ll let their placement in the supermarket do it: These cookies can’t be found in the cookie section…but in the chocolate section.This. This is the glorious empanada, fast food of South America. But putting this into the same category as McDonalds doesn’t do the empanada justice. They can be filled with almost anything – cheese, chicken, beef, black olives, eggs, shrimp, mussels! – and they’re available everywhere. I’m busy so I eat take-out a lot here, but take-out is usually this, and there’s nothing here to complain about.
On my walk around Central Santiago, there were bells ringing from all the churches, and ladies weaving palm fronds for people as they went into mass. I’m looking forward to Easter here next week – I can’t fathom what it’ll be like.
One of my first meals – included tapas…
…main course (this is el menú pacifico del dia – tuna AND salmon, potatoes and mussels in salsa verde)–
–dessert AND coffee.
What.
What??
WHAT?!? HERE? WHY?
The Santiago police department showed off their helicopter!
I grew up in Calgary, in the foothills of the Rockies, thinking the mountains were so close.
Ha.
Preview of Easter Island.
La Plaza de Iglesia de San Francisco. The Plaza of St Francis church.
Stacked streets.
The National Library and…Met Life?
Um…
THIS is Santiago City Hall!
Fountain near City Hall. I love the little boy reaching his foot down to the water!
Or Macao. For various reasons, I was only able to stay one night. NOT ENOUGH. Will be going back. I spent most of my time there giggling because my Spanish allowed me to understand just about ALL the Portuguese I saw!
Just past the gate from Gombei Port in China…
…is the entry to Porto Centros, Macao.
The fountain before The Sands hotel and Casino near the harbour.
What street is The Sands Casino on?
“Lotus Flower in Full Bloom,” across from the Sands.
The flags of China and Macau.
One ferry arriving from Hong Kong, another just leaving.
A Cine-Concert…The Triplets of Belleville, with live music. How fricking cool is that?!!
This fellow was just handing out lucky red envelopes to kids!
This is part of Fisherman’s Wharf, very nice restaurants and shops in slightly kitcshy new buildings made to look “old”.
Beautiful fountain in between faux Italian and Tudor English houses!
The aptly named Harbourview Hotel. Not sure what style architecture this is…
Lovely red lanterns everywhere.
Most of the buildings in this area were old-style, but the brick and stone of these tells me they’re genuine.
Looks like a Roman column, doesn’t it? Hee here!
The “Roman” column overlooks the “Roman ruins” of the Babylon Casino!
“Roman” Amphitheatre. I kept telling myself “I should hate this…but I don’t!”
“Give me your money to eat! Bwa ha ha!”
New Year’s Display on Fisherman’s Wharf.
How much more like Vegas can you GET! So ridiculously awesome!
LOVE THIS.
Jardim Vasco de Gama Garden, as seen from the front of my hotel!
Sports centre to one side of the Garden.
Orange trees. I am NOT exaggerating, orange trees EVERYWHERE!
Fountains of Vasco de Gama Garden.
Vasco de Gama himself.
And this is my hotel, from the Garden. If you didn’t hate me yet, you do now. 😀
I treated myself to dinner at Fado, the Portuguese restaurant in my hotel. These are fresh codfish cakes.
All of this came with every meal! 6 different breads, 3 flavours of olive oil, carrots steeped in olive oil, olive tapenade, and garlic-tomato butter.
Seriously, ALL the seafood. This is shrimp and bread stew. Happy Place.
The church of St Michael.
This is a bridal shop!!
Rua Horta Companhia Rotunda.
I wish I could tell you what this shop sold, but it was shut!
The other half of the crazy-awesome display.
The air smelled different in Macau. It took me a while to realise ALL of these shrines had incense burning. Those are wrapped cookies in front.
Just hanging off someone’s door. Amazing.
New Year’s decorations down a street median.
I couldn’t stop marvelling at the streets here…
Monkey see…
…monkey do.
Tap Seac Square.
Tap Seac Square.
St Lazarus Church.
Another church. I lost track. I think the Portuguese colonists were Catholic.
Bonito gato negro, esta desayando.
This was a church, now it appears to be apartments. Sigh…
The paving on the street is modern–it fits around manholes–but it’s very nicely done.
Looking down from the ruins of St Paul’s. The crazy pointy building at the back is The Grand Lisbon Hotel and Casino. (Macau has a LOT of those.)
More Moon Cakes: these were from the primary school I teach at.
Pretty box!
These are the more traditional type: the characters imprinted on the top say which bakery made the cake, and what filling is inside. I’m learning Mandarin, but I can’t read these.
Chocolate soy milk. Yum.
FRESH fish in a supermarket.
In the same supermarket…trussed-up crabs. You may be able to see some of them producing bubbly foam…they’re still alive.
Non-food: China’s National Day is October 1. This fun fair outside the mall is permanent, but on Oct 1, it was packed.
Giant balloons outside Zhongshan Expo Centre on Oct 1.
I’ve been learning to cook with a wok and just burners. This is pork and fried noodles.
Egg-fried rice.
Oh, and living with a UK citizen made me homesick…for the UK. So I found a dangerous shop which sells imports like these…
…and I made a fry-up. I didn’t take this photo – my flatmate did. His words: “It looks beautiful.”