Curanto at Raices de Chiloe, Puerto Natales, Chile

Curanto at Raices de Chiloe, Puerto Natales, Chile

Slightly feverish and perhaps hallucinating just a little, I wandered around Puerto Natales looking for a place to warm up (it's Chilean Patagonia: cold) and have lunch. I was walking along the main street, and nothing was moving me. Then I spotted a funky red building. The homey look of the place and its name, Raices de Chiloe, appealed: Chiloe is an island off the southern coast, home to 400 different types of potato; genetic evidence indicates that over 90% of the world’s potatoes originated in this relatively tiny place.

A sign outside mentioned that curanto was available (it was Saturday, and I’m guessing like pozole and menudo at Hispanic places in Chicago, curanto is a weekend food for the same reason: it takes time to make).



In The South American Table, Maria Baez Kijac explains that the indigenous Mapuche “prepared the curanto (a clambake-like feast), which is a Mapuche word for ‘stony ground.’ The most primitive way of preparing a curanto consisted of digging a pit in the ground, which was then lined with hot rocks and layered with the fruits of the sea and a few potatoes…After the Spanish came, new foods, such as sausages, chicken, and pork were added…broth is served in cups.”

The curanto I had at Raices de Chiloe included a kind of potato-flour fritter, mussels, clams, sausage, a hot dog-type wiener, pork chop, chicken leg, and potato. There was also a sheet of cooked dough (seen in picture) that was kind of a mystery to me, but it added to variety. Broth was on the side.



The meat in this dish (excepting the hot dog, which was not good) was spectacular, perfectly done. I’m guessing the pork and chicken were braised (with the liquid perhaps reused in broth) and that the seafood was baked. I doubt there was a pit in the back (I peeked around but didn’t see one), but perhaps like seafood that’s been baked in a pit, the mussels and clams were quite dry. I used the broth to moisten them up. Kijac mentioned that some feel the broth is the best part, and it was delicious.

I actually was not extremely hungry when I walked in Raices de Chiloe, but I ate just about all of this dish, which ran about $15US. Although it’s traditionally mostly, this best parts in this version of curanto were animal-based.

Seasoning throughout was mild, though this dish was preceded by pancito (bread rolls) and a salsa that added a little action to the eating. I believe this kind of salsa, called pebre, is more or less standard on Chilean restaurant tables: it’s got a little heat, tomatoes, green peppers and oregano.



Basically, though, this seafood mélange leverages simple and fresh ingredients, without a lot of kitchen manipulation, and it was very satisfying.

Raices de Chiloe
Blanco Encalada 450, Puerto Natales, Chile

Very cool. Nice report from the end of the Earth. I was in Central America recently and was again reminded of the remarkable ubiquity and incredibly low quality of hot dogs throughout Latin America. The best you can find is often the terrible FUD brand from Mexico, but it can get much, much worse. And these nasty tube steaks tend to pop up unexpectedly in lots of otherwise fine dishes: arroces, sopas, pizzas, etc.

After I missed my flight in Santiago, I went to an airport bar. Guy sat down next to me and ordered a hot dog with guacamole, so I thought I'd try it. "Maybe it will cheer me up, a little," I thought.



It didn't. Absolutely abhorrent. The mayo didn't help. Hundreds of the most vacant calories imaginable. This was the sorriest wiener in recent memory...until I had the one on the curanto.

My wife and I spent five months in Chile leading a study abroad trip for twenty-seven college students a few years ago. It was most certainly one of the greatest experiences of our lives. While we did not make it all the way down to Puerto Natales or Punta Arenas, but we did take a mini vacation to Chiloe, and hit the more major cities there.

Thanks for sharing, definitely brought back some great (food) memories. And we, like you, never became fans of any of Chile's hotdogs, most especially the COMPLETO!! Their sausages on the other hand were very good, especially when served choripan style!

Dustin

I'm pretty sure I got through my entire time in Chile over the course of ten years without ever eating a hot dog, completo or otherwise. But then, I was going back and forth every few months between Chile and Chicago, so it wasn't too hard to hold out until I get back to the land of Vienna Beef. In a desperate moment, I bought a package of Fud hot dogs in the store once, but once I got them home and discovered what they were like, I couldn't bring myself to eat even one.

As far as completo toppings go, however, I am a big fan of both mayonnaise and avocado. Growing up in the Midwest, avocadoes were an unattainable luxury; the fact that they were so cheap and ubiquitous in Chile was a delight. Hellman's advertising slogan in Chile is "¡Mayo con Todo!" and it might as well be the national motto as well. See what I mean? Kind of a catchy tune.

Katie wrote:As far as completo toppings go, however, I am a big fan of both mayonnaise and avocado.

I like the "idea" of mayo and avocado on a hot dog, but when this condiment combo tops a snap-free wiener in a mush-bread bun, the result is mouthful after mouthful of squishy flavorlessness.

The mayo/avo team-up is radically enhanced (as my airport version was not) with tomatoes and onions for some needed acidity to balance out the almost unbearable richness of the thing.

I didn't word that well. I didn't mean that I like mayo or avocado on hot dogs. I meant to convey that I like mayo and avocado, together or separately, on lots of other things.