I won’t lie. There was a time when I disliked Chardonnay. In fact, I belonged to that club, you know the one: ABC. Anything But Chardonnay. The mere thought of it conjured up notions of caramel-laden, barrel bombs with little acidity. Or pineapple sorbet...
Chile, like a long string bean, extends over 2,600 miles from north to south, or 17º S- 56º S at Cape Horn. The regionality of the country’s ingredients is staggering. In the north, Andean and Peruvian staples like quinoa and chuño, freeze-dried...
It's been a long, arduous road with a kazillion corrections and redesigns on the way. But we did it. Whew. Liz Caskey Culinary & Wine Experiences' brand spanking new website and refined, modern look has officially debuted. We are inaugurating several delicious new...
An excerpt from a recent piece I wrote for LAN Airlines award-winning in-flight magazine, IN, the June Edition is all about South American wine. Here, I orient readers with a sampling of Chile's varied terroir close to Santiago (only four valleys out of a dozen!),...
Puerto Varas may very well be the “Portland” of Chile. It’s lush. It rains a lot. The town is steeped in Chile’s Germanic history yet laid back and modern. It has a stunning natural setting on the shores of the azure Llanquihue Lake with vistas of the conical...
When you sit down to any table, anywhere in the 2,600 miles of national territory stretching from the border of Peru to the tip of South America, three things will immediately appear: bread (many times homemade), butter, and pebre. Pebre, Chilean “salsa”, is the...
Take an informal poll among Chileans of what food they crave when they are in country, out-of-country, any time of the day, and in many cases, would call the “unofficial” national dish of Chile, and they will tell you: El Lomito. This towering, mammoth pork...
Bread junkies. Carbaholics. Chileans are not scared of white flour, or lard for that matter. Maybe that’s why the bread here tastes so damn good. And in fact, to throw out some statistics, they have an annual per capita consumption of 100kg, or 220 pounds,...
Although wine professionals have long been sticklers with serving wines at precisely the perfect temperature in restaurants, among aficionados, there seems to be a confusing gray area surrounding this issue and what works best. A couple years ago, I invested in a US$1...
Two years ago in Chicago, a couple hip colleagues invited me to a little wine bar on Milwaukee named Juicy Wine Co. We gnoshed on slinky Serrano ham and some nutty Manchego while sipping away a Sicilian wine, Tenuta delle Terre Nere, an unbelievably fresh yet earthy...
Ok, so I need to fess up. There’s something I have not been straight up about…wine is not my favorite drink. Water is. As passionate as I am about tasting wine, understanding where it’s born, the hands that touch it, the magic of making it, when it comes down to...
Merkén is the quinessential spice of the Mapuche Indians who populate the southern province in Chile, La Araucanía, about 10 hours south of the capital, Santiago. Cacho de cabra red chilis, shaped like plump, curved fingers, are dry smoked and coarsely ground. Some...
Wine is a living being. Just like the rest of nature, it evolves over time and is vitally dependent on oxygen to live—the cork is essentially its windpipe. In aging a wine, this process happens slowly, usually over many years. However, what if we want to drink a...
You’ve been there. You’re standing in the supermarket, or liquor store, and have absolutely no idea about any of the wines in front of you. You look around. There is no floor help anywhere in sight. You have to hit the road NOW for a dinner party. Ayy, what to...
Freshly arrived in the Patagonian outpost town of Puerto Natales, after a full day’s schlep from Santiago (4 hours flying, 3 hours driving from Punta Arenas), we are famished. Desperately seeking lunch, our hotel, Indigo , recommends a tasty new place up the...
Sleepless in Santiago. Last night I tossed and turned all night long. I caught shut-eye in two hour intervals. In one of the numerous attempts to lull myself back to sleep, I began a rather interesting mind game of taking favorite recipes and converting their...
This coming Saturday, May 2, the tiny little coastal appellation of San Antonio will be getting on its first wine festival from 11am-6pm. San Antonio is about an hour west of Santiago over the steep coastal mountains. In my opinion, San Antonio is hands down...
Living on Parque Forestal on the edge of downtown Santiago, I love a Saturday morning (culinary) shopping excursion. It’s a beautiful morning. I head out on my usual route by the the Art Museum and walking towards the centro on Merced. I pop in to Chinese Mark...
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