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Argentina Beef Binge & A Video
Tomorrow kicks off one of my "beef binges". Yep, I will be heading to Argentina for the next 10 days for business. While I mostly love to eat fish and vegetables as my main diet, all bets are off in the land of grass fed carne where steaks are as common...
Salta: Argentina’s Wild Northwest
I am celebrating my upcoming trip to Salta next week, with a group of clients, in Northwest Argentina with this picture post of scenes from our last trip there. Salta is appropriately called "La Linda", the beautiful by her residents, of both the city...
Empanadas Salteñas
Hi all-hope you’re enjoying Labor Day weekend. We (as in all of Chile) had a weird, sad weekend. Friday night a military plane with a TV crew from TVN, Consejo de la Cultura, and team from Desafío Levantemos Chile (earthquake reconstruction effort to rebuild schools...
Dulces Chilenos: Chilean Pastry Heritage
Coming back from beaches of Maitencillo, Cachagua, and Zapallar on Route 5 near the provincial city of La Ligua, we always encounter ladies garbed in white shaking a white pompom and adorned by a large wooden picnic basket. My husband usually has a snack attack on the...
Maximize Your Wine Pleasure with These Gadgets
You don’t have to be a wine nerd, self-proclaimed expert, or connoisseur to have these toys. You just need to like wine, and consume a lot of it. See them as your “pleasure companions”. Their purpose is to simplify getting to the juice, making the juice taste better,...
Viña Vik: Birthing New Terroir in Cachapoal
I am in the front seat of a 4x4 bouncing up a very steep road cut out of a tree-entangled hillside. A cloud of terracotta-colored dust fills the air, forcing up to shut the windows. To my left, expertly navigating these unruly roads, is a soft-spoken man, the...
Spiky Vegetable Heaven: Artichokes
Artichokes were not something I grew up eating. Occasionally, they showed up in a hot dip on the holidays, but fresh? Negative. I clearly remember the first time I was served a whole (cooked) artichoke. I was an exchange student in Santiago in 1997. My host mother,...
Uruguay Zen
Every now and then, I get obsessed with a country. It doesn’t always mean I am going to leave everything behind and move there, but there’s an undeniable attraction. One of those places that flirts with you, where the culture, people, and geography totally seduce you....
Chilean Stuffed Zucchini Recipe
Every Chilean home has its own rendition of stuffed zucchini called zapallito italiano relleno in local speak. I always equate this homey dish to America’s beloved old-school macaroni-and-cheese. Every cook has their own special ingredients and usually, if you...
Order Me a Vacation
Here I am sitting, indecisive, paralyzed. How can something as fun as planning a vacation be so difficult? How the heck did my calendar get blocked for the next year already? You would think that since we’re in the business of planning other people’s vacations, it...
Spicy: South American Style
There’s a term that I really love here for describing spicy food. Let me qualify spicy first. The kind of delicious spicy that makes your taste buds stand at attention but does not scorch your palate nor have you downing liters of water (or milk) for relief. It’s that...
South American Velvet
Horses and horseback riding are a huge part of South American culture. From the Chilean huasos, cowboys, in the Central Valley to the baqueanos down in Patagonia, the horse is revered, respected, and loved from north to south in Chile and beyond. In...
Culinary Icons: Coyam & Chilean Corn Pie (Video)
Corn Pie from Eatwine TV on Vimeo. Oh sigh. Summer nostalgia has officially hit. I know many of you are indulging in the sweet tastes of summer. Nothing says summer for me like sweet corn. Growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I remember pulling off the road...
Peru’s Tempting Tacu Tacu
Rice, beans, and chili come together to form a one-dish comfort meal Tacu Tacu is my current food obsession. It drives me crazy as it combines my two favorite carbs (beans and rice) into one chili-laden savory "tamale". I used to only order it when we went out for...
Gardenia: Montevideo’s Foodie Spot
Photo: www.robertoseba.com I am at the end of what can only be described as one of those spectacular meals. You know … where you stop to take copious notes and numerous pictures (some call it food porn, I call it memories). The flavors, textures, sensations, all meld...
Happy Fourth of July!
To all fellow Americans out there, I want to wish you all a very Happy Fourth of July. Honestly it didn’t really occur to me until this weekend that it was Independence Day on Monday. Even after more than a decade here, I still forget as the winter...
Pairing People & Wine
I love discovering the nuances of how food and wine pair, tango and play together. However, one topic I rarely talk about (publicly at least), is the concern of entertaining and pairing wine with our guests. I suppose it is a theme few people discuss, as...
Ashes Over Buenos Aires
June 7, 2011. I wake up and peer through the heavy, draped, velvet curtains of our hotel room overlooking the roof tops of Palermo Viejo. Darn, it’s one of those icky winter days when the clouds descend and shroud the city in a bone-chilling fog. Thick,...
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