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Many dishes come with a salad on the side. You now have opportunity to enter into a chaotic argument over what vegetables you wish to have and what they actually have in the kitchen. Forget that. Instead, simply say “Chilena”. This will give you a salad consisting of pieces of peeled tomatoes, washed onion slices and cilantro (coriander). An excellent combination.

This will be served with salt, vinegar and vegetable oil. And you will get some cred for being a foreigner who knows something about their dishes.

A Chilean salad

An “Italian” sandwich here is Chile is a sandwich containing mayonnaise, slices of tomatoes and avocado, usually mashed. This of course has nothing to do with Italy itself, but refers to the fact that if you are on drugs, the colors of this sandwich vaguely resemble those of the Italian flag.

Anything can be “Italiano”. The combination works with everything unhealthy and can therefore be found in any place which serves greasy food, from restaurants to gas stations. And it’s great.

Of course… even though this is one of the best known food concepts here, a Chilean waiter is still likely to ask you “do you want mayonnaise with that? … do you want tomatoes with that?… and do you want avocado with that?” Just keep saying yes but under no circumstances must you attempt to change the formula. I have done the mistake twice now of trying to get them to add onions as well. “Just a little please”. They will ask you if you want raw or cooked onion. A reasonable question. But when your sandwich arrives, they will have covered it so completely in onion that you may not even find the rest of it.

Work with the menu, not against it.

A wonderful Churrasco Italiano at the Valle de Oro (Valley of Gold) restaurant. The photo may not be impressive but this was the best sandwich I have ever had in Chile.

A Wiener here in Chile is not a proper sausage like in Europe, but a long skinless cocktailweiner without taste. But not to worry. In this case it’s “Italiano” so the disappointing sausage taste is safely masked by a nice thick layer of calories.

Chileans don’t like to put hot spices into their food. But they do often eat the spices before the actual meal! As you wait for your restaurant order a small basket of bread will usually be placed on your table and along with it various condiments such as mayonnaise, oil and vinegar and fresh squeezable lemon halves. And Pebre.

There are just about as many recipes for Pebre in Chile as there are families. Tourist guide books will typically tell you that Pebre is intended as a condiment for grilled meats, however I have never seen any Chileans use it for anything else than an appetizer to go with bread. I myself use it with meat and fried eggs and on sandwiches and everything else.

Freshly made Pebre isn’t actually extremely hot. But left overnight it starts to turn deadly and by the third day it will have become extremely spicy. But still good.

Version one, the baby variety:

There is no point to detailed measures when making Pebre. It is not an exact science. As the picture below shows for instance, here tomatoes can be several times bigger than lemons. What you want to aim for is the right look more than the exactly right measures. For this version, see the above photo for visual reference.

About half a bunch of fresh cilantro (aka coriander). Chop finely.
1 1/2 large tomatoes. Chop finely. What you want is a somewhat mushy consistency.
1/2 a large onion, finely chopped. No piece should be much bigger than the head of a match.
Some finely chopped green chili. Half of a big one or two tiny ones.
Two tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. (Chileans cannot actually afford to use this and typically use cheap vegetable oils instead, but Extra Virgin is better.)
1 good pinch of salt
One squeeze of lemon juice or alternatively a teaspoon of any white wine, Balsamico or rice vinegar.
4-5 tablespoons of boiling water. (The above photo does not have added water)

Version two, the hottest and best variety:

This requires the addition of freshly blended Aji chilis. Some vegetable dealers will have small plastic baggies or jars of such sauce (as seen in the photo below). Alternatively you could add a little commercial chili sauce, such as Sambal, but it’s not quite the same as fresh blended peppers.

Everything else exactly as above, but leave out the water and do not use vinegar. Add the chili sauce until mixture is red.

The vegetables used in yesterdays bowl of condiment

The end results: a big bowl of the world’s best Pebre.

Here we have a lovely plate of Lomo a lo Pobre. As you can see, I couldn’t stop myself and ate a small piece before settling down in my excitement to take the photo. “Lomo” is a grilled Sirloin Steak. The Spanish word for a beefsteak is bistec, so you will often find this listed as Bistec a lo Pobre or Bife a lo Pobre.

And here the cheaper and therefore more popular Churrasco a Lo Pobre. Churrasco is a general term in Spanish, referring to a piece of grilled meat, but in Chile it signifies thin slices of beef. Whereas the Lomo above is a great big steak of high quality, the cheaper Churrasco seems to be mostly carved from Lomo leftovers or from less expensive meats. It is usually rubbery and tasteless.

There are endless varieties in the a lo Pobre genre. You can find chicken a lo Pobre and everything else a lo Pobre. Sometimes there is no meat at all and only the french fries, onion and eggs. The old restaurant La Casa Roja in Santiago even serves Pobre a lo Pobre, whatever that is.

In any case, a lo Pobre basically translates to “the poor mans…” and there are some constants. There are always bright yellow french fries. There is always an abundance of lightly cooked onion, and there are always two fried eggs on top. No more, no less. Observe also the bowl of Pebre, the bread and the compulsory ketchup bottle.

The green glass contains melon juice, a common beverage option in Santiago’s many faded vintage diners where this kind of a meal is always on the menu, usually served by tired looking waitresses in old fashioned uniforms.