Curanto

Every region has their local delicacy – on Chiloe Island, it’s curanto.

It is traditionally prepared in a hole, about a meter and a half deep, which is dug in the ground. The bottom is covered with stones, heated in a bonfire until red.

The ingredients consist of shellfish, meat, potatoes, milcaos (a kind of potato bread), chapaleles, and vegetables (sometimes including also specific types of fish). The quantities are not fixed; the idea is that there should be a little of everything. Each layer of ingredients is covered with nalca (Chilean rhubarb) leaves, or in their absence, with fig leaves or white cabbage leaves. All this is covered with wet sacks, and then with dirt and grass chunks, creating the effect of a giant pressure cooker in which the food cooks for approximately one hour.

Or, you can skip all that and just go to a restaurant.