Asados Pasados

In the opening scene of the movie (not book) Gone with the Wind, Mammy helps Miss Scarlet prepare for the picnic at the Wilke´s house. With the use of a corset, Mammy helps Scarlet achieve her desired tiny waist and tries to convince her to eat a bit before the party because no boy wants to see a girl stuffing her face. Scarlet reluctantly takes two bites to appease Mammy.
This scene has come to mind each time I have attended a barbeque (asado) here in Chile as I always wish I had taken Mammy´s advice to have eaten a bit before hand. No, this is not because I am afraid of eating in front of boys. Rather, it is because each asado has plenty of food but that food is usually served at least one hour after we were told it would be. And if I don´t eat, I get a bit grumpy/snarky.

The first asado I attended was at a hostel in Pucon called el refugio (this name keeps occurring throughout my Chilean adventures). The hostel director invited my three friends (Lauren, Jason, and Zach) and I to join him and the other guests for an asado and we eagerly accepted the invitation to enjoy a hearty meal of steak, fish, salad, and beer and wine. That day was a particularly active one as Jason, Zach and I had spent the afternoon river rafting. Lauren chose to forego this event in favor of being productive and not getting her hair wet. Rafting was awesome and at one point in time we had to get out of the boat and jump from a cliff into the water. For those of you who don´t know, I do NOT do things like that (27 waterfalls anyone?). Thus, throwing myself off of the precipice into the freezing water was quite a feat. Apparently while I was contemplating how I could climb down rather than jump, the guide was behind me making pretend kicking/pushing threats.

When we returned to the hostel, the idea of the warm Franklin stove, good food, and a nice evening with my friends and Negra was increasingly appealing. Negra is the hostel´s dog. I used to say that I do not like dogs. Now I say, ¨I don´t like dogs, but I love Negra.¨ She is sweet and social and I might go back to Pucon just to kidnap her. But I digress. We had been expecting to eat at about 8PM, which was feeling late on its own merit. However, I think Peter did not even leave for the store to purchase asado materials until about 7:30. To pass the time and cover our hunger, we began to play some cards. We played 13 (also called killer) and hearts. We were all pretty grumpy and one person in our group, who shall remain nameless, is used to winning. However, said person was not winning and I believe humorless death threats were made. Hehe.
We finally ate at 9:00ish and I am almost willing to say that the feast was worth the wait. If the food wasn´t worth the wait, the company certainly was. This was the first weekend that I stayed in a hostel with only a few Stanford students rather than the huge crowd. This was particularly wonderful because we were able to make friends with the other guests and more easily share travel stories and tips. Honestly, I´d be fine remaining in the smaller group all of the time.

The second asado I attended was at the la Universidad Catolica, one of the premier Chilean universities. One Stanford student studied in Chile winter quarter and he decided to stay on an extra quarter, enabling him to take classes at Catolica (he´ll be here until July). Thus, he arranged for us to get together with some of his engineering friends. As I have mentioned in previous posts, it´s been pretty difficult to meet/get to know Chileans and so we were all particularly excited for this Thursday night barbeque. Yet again, it was pretty late by the time we ate and when I´m hungry my ability to speak/listen to any language (especially a foreign one) diminishes in a non-linear fashion. I was also a bit off because on the metro ride to Catolica, my purse got slashed. Fortunately all of my purse possessions were in inside pockets and so I didn´t lose anything. I was really upset though because 1. I really like that bag (now I´ve had to pin it shut and I look like a freaking hipster) 2. I was clutching the bag close to my body, which means the knife was close to me and 3. I hate the destruction of others´ property/theft and I believe very firmly that property rights are necessary (but not sufficient) for a stable community and world. I believe that even little acts like that are reflections of larger corruption and corruption is problematic because it inhibits goodness and improvement. I hate that one person´s success make one a target. Thus, I was a deeply peeved in addition to being hungry. Just as at the first asado, there was plenty of food--some boys had two hamburgers and two choripans (sausage in a bun). Yet again, I wished I had taken Mammy´s advice and had eaten a bit before leaving so I could have better engaged our hosts and potential friends.

The third asado I attended was last Friday and it was quite possibly my favorite evening here in Chile. Earlier in the day we had a day trip to Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda (one of Chile´s most famous poets) had is favorite house. Contrary to the name, Isla Negra is not an island. Rather, it is a coastal town much like Monterrey and there are huge black rocks that stick out of the water. Neruda thought these rocks looked like little black islands, hence ¨isla negra.¨ I was not expecting much from this little day trip, but I was quite impressed. First of all, Monterrey/Asilomar are my favorite beaches in the world. I´ve been to Hawaii, the Cook Islands, and the most pristine beaches of the Dominican Republic and yet Monterrey remains my favorite. Simply going to this beach and having the opportunity to climb over the rocks and watch the sapphire blue water crash would have made the day more than satisfying. However we also went on a tour of Neruda´s house, which is more like a peculiar natural history museum or a personal Smithsonian than a regular house. Shortly after being torn from the beach and the tour, we loaded onto the bus for our late lunch. Our 3PM meal consisted of the largest empanada I´ve ever had, two glasses of fresh cantaloupe juice, and pastel del choclo (which is essentially a corn-based pot pie with onion, chicken, ground beef, egg, and olive). We ate in a large building with a dirt floor and a thatched roof and faded Chilean flags. While others were still chatting and eating, I spotted a hammock hanging in the corner and I made good use of it (I´m so looking forward to the hammock at home after a late summer evening BBQ). Our lunch was so filling that it more than met Mammy´s recommendation and I was not hungry at all for dinner.

This third asado occurred in the hills outside Santiago at the house of one of the professors who teaches at Catolica. Apparently he hosts large get-togethers every few weeks and this time he invited us because he is friends with the Stanford visiting professor. He also invited many Catolica students, several of whom were familiar from the previous asado. Since we had all had a relaxing and filling (both on soul and food based level) day, we were eager to meet and chat with real Chileans (WOAH! Real Chileans!?!?). This evening was definitely one of my favorite and we are all hoping that, with enough thank you letters, our more-than-generous host might feel inspired to invite us again. Nonetheless, many of us have already or have plans to spend more time with our Catolica friends and some even have plans to do a volunteer trip to help build houses next weekend—I´m 90 percent certain I am going to join!