Food

Here i'll mention a few of the traditional Chilean foods.
-the most ubiquitous street food is the completo or Italiano which is a hotdog (normal or supersized) with the sausage, avocado, ketchup, and a heap of mayonaise. You can find completo stands at every street corner, and chileans feast on them like crazy.
-I forget what this dish is called, possibly churasco, but it is a giant plate of french fries, with pieces of meat, and fried eggs on top. Once we were in a restaurant and we saw a family of 4 chileans who ordered a plate of this that was - not kidding- 2 feet long, heaping with all of this cholesterol, and this is the appetizer..
-Pastel de Choclo is ground up corn which covers a variety of different meats, cooked in the oven in a clay dish. I mistakenly thought pastel de choclo meant a chocolate cake... nope..
-Humitas is a corn mash mixture wrapped in a corn husk, very much like a tamale. I thought this was a healthy vegetarian option, but my host family informed me that it is best eaten completely covered in sugar. No, thanks, I told them i'd prefer it with lemon and hotsauce - not too bad.
-Empanadas are very popular, the Chilean version is filled with ground beef, onions, olives, and hard boiled eggs. They also have cheese, seafood, and I have even found soy-meat and veggie empanadas at a market on tuesdays!!!! success!!!
-Cazuela is a stew of different meats
-Pisco is the Chilean national drink, which is fermented grape liquor, similar to a brandy, and when they mix it as Pisco Sour it is like a margarita. Everyone will warn to you watch out for the Piscos, and it's true- Right Jerry??
-Sushi is super delicious here because every single city is so close to the coast so the food is always fresh.
-every where you look people are selling fresh fruit juices of all kinds, which are extremely delicious and refreshing.

vegan/vegetarian options-
Hmm.
-The standard vegetarian plate at restaurants is a salad that has iceburg lettuce, corn, tomatoes, beets, avocado, green beans, and then dress it with lemon or balsamic - so this is a very good option, and it's cheap, but not super filling.
-there is a delicious, tiny vegetarian stand that operates out of a window near the school, and he has soy fajitas where the soy is seasoned, served in a tortilla with tomato, avocado, lettuce. so good! he also makes fresh juice, and has lots of other vegetarian options. Alas, he has been closed all of February due to summer break, so I have been having withdrawls
-Santa Lucia market on Tuesdays gets a shipment of empanadas filled with soy meat, zuchini, corn, and other veggies, with whole wheat crust. but only on Tuesdays.
-there is another restaurant near campus that has supposedly great veggie burgers (haven't tried it yet)
-Last week I finally found my heaven- called El Huerto, mmmm a great vegetarian restaurant. I first had the indian plate which had brown rice, lentils, curry, fruit chutney, and yogurt salad - so good!! then yesterday I had the mexican plate which had a mini burrito with black beans and roasted veggies, a quesadilla, brown rice, guacamole, and pico de gallo. and mint lemonade. yum yum yummmmmmy, thank goodness I found it.
-At my homestay I have been eating a lot of salad, bread with nutritional yeast, ramen, tacos, fruits... and my best two meals have been cooked by my friends at their houses. Best restaurant meal might have been with Jerry at Tiramisu- a beautiful italian restaurant, but El Huerto is my new favorite

So, no offence, i'm not super impressed with the traditional Chilean food, but Santiago has a huge variety of restaurants to choose from. I just keep asking myself, why, oh why, couldn't Mexican food travel all the way south?!?!