Chile, te echo de menos

This week, I had the immense pleasure and privilege of making empanadas—Argentinian style. My friend Laila is from Argentina originally, and when she told me she was thinking of making empanadas sometime this week, I was thrilled. It’s the second time I’ve ever made empanadas—the first was when I was in Chile with this wonderful family who more or less adopted me when I was down there. Making empanadas takes work, especially if you’re going to make a lot of them—Laila said her family makes them at home only 3 or 4 times a year. Of course, in Argentina and Chile, you can buy an empanada anytime you like.

To have the chance to make empanadas with someone who really knows what they’re doing is a special opportunity. And, I can attest, Laila really knows what she is doing. At this point in my life, I feel pretty comfortable in the kitchen. But sometimes, when I’m learning to cook new things, I feel like I did when I first started cooking for myself after college, which is to say useless and overwhelmed. Fortunately, in the time it took me to make one empanada, Laila would finish three of four. Dinner would have been especially later otherwise!

Empanadas are similar to pasties, which are common here and in Britain as well. However, one difference is that in empanadas, you’ll usually find one olive, a piece of hard-boiled egg, and a raisin (though I think Laila said they don’t use raisins in Argentina). I remember the first time I had an empanada. I took a bite, and suddenly there was this enormous olive in my mouth. I was happy to see Laila chopping up the olives into little pieces for our empanadas. They were, by the way, sensational. Laila took some over to her neighbors, and they returned promptly for more! To accompany our empanadas, we even had a tomato and avocado salad, which is the salad I was served most often in Chile. They have so many wonderful avocados there, all you do is slice them up and the tomatoes, add a little lemon juice, salt, and perhaps a little olive oil, and there’s your salad.

Although she may not have realized it, Laila topped off the experience for me when I had the chance to listen to her speak with her mom on Skype. It really made me miss Spanish (castellano), and also the challenge that a different language poses. On one hand, it’s really wonderful that I can understand (almost) everything here. I can have more interesting discussions with people, and have no trouble navigating stores, restaurants, or anything else. On the other hand, it almost feels too easy since living here hasn’t felt like much of an adjustment at all. There are certainly some major differences, but on the whole, our time here has been pretty smooth, and many of the things we do here are things we’ve done at home.

I know that I’m here to experience Australian culture, and I’m certainly not complaining, but I have to say, a welcome wave of recollection swept over me spending time with Laila these past few days. (We also went to an awesome concert last night with Bela Fleck and Oumou Sangare, a diva from Mali.) I’ve definitely developed a soft spot for the countries I’ve stayed in for extended periods of time, and Chile is no exception. Which is why now, somewhere in the deepest, darkest, most back spot of my mind, I’m starting to think, “Hmmm… how might I manage to get back there some day?” And, Argentina would be nice, too!