Pan

I'm long overdue in posting about Chilean pan (bread).  We are right in the thick of things with the locals now, mobbing the bread bins at Jumbo with everyone else.

Although there are other types of bread, the three most common are probably hallulla, marraqueta, and pan amasado.

Tulip's favorite are the hallulla.  We always get the whole wheat ones, which aren't available everywhere, but we sought them out.  The one below is from Jumbo and has some sort of seeds or whole grains in it.  The "normal" ones are slightly bigger, more like the size of a large hamburger bun, but flatter.  Hallulla have something close to a biscuity texture, and are delicious with cheese and tomato.  Mmmmm...

Marraqueta always come in groups of four (although this specimen is slightly deformed now that I look at it!--Normally all four buns are of equal size....)  Each individual bun is bigger than an hallulla and lighter, fluffier, more like a baguette.  We also usually get the whole wheat version of this, but sometimes they don't have any.  The marraqueta pictured here is the "normal" white flour variety.

One of our favorite things to do with the marraqueta is to slather on peanut butter, nutella, or manjar (or--what the heck--all three!)  Manjar is basically spreadable caramel.  It has the same consistency as nutella, but is the flavor of dulce de leche.  (It's also good on apples, by the way.)

This is one of the "fancier" brands of manjar, but you can also find the stuff packaged in
foil laminate packages, a la "Capri Sun" but without a straw.  More's the pity.

Pan amasado (literally: kneaded bread) looks a lot like hallulla but instead of individual pin pricks on the top, it has fork pricks.  It has a shiny "dinner roll"-type surface (while the hallulla is drier, and more matte-looking).  When we were in Algarrobo last weekend, the market across the street from our cabins had fresh pan amasado that was still steaming when we bought it.  We managed to put away the entire bag within the first few hours and had to go back to get more for our breakfast the next day.  As with any bread, it's not as good day-old, but it still managed to disappear!  :-)

I've ascertained that the recipes for Chilean bread are available on the interwebs, so when we get back home I'll be trying some of them out!  Until then, we'll see if we can pack on a few more pounds this week devouring the real thing.