Curanto

Curanto is cooked in a hole: stones are heated in a fire in a pit, the embers cleared, and layers built on the hot stones - shellfish first, then pork, smoked meat and sausage, then chapaleles and milcaos, the potato breads, with nalca leaves and turf laid over the top to seal it and the whole thing steamed for an hour or more. It belongs to Chiloe and the technique is old, related to earth ovens across the Pacific. The version served in most restaurants is curanto en olla, made in a pot on a stove, which is the same ingredients and not the same thing; a real pit curanto has to be arranged.

What you actually see

• A pit lined with hot stones - the fire built and cleared first.
• Layers under nalca leaves - shellfish, meats, then potato breads.
• Sealed with turf and steamed - for an hour or more.
• A pot version in restaurants - the same ingredients, not the same dish.

When to go

December to March, when pit curanto is most often made. A meal, plus the cooking.

Honest expectations

Most restaurant curanto is the pot version - ask, because they are different. A pit curanto needs arranging in advance with a household or a village. It is an enormous quantity of food and heavy on shellfish.

Nearby

Castro and Dalcahue are the usual places to arrange it on Chiloe.