It occurred to me recently that I wrote hardly anything about our time in Chile last year, especially about the food.

The problem was, food options for vegetarians in Chile are quite limited, as other bloggers have already pointed out and we while we spent almost a whole month in the country, our time was limited to southern Chile, where options are limited anyway because most everything is imported from further north.

However, one thing that we did find to be very good in the regions we visited was Chilean cake.

This is largely due to the German influence in the area, a result of a significant number of Germans who started to emigrate to southern Chile in the late 19th century, to the extent that the German word kuchen has been borrowed into Chilean Spanish.

strawberry cheesecake and walnut pie in Puyuhuapi for my birthday
strawberry cheesecake and walnut pie in Puyuhuapi for my birthday
black forest gateaux in Puerto Varas overlooking a volcano
black forest gateaux in Puerto Varas overlooking a volcano
raspberry and cream layer cake made by nuns in Frutillar
raspberry and cream layer cake made by nuns in Frutillar
carrot and walnut cake in Valdivia in a café floating on the river
carrot and walnut cake in Valdivia in a café floating on the river

These were all usually accompanied by coffee (for Zab at least; I don’t drink coffee) which when not the instant kind, I am reliably assured was actually very good.

chile_coffee

So while I wouldn't return to Chile expecting to find any culinary marvels, I would certainly look forward to the cakes again. Unfortunately, though, we found no evidence that vegan cake would be easy to come by, and certainly all the ones shown here were not.

Of course, Chilean Patagonia has some gorgeous scenery, much of which we found to be best enjoyed from a cozy corner in a café with a generous slice of cake in front of us!

Have you been to Chile? Did you try the cakes?

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