Curanto on Chiloé: a family meal cooked underground (Spanish A1)
An A1 Spanish text about the curanto of Chiloé in Chile: the pit of hot stones, the nalca leaves, the milcaos and the minga between neighbours, with gustar in context.
El curanto de Chiloé: cocinamos bajo la tierra
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A family on Chiloé prepares a curanto in a pit of hot stones, and some of them say what they like.
Para el curanto no usamos la cocina. Usamos un hoyo en la tierra. Primero hacemos el hoyo. Después ponemos piedras dentro y encendemos un fuego. Las piedras calientes son el horno.
Encima de las piedras va la comida: almejas, carne, pollo y papas. También hay milcaos y chapaleles, dos masas de papa típicas de la isla.
Encima de todo ponemos hojas grandes de nalca. Después cubrimos el hoyo con sacos y tierra. El vapor cocina la comida dentro.
A mi tío Ramón le gustan los milcaos con carne. A mi prima Sofía no le gustan las almejas, pero come dos papas grandes.
En Chiloé la papa tiene mucha historia. En la isla crecen muchas variedades de papa, de colores diferentes. En Chile decimos papa; en casi toda España la palabra es patata.
El curanto necesita tiempo y muchas manos. En Chiloé la ayuda entre vecinos tiene un nombre: la minga. Para un curanto grande, los vecinos llegan temprano y trabajan juntos.
Esperamos más de una hora. Mientras tanto, hablamos y tomamos té. Los niños corren por el patio.
Cuando abrimos el hoyo, sale mucho vapor blanco. A mí me gusta ese olor a mar y a leña. Ese momento es la mejor parte de la fiesta para mi familia.
¿Te gusta la comida del mar? ¿Cuántas personas hay en tu mesa los días especiales? ¿Qué comida prepara tu familia cuando hay visitas?
About this article
What you'll learn
Gustar with a + person in positive and negative sentences: le gustan, no le gustan, me gusta; adjective agreement and the verb encender; vocabulary: hoyo, hojas, almejas, papa, minga.
A family on Chiloé prepares a curanto in a pit of hot stones, and some of them say what they like.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
Encima de las piedras
newon top of the stones
It says where the food goes: straight onto the hot stones in the pit.
Encima de means on top of, and it keeps de before the noun: encima de la mesa, encima de todo.
Mientras tanto
newmeanwhile
It marks the time while the food cooks underground and the family talks.
A ready-made link between two things happening at the same time in a story.
necesita tiempo y muchas manos
newit needs time and many hands
In the text it means a big curanto is not made alone: it takes a lot of people.
Muchas manos is used figuratively for a lot of people helping, just as in English.
la mejor parte
newthe best part
The narrator says that for the family the best part of the celebration is the moment when the pit is opened.
Mejor is the irregular comparative of bueno: not más bueno, but mejor, el mejor, la mejor.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
El hoyo
un hoyo
pit, hole in the ground
The hollow dug in the earth where the food is cooked.
Hoyo is a hole in the ground: un hoyo en el jardín, un hoyo profundo.
Las hojas
hojas
leaves
In the text these are the big nalca leaves that cover the food.
Hoja means both a leaf and a sheet of paper: una hoja de papel.
Las almejas
almejas
clams
The shellfish that go into the pit together with the meat and the potatoes.
Almeja is one particular shellfish; mariscos is the general word for shellfish, and it does not include fish (pescado).
La papa
la papa
potato (Latin America)
In Chile the potato is called papa, and that is the word the text uses.
Latin America says la papa and most of Spain says la patata; both words are correct.
Calientes
calientes
hot
It describes the stones after the fire: they are hot and work as an oven.
Caliente has one form for masculine and feminine and adds -s in the plural: un plato caliente, unas piedras calientes.
Sale
sale
it comes out
The él/ella form of salir: steam comes out of the pit.
In the present tense salir is irregular only in the yo form: salgo, but sales, sale, salimos, salen.
La minga
la minga
minga: neighbours working together
On Chiloé this is the name for neighbours helping each other with a big job.
The word comes from Quechua and is used in several American countries; on Chiloé it names community work.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Le gustan los milcaos
le gustan los milcaos
he likes milcaos
The person is named with a + person (a mi tío Ramón) and the pronoun le stands beside it. The verb agrees with the thing liked rather than with the uncle: los milcaos is plural, so it is gustan.
This is the pattern for talking about someone else's taste.
No le gustan las almejas
no le gustan las almejas
she does not like clams
The negative no goes before the pronoun, not before the verb: no le gustan, no me gusta, no nos gusta.
The word order is fixed, so it is worth learning the whole block by heart.
Me gusta ese olor
me gusta ese olor
I like that smell
The pronoun me shows who likes it. The verb is singular, gusta, because one thing is liked: ese olor. The extra a mí only puts the focus on the speaker.
Together with the gustan card this gives you the whole contrast: one thing gusta, several things gustan.
Encendemos un fuego
encendemos un fuego
we light a fire
The verb encender changes e to ie in most forms: enciendo, enciendes, enciende, encienden. The nosotros form keeps the plain e: encendemos.
Other e/ie verbs behave the same way, for example entender: entiendo, but entendemos.
Dos masas de papa típicas
dos masas de papa típicas
two typical potato doughs
The adjective típicas agrees with masas (feminine plural), not with papa, which happens to stand closer to it.
When de + noun comes between the noun and its adjective, it is easy to agree with the nearer word; look for the head noun instead.
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