Mote con Huesillos: Chile's Drink(?), Snack(?) and/or Dessert(?)

Chile prides itself on its local cuisine. Chileans love to describe their local dishes to foreigners willing to listen. In turn, they tend to get excited whilst conducting these explanations. I have witnessed first-hand Chileans delivering applause and shouts of “mmm, que rrrrrrrrico!” during said descriptions given by others. The excitement gets to the point where it seems that they’re all going to run from the conversation to their home and immediately start concocting their prized Chilean specialties.

Because the vast majority of the native dishes involve meat sauce, meat bits, meat meat meat, Matt and I will not be partaking in much of it. Besides, after learning about their adoration of the hot dog, I am taking the locals' preferences with a grain of salt. Or, shall I say with a grain of wheat?

I’ve been meaning to try Mote con Huesillos practically since we landed. During the summer, las calles were full of street vendors offering this drink(?) snack(?) and/or dessert(?). Truth is, for a while, I had been a little scared to try it. See picture below. It’s intense, no? But after enduring the big earthquake, I felt empowered to conquer my HUGE fears, including taste-testing Mote con Huesillos.

So what is this drink(?) snack(?) and/or dessert(?), right?! Well, mote, the little bits at the bottom of the cup, are wheat berries. Wheat berries are not commonly used or consumed in the U.S., but Matt and I have been cooking vegetarian dishes with them for a while. Their consistency is similar to brown rice, soft but a little chewy. Huesillos are dried peaches. They drop a few whole (pits included) huesillos in every cup (the big, wrinkled floating thing in the photo above). The sugared liquid is apparently made from dried peach juice. A spoon is used to imbibe the mixture.

The verdict? This drink(?) snack(?) and/or dessert(?) is obviously very unique. Matt made the genius observation that the seemingly familiar liquid was similar to canned fruit cocktail syrup. A spoonful of wheat berries paired with the liquid did a good job of cutting the latter's cloying heaviness. My favorite part was the peaches! They were cold, somewhat rehydrated from the liquid, tender, and tasty. All in all, I was happy we tried the drink(?) snack(?) and/or dessert(?), but we won’t probably be trying it again. I can, however, confirm that Mote con Huesillos is better than hot dogs.