The most intriguing linguistic minority is the 2000-plus speakers of Rapa Nui, the Polynesian language of most of Easter Island's population. Chile's cuisine reflects the country's topographical variety, and features seafood, beef, fresh fruit and vegetables. Chile's biggest standard meal is lomo a lo pobre - an enormous slab of beef topped with two fried eggs and buried in chips. The parillada , which will appal vegetarians and heart specialists, is a mixed grill including such delicacies as intestines, udders and blood sausage. Curanto , one of the nation's finest dishes, is an all-encompassing, hearty stew of fish, shellfish, chicken, pork, lamb, beef and potato.
Chilean wines are arguably South America's best.
A pisco sour is a popular drink which easily gets you piscoed - it's a grape brandy served with lemon juice, egg white and powdered sugar. History Pre-Columbian Chile was peopled by a variety of ancient cultures, many of them politically subject to the Incas who they predated by many centuries. The country's varied topography governed the character of its population groups and the extent to which they were subject to Inca aggression. All territory west of Brazil was granted to Spain by the 1494 Spanish-Portuguese treaty. The Spanish assigned the task of conquering Chile to Pedro de Valdivia, whose expedition reached Chile's fertile Mapocho Valley in 1541.