By Oliver

One day we were riding back from soccer practice and we came across a stand by Paseo Larios, which is a main pedestrian road in the middle of town. The stand was cooking something in pans, so we stopped to investigate.

They had two foods: castañas (chestnuts) and sweet potatoes.

We got castañas (chestnuts) and decided to get the sweet potatoes later.

You tell them how much you want to pay and they weigh out the right amount and put the castañas in a paper cone that they roll. We bought €2 worth.

The castañas (chestnuts) did not taste good at first because I ate part of the shell. The shell tasted like banana peel and I did not like it. But as we were riding he rest of the way to our house, I ate a lot of them without the peel (mostly) and they started to grow on me. Now we get them each time we come back from soccer, which is three days a week and they taste amazing. When we get them I put them in my soccer hoodie pocket; they keep me warm and I keep them warm. If you visit soon you might be able to try them too.

The two guys cut into each chestnut before roasting them so that they don’t explode.

A little bit more by Mom…

The same chestnut roaster (Castañero) came to Leo’s school. We happened to be there for Leo’s presentation about Oregon and got to stick around for the Castañero’s presentation.

The chestnuts grow on the branch of the chestnut tree in a spikey ball they call the erizo (hedgehog).
They roast the chestnuts in a special pot with holes in the bottom (he made sure to tell us you couldn’t use the pot for soup).
They add charcoal in the lower pot to make smoke to help roast the chestnuts.
Sadly, Leo didn’t try them because of his nut allergy. We’re not sure if he is allergic to them, but since they have the word nut in the name, he didn’t even want me to check with the doctor if he could try them.

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