I’ve seen this advertised throughout Chile and wondered what it was. In Peru, mote is hominy, so I was thinking that it was mote, “with little bones” (hueso = bone, so huesillo = little bone), a dish with meat and hominy. Not even close.
In Chile, mote is wheat berries. Huesillos are dried peaches. The dried peaches are cooked in water with sugar and cinnamon. The cooked wheat berries are added and the treat is chilled and served with a spoon. Once I knew what it was, I had to try it, but I wanted to be sure it was ok to eat–Jonathan found a packaged mote con huesillos in the grocery store, so we got one. It is interesting to look at, but not much to actually eat. The wheat berries taste like cooked pasta (or cooked wheat berries) and the drink is very very sweet and not strongly cinnamon-flavored. The dried peaches, when reconstituted, don’t have a lot of peach flavor left in them. There you have it, mote con huesillos, weird, sweet, and chewy.
Llywindatravels 2022 