This heavenly stuff gets translated into English in Isabel Allende novels as “blancmange” and into American ice cream flavors as “dulce de leche” (read with hard d and gutteral l), which is its name in most of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. Manjar literally means “delicacy” and is what you get when you cook sugared milk for a long time. It turns into a smooth brown paste that vaguely resembles peanut butter in color and consistency (which leads to a puzzling confusion between the two on the part of some Chileans, despite the completely different flavors and textures).
Manjar is a staple on the breakfast and once table, to be spread on bread like jam. It’s also a common filling in many pastries and cakes. Dunkin’ Donuts in Chile sells a “Boston Manjar” donut, which is a Boston Kreme donut with a manjar filling in place of the “kreme”.
If you like sweets, you will probably love manjar. Fortunately, in Chile you can get it at any store that sells food, even the tiniest mom-and-pop negocio on a remote patagonian isle. However, should you find yourself traveling abroad and in need of a fix, here are two simple recipes: the traditional slow-cooked milk and sugar, and the more modern boiled-can-of-condensed-milk. For the moment, both are untested by expat.cl, so use at your own risk.