So today we are back in Santiago and have a trip to the central market planned. They say that this is one of the biggest markets in South America so we are all interested to see what it is all about. The have produce, meats and poultry, seafood and anything in between. I will be on the look out for a spice blend known as Merquen, it is a blend of spices and smoked chili peppers. We have had it at just about every stop on this trip and it is really good, not too spicy but with a really rich Smokey flavor. It has been served as a sauce or as something that you just sprinkle over your food. The best I have had was at OX, the restaurant, and it was a thin sauce that they served with grilled steaks. Who knows what else we will find.
Well as we were getting into our bus our guide from ARAMARK Chile mentioned to us that we needed to remove any jewelry and phones for our walk through the market. He said that it is an area that is high in theft and a great place to find pick pockets. This had everyone a little concerned to say the least but once we got into the market we were feeling much better. After all, put a bunch of chefs into a maze filled with amazing produce and odd ingredients and we will find a way to have fun. I am sure that you can tell by the photos that the folks that worked in the market were having fun with us as well.
Right off the bat we noticed the wide variety of produce available. Some of it was quite unusual to us; giant ears of corn that they use to make a local dish called Pastel de Choclo were everywhere. Ready for this one, fresh eggs were stacked 5 feet high right out in the middle of the market, no refrigeration at all
. There were the great smells of fresh fruit, especially the peaches. We bought a few peaches and they were delicious, someone else bought cherries and they were sweet and ripe as can be. Won’t be seeing those in Chicago any time soon. It seemed like much of the produce was just a larger version of the stuff we get at home. Celery bunches were double the size, heads of cabbage as big as a large bowling ball and so on. We were all amazed by this and asked a ton of questions. Maybe the large veggies are due to the fact that the sun does not set here until 9:30 or so at night. That has been a little weird, it makes the day seem so much longer or time goes by slower, I’m not really sure.
Anyway, we saw some crazy fish vendor that had what looked like a stingray sitting below a moon fish. The moon fish looked like he had seen better days, that is for sure. The new came upon the spice vendors and we all had to make some purchases thee to bring back home. I quickly grabbed a pound and a half or the merquen as well as 2 pounds of course sea salt collected from the coast here in Chile. They were all in big barrels and you just told the guy what you wanted and he filled the bags. Pretty cool and very cheap. A kilo of sea salt was about .75 cents. The stuff was super tasty and full of flavor. We all started commenting on how we were going to use it at home. Man we would have loved to had the chance to take this stuff into a kitchen and start playing with, that is for sure.
We came upon the butcher section and quickly ran into a couple of guys who wanted to be on film. These two butchers were posing and laughing and having a great time. Finally one of them pulled his “hermano” from the table and held it up for a great photo op. It was hilarious and I made sure to get a good shot. All in all we had a great time here and spent a good couple of hours wandering the stands, asking questions in broken spanglish and tasting some pretty neat stuff.
Then it was off to the seafood market which was a few streets over. Here is where the fish trade has been done for years in Santiago. As soon as
you walk in, you know it by the smells and sounds of the fish mongers. There were all kinds of fish available and many of then we did not recognize. The cost of the fish was super low; you would never see these types of prices in the USA. They even had a table full of barnacles that were edible. The crustaceans were still alive peaking in and out of the outer shell that housed them. They were kind of creepy and there is no way I would really care to try them. We saw tons of fresh Corvina, a wild sea bass local to the area, giant sized mussels, plenty of octopus and even some 
baby eels. All of this stuff was for sale and it was a busy market. In the center of the market is a restaurant called Donde Augusto, which is where we stopped for lunch. To tell you the truth, after seeing all of that fish laying there with very little ice on it, I was not much in the mood for seafood. The others were good with it and they ordered away. I tried for the ribs but they were out so I settled on the local favorite, Pastel de Choclo. It was good but a bit heavy. I did taste the fried baby eels that one guy had and they were quite tasty, tossed with roasted garlic, very nice.
Once lunch was over we were left to our own so we made a stop at the local artisan market to walk around and shop. Here we found jewelry and gifts that were produced by locals. The stone lapis Lazuli, which is only found in Chile and Afghanistan, was everywhere. There were also leather goods, wool items and of course the touristy glasses and postcards too. It was getting hot too so we did not last too long. I think the whole week of travel is catching up to me, that is for sure. I headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool that only has sun until noon and worked on a blog. That is the funny thing; I was looking forward to some pool time and getting a little sun, nope not happening. As I said the pool only has sun until noon and then it is on the other side of the building. The folks here say that is the way they planned it because the sun here is so intense and dangerous. Oh well it was nice and breezy by the pool and I got to relax. After that it was back to the room for a little down time.
We met for dinner at 9 pm in the lobby. Tonight we were going to try a place called Noble; it was over near the restaurant that we went to on Monday night so we knew how to get there. We walked in and it was very cool, hip and trendy. It was Thursday night and only 9 pm so there were not many folks there yet. They usually start showing up for dinner around 10. We sat outside in this funky lounge with some jazz guitar guys playing. I ordered some type of Mojito that they made with Rum, Grapefruit, Soda water and Fresh Basil. It was delicious and perfect for a warm night. We went in to our table for dinner and they sat us by a window that looked right into the kitchen, perfect for a few chefs. The place was all based around food coming off the giant grill they had in the kitchen. And we got to see all of that first hand.
We ordered a bottle of Morande’ Cab Franc 2004 which was awesome. To start we picked two appetizers, one was a Wild Boar Carpaccio and the other was Grilled Short Ribs. They both were excellent. The boar Carpaccio was served with minced red and green onions, capers and grated cheese. The cheese was like parmesan but not quite as strong. Grilled crostini were served as
well. The short ribs were simply grilled, salted and served to us. Again, simple but very special. Next came the salad course, we each choose one and shared. A Chilean salad which is fresh tomatoes, onions and cilantro tossed with red wine vinaigrette. The curious thing was that the tomatoes were peeled first, it seems that is the way it is done in Chile, and every salad that is based on tomatoes has them peeled. Then a green salad wit goat cheese and prosciutto, nothing special on this one, the prosciutto was actually just boiled ham and finally a salad with hearts of palm, tomatoes and avocado. The really nice touch that we received was that the salads were all made table side. Very nice indeed. Then we moved on to dinner. I had ordered a grilled duck breast; the other two had grilled Wild Boar Ribs and a Wagyu Ribeye steak. They all came with sides so we had a 
mushroom and blue cheese gratin that was ridiculously great, a baked and stuffed baby potato with sour cream and bacon and fried mashed potato that was pretty good. The main courses were wonderful and we ordered a 
second bottle of wine with them that blew us away. It was called Errazuriz – The Blend 2005 limited edition. This was a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Petite Verdot and Cab Franc. It was amazing, now I know we the name THE BLEND, 
it really was a great bottle of wine and I need to try and find it back home. We were stuffed but managed to find a way to order three desserts. First was a Fig compote with Fig Ice Cream, then a squash puree with caramel and with a walnut ice cream and I ordered a crepe with apples and vanilla ice cream. Little did we know that the simple crepe and apples was going to steal the show for the entire evening. It was about 10 – 12 inches in diameter, had a crispy ring around the edges and the apples were perfectly cooked. I kid you not; we all took turn stabbing at it for more. It was so good that we asked the pastry chef to come out and tell us how to make it. Turns out that as with most things, simplicity shined through. A crepe pan is started with sugar and butter, the crepe added, topped with thinly sliced apples and a sprinkle of sugar. Once the edges begin to brown the whole thing is flipped, a bit of amaretto is added around the sides and flamed. Once the flame is out the crepe is turned out onto a plate and topped by a nice scoop of home made vanilla ice cream. It was soft and crunchy with great apple flavor and a hint of almonds. It was great and coming from a guy that is not that much of a dessert person, that says a lot. Oh yeah we also ordered a half bottle of Montes Botrytised 2006 dessert wine to go with it. Might as well go all the way. We contemplated another cigar but it was late and we had a big day of winery tours the next day so we called it a night. A great meal that is for sure.
Ciao
Well as we were getting into our bus our guide from ARAMARK Chile mentioned to us that we needed to remove any jewelry and phones for our walk through the market. He said that it is an area that is high in theft and a great place to find pick pockets. This had everyone a little concerned to say the least but once we got into the market we were feeling much better. After all, put a bunch of chefs into a maze filled with amazing produce and odd ingredients and we will find a way to have fun. I am sure that you can tell by the photos that the folks that worked in the market were having fun with us as well.
Right off the bat we noticed the wide variety of produce available. Some of it was quite unusual to us; giant ears of corn that they use to make a local dish called Pastel de Choclo were everywhere. Ready for this one, fresh eggs were stacked 5 feet high right out in the middle of the market, no refrigeration at all
. There were the great smells of fresh fruit, especially the peaches. We bought a few peaches and they were delicious, someone else bought cherries and they were sweet and ripe as can be. Won’t be seeing those in Chicago any time soon. It seemed like much of the produce was just a larger version of the stuff we get at home. Celery bunches were double the size, heads of cabbage as big as a large bowling ball and so on. We were all amazed by this and asked a ton of questions. Maybe the large veggies are due to the fact that the sun does not set here until 9:30 or so at night. That has been a little weird, it makes the day seem so much longer or time goes by slower, I’m not really sure.
Anyway, we saw some crazy fish vendor that had what looked like a stingray sitting below a moon fish. The moon fish looked like he had seen better days, that is for sure. The new came upon the spice vendors and we all had to make some purchases thee to bring back home. I quickly grabbed a pound and a half or the merquen as well as 2 pounds of course sea salt collected from the coast here in Chile. They were all in big barrels and you just told the guy what you wanted and he filled the bags. Pretty cool and very cheap. A kilo of sea salt was about .75 cents. The stuff was super tasty and full of flavor. We all started commenting on how we were going to use it at home. Man we would have loved to had the chance to take this stuff into a kitchen and start playing with, that is for sure.
We came upon the butcher section and quickly ran into a couple of guys who wanted to be on film. These two butchers were posing and laughing and having a great time. Finally one of them pulled his “hermano” from the table and held it up for a great photo op. It was hilarious and I made sure to get a good shot. All in all we had a great time here and spent a good couple of hours wandering the stands, asking questions in broken spanglish and tasting some pretty neat stuff.Then it was off to the seafood market which was a few streets over. Here is where the fish trade has been done for years in Santiago. As soon as
you walk in, you know it by the smells and sounds of the fish mongers. There were all kinds of fish available and many of then we did not recognize. The cost of the fish was super low; you would never see these types of prices in the USA. They even had a table full of barnacles that were edible. The crustaceans were still alive peaking in and out of the outer shell that housed them. They were kind of creepy and there is no way I would really care to try them. We saw tons of fresh Corvina, a wild sea bass local to the area, giant sized mussels, plenty of octopus and even some 
baby eels. All of this stuff was for sale and it was a busy market. In the center of the market is a restaurant called Donde Augusto, which is where we stopped for lunch. To tell you the truth, after seeing all of that fish laying there with very little ice on it, I was not much in the mood for seafood. The others were good with it and they ordered away. I tried for the ribs but they were out so I settled on the local favorite, Pastel de Choclo. It was good but a bit heavy. I did taste the fried baby eels that one guy had and they were quite tasty, tossed with roasted garlic, very nice.Once lunch was over we were left to our own so we made a stop at the local artisan market to walk around and shop. Here we found jewelry and gifts that were produced by locals. The stone lapis Lazuli, which is only found in Chile and Afghanistan, was everywhere. There were also leather goods, wool items and of course the touristy glasses and postcards too. It was getting hot too so we did not last too long. I think the whole week of travel is catching up to me, that is for sure. I headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool that only has sun until noon and worked on a blog. That is the funny thing; I was looking forward to some pool time and getting a little sun, nope not happening. As I said the pool only has sun until noon and then it is on the other side of the building. The folks here say that is the way they planned it because the sun here is so intense and dangerous. Oh well it was nice and breezy by the pool and I got to relax. After that it was back to the room for a little down time.
We met for dinner at 9 pm in the lobby. Tonight we were going to try a place called Noble; it was over near the restaurant that we went to on Monday night so we knew how to get there. We walked in and it was very cool, hip and trendy. It was Thursday night and only 9 pm so there were not many folks there yet. They usually start showing up for dinner around 10. We sat outside in this funky lounge with some jazz guitar guys playing. I ordered some type of Mojito that they made with Rum, Grapefruit, Soda water and Fresh Basil. It was delicious and perfect for a warm night. We went in to our table for dinner and they sat us by a window that looked right into the kitchen, perfect for a few chefs. The place was all based around food coming off the giant grill they had in the kitchen. And we got to see all of that first hand.We ordered a bottle of Morande’ Cab Franc 2004 which was awesome. To start we picked two appetizers, one was a Wild Boar Carpaccio and the other was Grilled Short Ribs. They both were excellent. The boar Carpaccio was served with minced red and green onions, capers and grated cheese. The cheese was like parmesan but not quite as strong. Grilled crostini were served as
well. The short ribs were simply grilled, salted and served to us. Again, simple but very special. Next came the salad course, we each choose one and shared. A Chilean salad which is fresh tomatoes, onions and cilantro tossed with red wine vinaigrette. The curious thing was that the tomatoes were peeled first, it seems that is the way it is done in Chile, and every salad that is based on tomatoes has them peeled. Then a green salad wit goat cheese and prosciutto, nothing special on this one, the prosciutto was actually just boiled ham and finally a salad with hearts of palm, tomatoes and avocado. The really nice touch that we received was that the salads were all made table side. Very nice indeed. Then we moved on to dinner. I had ordered a grilled duck breast; the other two had grilled Wild Boar Ribs and a Wagyu Ribeye steak. They all came with sides so we had a 
mushroom and blue cheese gratin that was ridiculously great, a baked and stuffed baby potato with sour cream and bacon and fried mashed potato that was pretty good. The main courses were wonderful and we ordered a 
second bottle of wine with them that blew us away. It was called Errazuriz – The Blend 2005 limited edition. This was a blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Petite Verdot and Cab Franc. It was amazing, now I know we the name THE BLEND, 
it really was a great bottle of wine and I need to try and find it back home. We were stuffed but managed to find a way to order three desserts. First was a Fig compote with Fig Ice Cream, then a squash puree with caramel and with a walnut ice cream and I ordered a crepe with apples and vanilla ice cream. Little did we know that the simple crepe and apples was going to steal the show for the entire evening. It was about 10 – 12 inches in diameter, had a crispy ring around the edges and the apples were perfectly cooked. I kid you not; we all took turn stabbing at it for more. It was so good that we asked the pastry chef to come out and tell us how to make it. Turns out that as with most things, simplicity shined through. A crepe pan is started with sugar and butter, the crepe added, topped with thinly sliced apples and a sprinkle of sugar. Once the edges begin to brown the whole thing is flipped, a bit of amaretto is added around the sides and flamed. Once the flame is out the crepe is turned out onto a plate and topped by a nice scoop of home made vanilla ice cream. It was soft and crunchy with great apple flavor and a hint of almonds. It was great and coming from a guy that is not that much of a dessert person, that says a lot. Oh yeah we also ordered a half bottle of Montes Botrytised 2006 dessert wine to go with it. Might as well go all the way. We contemplated another cigar but it was late and we had a big day of winery tours the next day so we called it a night. A great meal that is for sure.Ciao
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