(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XVIII - One Day in Santiago

Our one and only full day to explore Santiago and we were in the business center approving proofs for our invite.  From there (and after some sniffing around on chowhound with a corroboration from our concierge), we took the subway over to Mercado Central – the central seafood market.  One of my favorite ways to see a city is to explore their local food market and this was the place to do it.

The cleanest part of the market...

The lovely sites and smells...

Our friend, the Congrio

Unfortunately, we were utterly spoiled by our royal treatment and experience at Tsukiji Market in Japan (more on that at another point) so this was a bit of a disappointment. 
It was chaotic and still touristy, but we did manage to avoid the number one tourist trap restaurant (Don Augusta) and went to a hole in the wall that I read about on Chowhound, called Tio Lucho.

In the foreground, the proud proprietor...

It was not pretty at all and the bright sign from the government warning that all seafood should be cooked hanging in the restaurant made me a bit nervous.  

Can someone translate those signs in the background?

But, we pushed forward ordering the two must eat items according to our concierge:

Machas a la Parmigiana (this is their razor clams with parmesan cheese) and Congrito – otherwise known as Conger Eel, which I’m not even sure what that is.  But the owner did show us one on ice and it did not resemble any eel I’ve seen before.  So we went for that.  And I did it one better by getting the house specialty Congrito involving papas fritas, grilled onions, and a fried egg (in addition to the fried congrito).

The Machas arrived and we approached with some hesitation.  If we were going to get food poisoning anywhere on this trip, this was the spot it was going to happen.

Surprised that this combination worked...but it sort of did...

I tasted one…and it was actually good.  An odd combination of clams, oregano, and melted cheese, but it came together and was enjoyable.

Then the big kahuna came out.  It was intimidating but GG and I dove in with conviction.  I can’t say I’d go out of my way to order it again, but it was an experience and tasted good (although it probably took about five years off my life with all that saturated fat).

Yikes!

Umm, what's the local ambulance's number?

The entire meal was washed down with a gratis after dinner drink resembling liquid kryptonite and tasting like mediocre mouth wash.  Since it was gratis and I didn’t want to offend, I drank mine down.  GG couldn’t handle it.

Yo no se?

We survived Mercado Central and it was back to the W, safe and sound where we were surprised with another honeymoon treat – champagne, chocolate and rose petals strewn about the room.  T-bone delivers again!  We enjoyed the champagne up on the roof where I hit the lap pool again without raising much a commotion with the other fabulous guests.

classy.

Our final evening, we made a reservation at Puerto Fuy – suggested by our Chilean friends from explora, as well as the W concierge – who said it was very romantic.  We booked a table and drove over there.

It was located in a fancy retail area and we pulled in…the restaurant was not too busy and we were seated immediately in the non-smoking area.  The restaurant specializes in seafood so we went for these options.

The meal began with an octopus amuse – tender and on a crisp potato which was tasty but did not pass GG’s tender octopus test.

they love the octopus amuses in chile...

Our appetizer arrived (GG passed on this course) and I ordered what looked like was a small army of Uni tastes.  Five of them in fact.  

The Chilean Uni Army

The first was a chunky ceviche starred the sea urchin with fresh citrus juice, onions, and herbs which the next one was a more traditional Chilean preparation which was essentially the same flavors, but in a more broth-like medium.

A little more chunk in this ceviche

More soup, than ceviche...

Then we moved on to more traditional uni – generous pieces of sweet, Chilean uni served with Chilean Corn (those huge white kernels).

Now you're starting to speak my language...

A little something different after that – which I enjoyed.  A steamed dumpling with chopped uni and mushrooms, finished with some roe.

Interesting...

And the final taste of Uni – lightly friend uni which was tasty (as most things deep fried tend to be).

Chilean Fried Uni

It was an ambitious and large serving got an appetizer, but I did enjoy the generous portions of local uni in several unusual ways.

For appetizers, I stayed local with another in season and famous sea creature – abalone.  While GG’s choice focused on another local delicacy crab.

GG’s Crab Risottos was served on a long, narrow tray that sort of deconstructed the ingredients.  The trough was filled with tender, buttery risotto and on one end, there was a small crab cake, a little ways down, an extra pat of parmesean cheese, further down, a fresh crab claw and then roasted tomatoes.  It was a huge portion, but very tasty.  I did play a large role in sharing that entrée.

The trough of risotto...

Check out that crab claw...

My abalone dish was enormous,. Featuring more abalone than I’d ever eaten (even more than that crazy tasting dinner at Le Cinq in Paris) in three different formats.

-         Tenderly cooked with no seasoning – interesting flavor and consistency; enjoyed the first few bites and then realized such a huge piece served in this way, may be a bit too much.

-         An abalone chupe (crab-cake-like) which was well seasoned and tasty.

-         The main event – Abalone Ravioli in champagne foam.  It was good but I could have easily dealt with one massive ravioli, not the two which came standard.

Au natruale on the far right, crowned by the abalone chupe; the abalone ravioli to the left under shaved bonito and champagne foam

A close up on the naked abalone underneath

 For dessert, we opted for some crazy Diablo dessert of chocolate in every possible fashion – dark, milk, white, ice cream, brownie, mousse.  It was decadent.  The most interesting note is the server brought out a briefcase of several spirits “essences” that we could pick to spray on and enhance the flavors.  I chose a dark rum and found the whole experience kind of hokey but also pretty fun and interesting.

Pick your spritz poison (backgound)

 For me, all in all, I found the dinner a really fun and interesting experience with unique takes on local Chilean seafood.  Portion sizes are huge but that does allow you to sample lots of different takes that they serve within the same entrée.  The service was excellent and although it was pricey for Chilean standards, it’s still much less than a comparable meal in nyc.

I'm so happy he didn't make me eat any of that abalone!

We retired home early awaiting our 445am wake up call to get to Atacama!