Food in Chile: My Take
Matt did an uncannily fine job reviewing food in Chile earlier this month. I do, however, take issue with his characterization of Chinese food restaurants in Chile. I mean, what could go wrong at a place like this?
And if you didn't get the memo, Matt, MSG is back.
Anyway, the discussion is raging over at Matt's blog, and if you can read between the lines I'm sucking Argentinean cock and he's calling me a classless pig. I'd throw down a few Santiago, Chile restaurant recommendations but that's boring. The places I'd rather talk about -- you can't call them restaurants.
Still, they're incredible. First is Don Robin or Donde Robin. Start out at Barrio Brasil in Santiago, Chile and ask around for it. It's a depressing, alcoholic picada yet at the same time it's a notch above. Homemade aioli and french fries that are thick and really are crispy. Almost unheard of in Chile. The only plate that's given me food poisoning is the sandwich de mechada but even so I've ordered it repeatedly.
For under 6 bucks you can get a violently large portion of chorillana for two. Maybe it was born in Valpo, but this is where it's done right. French fries rained upon by slabs of steak, slices of sausage, grilled onions and 3 fried eggs slapped on top. DR's gotten fancy of late by mixing the eggs up with the onions so be sure to ask for the eggs over-easy like the good ol' days. Since I gave up Don Robin's, I've lost weight. Goodbye, Don Robin.
The next place is an internet café on Plaza Brasil that has computers in the basement and a huge kitchen at street level that pumps out the craziest, most delicious spanish tortillas, quiches, cakes and empanadas. That's actually the place where they translated ground beef as tired meat for their empanada de pino and I called their attention to it. They said a gringo had translated the menu for them. That's also what another empanada place said when I pointed out that their oddly phrased menu.
Who is this rogue Gringo wreaking havoc upon Santiago's English-language menus?
Anyway, they also serve fresh fruit juice in every imaginable flavor. Strawberry, grape, orange, quincy, pear, banana, orange, banana-orange, and on and on. Their quiches range from kelp cochayuyo, to salmon, onion and chicken and they're truly creamy and delicious. The tortillas (which for you uncultured fucks who think I'm talking about Mexican flower tortillas NO, these are often poorly characterized as a Spanish Omelette but that still don't do them justice). Anyway, it's crazy, they've got tortillas with broccoli, or cauliflower, sometimes carrot, potato (of course), spinach, spaghetti, rice - you name it! Then their cakes were lemon maranghue (okay, pie), strawberry, tiramisu, peach. The crust both buttery and crisp. Anyway, the snack-like portions kept me from gaining too much weight there. They're on plaza Brasil, calle Companía toward the Church.
It's not that I snack a lot and don't eat big meals. I do both. Walking around Santiago, for me, is more like grazing. Well, that simile is not very flattering (besides, everyone calls me flaco so I've got nothing to worry about) and in Argentina and Chile it's downright cannibalistic. Still it's a testament to Santiago's undiscovered nature that the most exquisite cuisine would be found at an internet café with about a square foot of table space and no real standing room to speak of.
Of course, if you really want to sit down, there's always...
Looking for breakfast in Santago
And if you didn't get the memo, Matt, MSG is back.
Anyway, the discussion is raging over at Matt's blog, and if you can read between the lines I'm sucking Argentinean cock and he's calling me a classless pig. I'd throw down a few Santiago, Chile restaurant recommendations but that's boring. The places I'd rather talk about -- you can't call them restaurants.
Still, they're incredible. First is Don Robin or Donde Robin. Start out at Barrio Brasil in Santiago, Chile and ask around for it. It's a depressing, alcoholic picada yet at the same time it's a notch above. Homemade aioli and french fries that are thick and really are crispy. Almost unheard of in Chile. The only plate that's given me food poisoning is the sandwich de mechada but even so I've ordered it repeatedly.
For under 6 bucks you can get a violently large portion of chorillana for two. Maybe it was born in Valpo, but this is where it's done right. French fries rained upon by slabs of steak, slices of sausage, grilled onions and 3 fried eggs slapped on top. DR's gotten fancy of late by mixing the eggs up with the onions so be sure to ask for the eggs over-easy like the good ol' days. Since I gave up Don Robin's, I've lost weight. Goodbye, Don Robin.
The next place is an internet café on Plaza Brasil that has computers in the basement and a huge kitchen at street level that pumps out the craziest, most delicious spanish tortillas, quiches, cakes and empanadas. That's actually the place where they translated ground beef as tired meat for their empanada de pino and I called their attention to it. They said a gringo had translated the menu for them. That's also what another empanada place said when I pointed out that their oddly phrased menu.
Who is this rogue Gringo wreaking havoc upon Santiago's English-language menus?
Anyway, they also serve fresh fruit juice in every imaginable flavor. Strawberry, grape, orange, quincy, pear, banana, orange, banana-orange, and on and on. Their quiches range from kelp cochayuyo, to salmon, onion and chicken and they're truly creamy and delicious. The tortillas (which for you uncultured fucks who think I'm talking about Mexican flower tortillas NO, these are often poorly characterized as a Spanish Omelette but that still don't do them justice). Anyway, it's crazy, they've got tortillas with broccoli, or cauliflower, sometimes carrot, potato (of course), spinach, spaghetti, rice - you name it! Then their cakes were lemon maranghue (okay, pie), strawberry, tiramisu, peach. The crust both buttery and crisp. Anyway, the snack-like portions kept me from gaining too much weight there. They're on plaza Brasil, calle Companía toward the Church.
It's not that I snack a lot and don't eat big meals. I do both. Walking around Santiago, for me, is more like grazing. Well, that simile is not very flattering (besides, everyone calls me flaco so I've got nothing to worry about) and in Argentina and Chile it's downright cannibalistic. Still it's a testament to Santiago's undiscovered nature that the most exquisite cuisine would be found at an internet café with about a square foot of table space and no real standing room to speak of.
Of course, if you really want to sit down, there's always...
Looking for breakfast in Santago
posted by Chileno @ 4:37 PM
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11 Comments:
i wouldn't say 'classless pig'...perhaps a little flaite :-)
just out of interest, have you tried a place called Majestic Indian restaurant near Metro Santa Ana-i read a review of it on www.ivebeenthere.co.uk ages ago but since i very rarely head over to that part of santiago i haven't had a chance to try it out. Being English, I really, really miss indian food so it'd be nice to hear there's at least one decent place for it in chile.
No! Perhaps, it is the way you photographed the chifa restaurant; Making it look like it's the favorite hunting ground for the Chinese mafioso crowd. Chinese food in Chile sucks. ;)
Wow! sound great. You should really map these places out. I'd really love to check'em out next time I'm down there.
Don Robin's is on the corner of Huerfanos and Bulnes. Actually, starting out Plaza Brasil is kinda misleading. Start out at Cumming and Huerfanos and walk up Huerfanos a block away from the plaza. Closed Sundays. Do stop by and tell him I sent you (no, I'm not getting a commission) he's hurting from Transmafioso and he's got a great institutional memory of Santiago's great nightlife pre-coup plus he has a new effeminate looking cook named Glorioso although turnaround is high so GO THERE NOW and try to stay away from the mechada, the chorillana is good for starters although make sure to jump on the pastel de choclo if you get a chance, it's the most gourmet and exquisite I've had anywhere which is the irony of that picada.
My friends and I just returned from the Majestic Indian Restaurant. The decor is amazing, the food is good if you've been eating typical santiago fare for a while. Its not spicy enough, a complaint I've had constantly for the 2 weeks I've been here. Also I just returned from Argentina so my palate has been titillated by greater things. Ask for a salsa picante and they'll give you a heated and tasty hot sauce that does a good job at livening things up, but you have to pay a little extra. I really wanted to bring some of that sauce back home.
Hard to find anything too spicy in Chilean cuisine, although the pebre salsa is fantastic in Chile, for its flavor more than spiciness.
I come from California where you're kinduva pussy if you can't handle the raw Jalapeños in Mexican food, or fiery Ashram cuisine.
Chile, the country, gives new meaning to the phrase, "weak sauce". (Although admittedly you have to be kinda tough when the food poisoning sets in).
Still, I LOVE pebre here and it's even better at the Peruvian restaurants, there's one in Providencia I can't remember the name of and a slightly-seedy, but totally delicious Peruvian place downtown called La Victoria. Multiple varieties of pebre, before you even order anything.
180 degrees - if you like Spanish food El Xioko (CHOH-koh) is a Basque restaurant on Calle Mosqueto near parque santa lucia, all sorts of semi-gourmet seafood platters, and they have some of THE BEST Spanish Tortilla I've ever tried, plus you can wash it down with HOME-MADE Pacharan which is EXQUISITE.
They would often pour me a glass on the house because I lived right next door and regularly found myself dining at the bar. So if you want Basque Cuisine in Santiago, Chile, this joint is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Pebre is pretty damn good, I eat some just like brushchetta on some bread every day at this home-y restaurant eat at near the University at Republica. I live near La Moneda, any ideas on whats the best food within walking distance? I have yet to find a staple everyday food for dinner, i'm here for a couple months.
Hmmm, not too familiar with the cuisine scene at Republica...oh, there's a place called Chiminea (ask around) which is kinda like a Chilean cha-cha-cha if I remember correctly, a place to have dinner and get sloshed with about 12 other nervous expats.
A nice place is Cafe Torres although it could become an expensive habit, it's a relic of Santiago you need to experience at least once. South side of the Alameda, near calle San Martín
Other than that I'd say hoof it up to Cumming...no, those places are tacky and nasty - better, from the Alameda head up Brasil toward the Plaza Brasil, and on your right (thinking cross-street Moneda but don't hold me to it), anyway it's on a corner, on the right, and it's a place called SANTO BARRIO. Dude, a pint of Kunstmann on tap for $1,200, that's the best you'll get in Santiago and the hamburgers and pizzas are delicious. The chorillana is too oily and more expensive - if you want a real (and cheaper) chorillana experience head on to Don Robin's (see above for directions). The pebre at DR's ain't worth blogging home about but he more than makes up with the aioli. DON'T get the mechada but everything else is fair game. If they've got pastel de choclo JUMP on it.
Might require a few different trips to sample everything but at least the walking distance from where you're at will help you justify the yummy greasiness, I lost weight after dropping that habit.
On the Plaza Brasil there's a vegetarian restaurant called Cronopios, they serve hamburgers and delicious fruit juice. Also on the plaza (next to the fire station) look for the Internet cafe that sells empanadas, quiches and cakes and fruitjuice all to DIE for and cheap as hell.
Oh yeah, if you want steak or parillas then VACAS LOCAS is nearby the Plaza Brasil is well. That's definitely one people will know about if you ask around.
I'll let you know if I think of anything else. Lemme know what you discover out there. The Plaza Brasil nightlife is famous I'll be posting about a horrible place with wonderful beer soon.
Good luck and lemme know how it goes out there!
...quick clarification about the Cronopios it's a SOY burger and it's really well done. Great music, waiters are flaming gay if you're into that, the scene is slightly pretentious, really it's a breath of fresh air, almost a big city vibe in an what's overall an extremely un-cosmopolitan city.
Did you mean it is uncultured to assume they eat Mexican tortillas in Chile, or that those who eat them are uncultured? What's uncultured about Mexican tortillas? They are the very basis of their culture, one of the most important things in Mexico, their staple. I guess you could have been talking about white flour tortillas which are the almost the worst thing that ever happened to tortillas. I can't do without my tortillas since I lived in Mexico (although we always had tortillas in the fridge growing up). I must admit that the tortillas in Guatemala are better. I should say that the hand made tortillas cooked on an iron grill over a log fire are better, but since you can hardly get these in the cities of Mexico (only in villages) I say Guatemala, because even in the tortellerias in Guatemala city you see women making the tortillas by hand. They still don't have the automatic pressers/bakers. Ok, your blog is called el c.hileno and not el m.exicano, so enough of the tortillas del norte. Ramsey
R.amsey,
By lack of culture I mean people who automatically assume there's only one definition of tortilla (be it corn or flour), and who when I explain it to them go, "oh, Spanish omelette", which is nothing more than a positive anglo-discrimination dating back to the Battle of Hastings, after which the poor English assumed vernacular of their oppressors, and now North Americans use it to oppress the Spanish. I'm sure the Spanish are as close-minded about Mexican tortillas, they're overpriced in Spain, like Chile. Both these countries have staked out a clear-as-day preference for the Spanish tortilla and I'm not complaining. Have to admit I've got a weakness for flour tortillas, especially when wrapped around a chimichanga Ha! Sorry. Anyway, I hate store-bought corn tortillas, but yours made from scratch are awesome. I also like Venezuelan arepas (pronounced: violaciones), because they're more technically advanced than the Mexican tortilla. Not that you're not advanced...
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