We were off! It’s been a bit since we got away for a few days to just relax together. It was also a bit of a mistake, in that I had a senior moment, having booked a private party for tomorrow, and we planned our trip around it, but I’d somehow missed rescheduling it for yesterday in the midst of an email exchange with the host. So we weren’t actually free to go away, or at least not the days we picked, but I didn’t realize it until yesterday morning when I figured I should start planning the menu for tomorrow…. Unfortunately the group wasn’t available to reschedule, and I have no doubt they weren’t happy with us. I wasn’t happy with me. But, these things sometimes happen, even if they shouldn’t.

Anyway, on to a four and a half day visit to Santiago, Chile. I’ve been before, but Henry hadn’t. The plan was to spend some time exploring and him getting to see some of the things I really like about the city. But, like all plans…. Turns out he has several friends in Santiago whom he hadn’t seen in years, plus he ran into some dance colleagues, and so we ended up spending a good percentage of the days apart. And the one day we really spent together, a day trip to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar at the shore, was a bit of a disaster. Never, never, never use the the tour company MTO Tour Chile. Seriously, a complete fraud. Booked through Viator, and I can’t say that their customer service was any better. This was the second time I’ve booked through them, and the second time a tour was not what it was promised to be. Viator did, after I escalated my complaint, refund their cut of the booking, 10%, but I’ve escalated it further to get a refund for the rest. We shall see. [After a month of emails back and forth with both Viator and American Express, Viator agreed to refund 50% of the remaining balance.]

This was my review (which Viator allowed to be published, but their parent company, TripAdvisor, refused to allow, claiming it violated their standards – given that they claim to thoroughly vet all their tour guides, I guess they don’t want negative reviews): Complete ripoff. While our driver was a very nice person, and we enjoyed his company, he was not by any stretch of the imagination a “professional guide”. He wasn’t even an amateur guide. He was a driver, with a car, and upfront about that. He had no knowledge of the things he took us too, and we were taken to almost none of the promised locations. Mostly it seemed oriented towards taking us to souvenir shops, trying to get us to spend time in museums (that were not part of the tour) that he’d meet us back at later (we declined), and an expensive, mediocre, touristy restaurant. The “wine tasting” consisted of going to a wine/liquor supermarket where a salesman allowed us to taste one, and only one, thimbleful of wine. We basically had to accept that the tour was nothing remotely like what was promised, and was a complete waste of time and money.

Other than that, we, or I, did a bit of wandering, visiting my favorite markets, and walks along the river. And, of course, lots of eating an drinking. Most of it not memorable, just casual eats here and there. But four quite good meals, two of them solo. Prepare for lots of photos.

We began, the first night, meeting up near our hotel with a friend of Henry’s from his childhood whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. The place, a wine bar that I’d heard excellent things about, Bocanaríz, José Victorino Lastarria 276, is a cute spot, with indoor and outdoor seating, a huge list of wines by the bottle and a decent number by the glass. Henry will always opt for a rosé if available, and I picked out the Valdivieso “Éclat” Grenache Rosé 2022. Really delicious wine!

A tiradito, a type of ceviche, of grey mullet lightly cured in an ají amarillo and citrus “leche”, topped with slices of daikon and dehydrated beets scattered here and there. Underneath there were small slices of avocado. The sauces were a beet puree and cilantro oil.

Veal sweetbreads served in a Chardonnay and garlic broth, topped with onion foam, and accompanied with sauteed fennel and finely chopped kimchi, and sweet lemon puree.

Grilled ribeye steak, finished in butter, and topped with an onion puree, accompanied by a mix of local potatoes roasted and tossed with parsley, cilantro, and parmesan. A bit of an issue at the beginning, as Henry’s friend wanted it cooked well done, the chef refused to cook it past medium rare, they eventually settled on medium. I understand the chef’s reaction, but, at the same time, hospitality and all that….

Braised wagyu beef ossobuco in a smoky and spicy beef and shellfish broth accompanied by mussels and clams, and a mound of baked root vegetable chips.

Overall, excellent dinner, and the kind of place I wish we had around here!

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My solo dinner out. A bit of a misunderstanding on my part. I thought the place, Olam, Carmencita 45, was a tasting menu only spot connected to 040 Restaurante, but I gather that what I’d read about was some sort of joint, popup kind of event. So instead of having my evening planned out by the chef as I’d envisioned, I picked out a trio of dishes I thought sounded most interesting. Very good selection of wines by bottle and glass, though the misstep of my waiter forgetting to order my wine, so the waitress who brought me the first dish scrambled to serve it, and then took over the table for the rest of the eve.

Confited and then grilled artichoke heart topped with shredded braised oxtail and a cured egg yolk, over a slightly gooey potato puree, and surrounded by an unctuous reduction of the oxtail cooking liquid. I loved the flavors, but it was a bit much of all the same texture. I will be stealing the flavor combination though. Montes “Outer Limits” Pinot Noir 2021 – fantastic Pinot, wish I could get it here.

Loco dumplings – locos being a “false abalone”, a type of snail rather than an abalone. Served in a coconut milk broth infused with the flavor the locos, tamarind, ginger, and lemongrass. A cashew puree over the top. Turned out not to be a great match with the wine picked, but both were quite good on their own. Casa Marin Riesling 2021 – lovely classic Riesling flavors, almost Alsatian in character, with petrolly notes, but very intense and the food and wine ended up clashing rather than pairing. My bad. This, however, is how we hone our pairing skills!

A baked Manchego cheese tart with fresh blackberry puree inside it, a meringue atop, and a creme de cassis sauce around it. Flavorwise, loved it. Personally, I’d have strained the seeds out of the blackberry puree. Paired with Calyptra Fort 2015, a port style wine made from co-fermented Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. Good match with the dessert, but too much, too sweet, to continue drinking on its own after the dessert was gone.

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After Henry organized spending an entire day and evening with several of his friends, I planned an all sushi day, with two different spots, one for lunch, one for dinner. In the end, only lunch came to pass, as his friends canceled dinner plans, so I canceled my second sushi plan so we could eat together, though in the end, he didn’t want to go out, so we just ate in the hotel. Ah well. Lunch, however, was a delight, at Naoki, Av. Vitacura 3875, offering up a Chilean take on Peruvian Nikkei sushi and cooking. I’m not going to put all the photos, since they served the sushi a piece at a time, omakase style, though it wasn’t an omakase, just the things I picked. One minor negative, all their nigiri sushi is served in two piece portions. I asked if single piece was an option so I could try more, and they said, of course. What they didn’t say was that they charge about 2/3 the price of the duo, not half. I’d have still done it, I just would have liked to know.

Soft shell crab, done almost Korean fried chicken style, with a sticky, spicy, sweet glaze, half of it in a handroll, the other half solo. Yum. I could eat these all day. Korean fried softshell crab should be a thing.

I wasn’t going to do simple nigiri, I can do that anywhere, I wanted their unusual and interesting stuff. This was a reasonably classic glazed eel, unagi, but topped with seared foie gras and crispy bits of seaweed, plus a sort of taré sauce broken with what might have been the fat of the foie gras.

Sole, lightly torched, topped with thin slices of clam, also torched, and the whole thing bathed in white truffle butter.

And, the most unusual, a tempura roll of piure. Now, I’ve seen piure, and here’s a photo…

… these were in the Mercado Central when I visited years ago. They’re a weird looking creature, not at all appetizing in appearance, known as the “blood rock”, as someone described it, “a bunch of bloody looking organs in the middle of a rock”. In flavor, very similar to sea urchin, though a little sharper in flavor. Usually eaten raw. And, in this case, raw, with rice and vegetables in a maki, and a dipping sauce of vinegar, soy, and a mix of flavorings – maybe ginger, garlic, and something else. I liked it.

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And, finally, our last night in Santiago. The city kind of closes up on Sundays, it’s really hard to find open restaurants, and, not having twigged in advance to it being Mother’s Day, we hadn’t made any reservations at one of the few places open that were on my list. However, a local friend recommended The Rooftop Bar, at the Singular Hotel, Merced 294, which turned out to be only a few minutes walk from our hotel, and they had space available (in fact, only a few people dined there the whole evening).

Known for their creative cocktails, we decided to go that route instead of wine. Their combinations are interesting, and tasty, though at least the three different cocktails we tried were all a bit heavy on the sweet side, and most of the descriptions sound like they lean that way.

Oysters on the half shell with a jalapeño foam. Yes please.

A ceviche mixto, with, interestingly, green onion pureed into the leche de tigre instead of slices of red or white onion. Henry’s not a salmon fan, so I ate the salmon and he ate the shellfish. Quite good, could have used more picante, and the two raspberries and two blueberries added nothing to it other than color.

A lovely smoked shellfish and potato soup with lightly charred onions. Dish of the evening.

 

And a griddled piece of congrio, which they describe as conger eel, though it’s really not. Like here in Argentina, it’s a cusk eel, which is a different order of fish, with white meat instead of oilier dark meat. Served in a mixed mushroom and mussel broth, with the mushrooms, mussels, and some cherry tomatoes. Good, though I didn’t quite get the raw tomato and mushroom elements – the dish would have been far better if both had been cooked.

I know, way too much. Deal with it. It’s just four places. All four worth dining at.