When the city of Santiago, Chile, was founded in 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia, it was named in tribute to James the Great, patron saint of Spain. And while one might reasonably think that “James” in Spanish, would be the equivalent of Jaime, and, it sometimes is, it’s more often considered the equivalent of Diego or Santiago, based on some weirdly convoluted Latin logic. At the same time, the explorer intended his establishment of a city, one day to be a country, to be an extension of his home region – Extremadura (“on the other side of the Duero (river)”) – in Spain, and called the region Nueva Extremadura.

And, we were there, once again. The second time this year. On our previous visit in May, Henry encountered a childhood friend, whom we had dinner with one evening, and she, in turn, reconnected him with a couple of other friends from forty-some years ago. He decided it would be fun to spend his birthday getting to see and know them once again. So it was off for a long weekend.

The first day, after arriving in the afternoon, was taken up with preparations for, and then attending, his birthday party at one of their houses. A fiesta that went into the wee hours. You know how much I love that, especially in the middle of a houseful of people whom I’ve never met, and who aren’t quite sure why there’s a yanqui in their home. But we ended up hitting it off, and spent more time with them over the next days.

One of the fun, if touristy things we did, was headed to the top of the Sky Costanera tower, where you can look out over the city from one of its two observation decks. It’s rather impressive, and I’m surprised no one ever recommended it before.

Mostly we did casual stuff, wandering about – a bit of shopping, some galleries, an artesanal fair, spending time with his friends (he took one day on his own with them and headed to Valparaiso and a day of sun and beach, while I hit a local museum), and, we ate a lot.

The Museo Ralli, Alonso de Sotomayor 4110, in the Vitacura neighborhood is well worth a visit. It’s focused on art from Chile, mostly contemporary or modern, with some artists from neighboring countries, and even a few from elsewhere, like a small selection of statuary by Salvador Dali.

Let’s move on to food! I’m just going to single out the particularly interesting stuff.

After our visit to the tower’s observation deck, we found ourselves, at lunchtime, in the Costanera shopping mall at its base. While most of the food court offerings at this mall tend towards the usual suspects, I’d spotted that there’s a branch of Barra Chalaca, one of the various chains under the Gaston Acurio empire (along with Astrid y Gaston, Tanta, and La Mar). One just opened recently in Buenos Aires and I’ve yet to get there, so this seemed an opportunity for a preview of sorts. I have to say, for a crowded Sunday afternoon at a mall, where you’re literally eating where shoppers pass by your tables, this was surprisingly good.

Of note, the ceviche cartillero. Now, a classic cartillero, literally meaning served by a person at a cart, a street food version of ceviche, is fairly simple – cured fish and shellfish, some diced vegetables, and usually topped with fried calamari to give it a little contrast and crunch. This was good ceviche, topped with some seaweed, no fried calamari, and the addition of cubes of cheese. Odd, but good. I don’t think either of us had ever had cheese in ceviche. And, kind of missing the fried calamari. And yet, we enjoyed it. The main courses were less interesting, and let’s say, “rice heavy”, without much to accompany them. Does that bode well for the one here in BA? Hard to say, since looking at the menus, they’re quite different.

We had set out to meet up with two of Henry’s friends for dinner at the great little wine bar we found last trip – Bocanaríz, but we got delayed in transit, and by the time we got there, not only was our table given away, but the hostess informed us they weren’t even taking walk-ins anymore (it was 9:30), because the kitchen closes at 10:30, and, well, we wouldn’t want to make them work right up to the end of their shift or anything. Henry asked if there was a Peruvian restaurant nearby, neither of this friends knew the immediate area well, but Google Maps showed a reasonably well rated spot just four blocks away.

And, so, we spent a lovely evening at a sidewalk table at Como en Perú, Merced 456, on the edge of the downtown area. Of most interest, a chilled combo plate for the table to share, with a mix of ceviches, octopus in olive sauce, a shrimp cocktail of sorts, and more. Main courses of mixed shellfish with rice, and with noodles, and a lomo saltado, were all pretty good as well. And overall, pretty inexpensive.

Long time readers, who of course hang on my every word, will remember my first visit to Santiago, almost exactly 14 years ago, and while exploring the Mercado Central, my chance meeting with Richard, El Rey de Mariscal. It was an interesting meal for the company of Richard himself, who sort of latched onto me at the time, and gave me a bit of a market tour, along with serving up an excellent mixed seafood plate. This time I went with the classic that he’s known for, the Mariscal El Rey, a whopping bowl of mixed, chilled shellfish that includes all the classic stuff like shrimp, prawns, clams, mussels, scallops, calamari, and octopus, but also limpets, locos (false abalone), and piure (sea squirts). Henry went with what was sort of the hot version of the same, a classic Chilean soup called paila, the “el rey” version of which was a bubbling cauldron of mixed fish and shellfish – a bit simpler with just shrimp, prawns, mussels, and clams. Both excellent. Richard has moved digs to a different section of the market – it’s a bit smaller of a space, but, as he said, he owns this one rather than sublets the space he previously had.

Unquestionably, for me, the meal of the trip was at La Mesa, Alonso de Córdova 2767 in Vitacura. We met up with a friend of mine and his… ex-wife… for dinner at this absolutely lovely restaurant. Beautifully appointed. Superb service. And, absolutely excellent food, dish after dish. Of particular note the fresh scallops in a mildly spicy peanut sauce; the seared magret of duck with a fascinating cauliflower puree tinged with white chocolate; and an excellent grilled asparagus and artichoke salad. Other dishes included a vegetable tartare, a seafood risotto, and a seafood pasta, and a fascinating pistachio, orange, and elderberry dessert. Great wine list. Fantastic conversation. Best night of the trip for me, though I imagine for Henry it was his birthday celebration night at his friends’ home.

As noted, I had a solo day. After the museum above, I headed for lunch at Fukusawa, Av. Nueva Costanera 3900, Vitacura – in another shopping mall, Casacostanera. This mall is high end, and the restaurants take up an entire floor, and are each completely separate, fancier spots – no food court here. The place gets raves for its sushi, and I did enjoy everything I tried. But I can’t say I was wowed by it. In particular, I thought that the rice was just not right – it was cold, but not room temp cold, actually cold, and seemed to be unseasoned – no sense of the usual mix of sweet wine and vinegar just giving the rice an edge. And while there were some creative combinations, they were limited and repetitive – a particular approach, like, say, with a sauce and jalapeños – but the same thing offered for half a dozen different fish. And, “toro” is tuna belly, not salmon. Period.

I also wasn’t thrilled with the service, which was a bit snobby, and not overly friendly. Examples: I asked the sushiman in front of me for some recommendations and he basically left it at “everything here is good, and every piece is just as good as any other piece, so it doesn’t matter what you order”. Really? I call bullshit. I don’t care if you’re making it up on the spot (well, I do, but…), pick a couple of things and enthuse about them – “oh, this is my favorite”, or “you’ve got to try this one”. And it’s one of those spots where the moment you lift up the piece of sushi from its plate someone runs over and grabs the plate from the table, before you’ve even gotten it into your mouth. It just all felt a bit uncomfortable. I much preferred my sushi meal last time at Naoki, for service and the quality and creativity of the food (albeit I’ll give Fukusawa props for the beautiful space it’s in).

I guess, in some ways, this solo day out was a bit of a disappointment food-wise all around. My evening was at La Calma by Fredes, Av. Nueva Costanera 3832, Vitacura (we were staying in Vitacura, so more of where we ate centered around there). I had a solo reservation, but rather than getting a lovely table in the main dining room (of which there were quite a few for two, that remained empty the entire time I was there), I was stuck at a table for four sandwiched between a service bar and the kitchen. It was noisy and a bit smelly, and every waiter constantly passing by the table. It also seems to be where they stick English speaking tourists, as the other tables were quickly filled with such folk. I wasn’t speaking English.

Service was really, really pushy, from the maitre d’ who seated me to the waiter. Attempts to upsell to the most expensive stuff on the menu (“oh yes, that combination platter is for 2-3 people, but it’s so good, you surely won’t mind shelling out $120,000 pesos for it ($140)). Yes, yes I would mind that, especially as most of it will go to waste. The same for wine – I wanted a glass, my waiter wanted me to order a high-end bottle, even bringing it to the table, despite my not ordering it. They were out of numerous menu items. A crudo of palometa, a type of butterfish, was okay at best. The main course, a sort of surf and turf, of sweetbreads, scallops, locos, and king oyster mushrooms, was tasty, but other than the combination, uninteresting. Basically no seasoning other than some salt. No sauce, no… nothing… to give it some flavors that complimented the bits and bobs.

I declined anything further, much to the disapproval of the waiter. Got my check, got out of there (expensive), and, had violent food poisoning just a couple of hours later. Probably the butterfish crudo. But, who knows. Could have been the sushi, but it was a lot of hours afterwards, so unlikely.