crepe suzette

A celebrity master chef segment inspired me enough to attempt this!  They made it look so easy methodically, and all within 10 minutes I decided to give it a go! It came out lovely, though not quite as evenly flat (maybe cos we used a regular frying pan- or the batter was not thin enough?) It had a nice slight chewy texture though.  Adding dessicated coconut to the orange sauce gave it a slight savoury edge- yum! 

Mercado Central (Central Market) & La Vega (Comida Chilena Pt 1)

When in doubt, head to the fresh food market!

Have you see the inside of a Sea Urchin? @ Mercado Central, Santiago

We love visiting fresh food markets! Its a blood line of any city or town, and you get a real flavour of how people work and eat at the markets!

Mercado Central is located in the centre of the old town, housed in a pretty yellow old building.  It is the wholesale fish and seafood market of the capital with little local and larger touristy restaurants mixed with shops selling grains and dried goods on the outer set. 

Handicrafts & Trinkets Stall. 

A Pretty architectural feature from inside the market

QUANTO ? (How much)

The Central Vegetable Market (La Vegas) is across the river from Mercado Central.  Upon walking into this new building, it immediately reminded me of the Sago Street Market at Chinatown back home in Singapore. 1F: Veg+Fruit 2F: Sundries, Clothes and Cooked Food. And what a pretty and splendid idea letting in skylight! And the bustling food stalls on the 2F  indicated that lunch time was upon us.  Chilean Lunch hours range from 1-3pm,  if you want to beat the crowds for lunch, go at noon!

This could almost be in Singapore! 

Black Maize, Plum coloured potatoes and peppers from a Peruvian Stall at the Market.

 

An Artichoke bouquet!

As non-spanish speakers, ordering food becomes a happy mix of guesswork, guidebook browsing, drawing, sign-language and luck!  As a pescatarian, it was tricky as meat is a big part of the Chileno diet.   And it makes up the main part of the meal with Veg on the side.

After scouting, we parked ourselves at Donde Kery, it looked the most crowded (with locals) and busiest ! Among 3 of us, we shared a Cazuela, a sort of soup and Grilled Fish and Rice with Potato.
Potatoes and Rice are common starchy sides accompanying meats and mains.  The portions are really generous too ( not as big as North America but sizable!) so sharing was a common feature in our meals.  

Cazuela, with beef, sweetcorn, carrots, runner beans and rice
in an oily beef broth. Hearty and great for the winter!

Pescado Y Arroz (Fried Reineta Fish and Rice)

MenuBoards at the Market. Spoilt for Meaty Choices. 

*fresh beginnings*

 No tummy troubles and well, from our first unguided wild mushroom forage! 

From the evening sidewalks of Penalolen, Santiago 

So we begin a new page ( new look )by dipping our spoons back to the summer, where we spent time with family who recently moved to Chile.  A long strip down the western side of South America, its funny how the geographical shape coincides with the fruit, Chili -similar to its name. Etymology points to various native Mapuche or Quechua meanings of the same sounding word referring to "Land's End" or "cold".  

Stretching over 4,630 km from N to S and 430km E to W ( at widest point) With the Andes Range bordering the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West.  Geographically diverse and fertile land benefits from the best nature offers :) Although we were there in winter, there was more sunshine from 3 days in Santiago then a week of the (present) English summer!  

We'll share sketches of our trip via the food in subsequent posts! ....As soon as S2 figures out how to order the posts around the food item or place or chronological order...

" Eggs from a Happy Hen "

Kelp and Potatoes at a local Farmer's Market, Santiago

Santiago by Sunset 

K

Wild Mushrooms

Its been awhile.... since the last entry and in case you were wondering.... we havent stopped eating or cooking or trying to go running ( to balance in/out puts! ) We've been behind on our posts, but have been collecting pictures and tales to share which we will do so soon...

If we survive tonite.

Mushrooms have become an interest in the past year or so and we have been out foraging with a field guide (once) , a farmer friend (once) and a couple times on our own.  We do not know enough about the various types of mushrooms and have heard about the complexities even for the "expert" at differentiating the various types.

Although it is still a bit early in the season, we were out foraging and found some nice mushrooms, some of which we believe are oyster mushrooms.  We were very careful, looking in guides and online to make sure that they were not any other similar but inedible ones, and decided to take a chance and go for it.  It was very tasty, so at least if it turns out deadly we would die happy!

into the woods!

chicken of the wood?

We came across a bunch we think maybe "chicken of the woods" as introduced by the field guide on a mushroom walk last autumn.  But since we were not too sure, we left it and only took the oyster mushrooms we felt fairly confident about.  According to the Roger's mushroom application, we had a 86.9 % match with the characteristics of the oyster mushrooms and it smelled and tasted like one too!

Its been 3 hours since dinner and we are still feeling ok :)

oyster mushrooms fried with butter