Santiago and la Habana

The Andes from Providencia

 Another trip to Santiago and still lots of new and cool things to do. Everyone says the city is great except for the terrible pollution. I have been very lucky to be there on clearer days and in the picture above, you can actually see the ski village in the Andes.

Didn't make it to the Mercado Central but we did go to the big seafood wholesale market about half an hour from the Providencia neighbourhood.

Awesome fish and seafood market!

Shocking prices for seafood! Well, I wasn't surprised that salmon was about $5/lb but we got a kilogram of big white clams for $1.50! If I lived in Santiago, I would be eating seafood all the time. Probably better that I don't since my GF is allergic to shellfish.

Scallops gratinado and champagne. Why not?

Elizabeth worked her magic and after quite a bit of work cleaning, rinsing and prepping, we had scallops and mussels gratinados. White wine, garlic butter, parmesan cheese and toasted bread crumbs. And giant plates full.

And Mussels!

I also did a simple white wine, olive oil, onion and garlic clam steam that was quite tasty.

I try to be a low maintenance guest and don't expect people to spend hours driving me places ... but my hosts were kind enough to take me out into wine country. After a lot of research, we settled on a country estate and a very small vineyard.

The parking lot of the estate ... as far as we got.

The estate was lovely, from the outside, but after being told that we could come and visit, the idiot guard said there was a private function and we couldn't go in. We waited for 15 minutes as he called up from the gate trying to find out if we could just walk around the grounds (well before the event) and we finally said f*ck it and left.

We drove by many vineyards including the ginormous Concha y Toro installation ... but didn't stop. I wasn't interested in seeing big coaches and hordes of tourists. We finally ended up on a very small and deserted road and came up to a gate guarded by probably the oldest person working for G4S. He looked like he was 80 years old!

He checked us off a very short list and sent us up through the fields of grape vines and up to this beautiful estate. We parked and made our way up to the restaurant.

Lovely wine with our afternoon snack.

It only had about 10 tables and was about a third full. We were early for our tour and tasting so we decided to have a light snack washed down with a fantastic bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

We finished up and went to find our tour guide who happened to be hostess at the restaurant and cashier, I think. We stepped out and she walked us through to the vines and ... was surprised to see that our tour group was just us! She said that there were two other people but they would catch up a bit later.

Our awesome guide Salome

Our wonderful guide Salome told us about Haras de Pirque, where the owner combined his love of horses and wine to create a beautiful vineyard in the Maipo Valley. She told us about the grapes and the soil and how this lovely valley and rolling hills created a great micro-climate for producing outstanding grapes. Its true that wine only comes from beautiful places.

It was so peaceful and serene and quiet. Salome said she lived in the area and only did tours once a week but wished she could work there every day. The grape harvest was coming up in a few weeks so it would be all hands on deck and she, and everyone else in the valley, would be working.

Salome has taken quite of few of these shots.

We tasted the almost fully ripe grapes, cab sauvignon, carmenere, sauv blanc and they were tiny and very sweet. Then a tour of the plant and checked out the giant wooden barrels. The building was in the shape of a horseshoe and the fountain in the middle had a glass bottom ... that was the skylight for the underground cellar and tasting room.

We finally met up with the other two people just before heading to the tasting room. Lovely couple from Wyoming doing a wine tour of Chile and Argentina. She was a vegetarian chef/owner of Sweet Melissa's in Laramie. How cool is that? But too bad she is going to miss out on the seafood and beef in the area! That is why I believe strongly in being a flexitarian so you can enjoy everything life has to offer.

Inside the horseshoe and looking over the fountain.

 Salome set out some very lovely glasses and had us try four wines. The final one was a 10 year old cabernet sauvignon that had tremendous presence with its colour, bouquet and quite a refined flavour. She only poured about an ounce each and there was a ton left in the bottle so I asked if I could have a bit more and she said "no." Ha ha, no hard feelings, I had a lot of wine that day. And very charmingly, like the young Concha y Toro woman at the wine festival, Salome liked cigars! So I gave her a couple of nice Habanos that I was carrying around. And I also said I would come back with a bottle of Canadian ice wine since she had never tried that and was curious.

In the tasting room.

So meeting Salome was probably as interesting as visiting my first Chilean vineyard. It was wonderful to meet someone with such a passion for wines who was able to enjoy living and working in such a beautiful, tranquil, and isolated ... almost fairyland, full of positive energy. They were recently bought by Antinori, the giant Italian wine conglomerate but I think they are taking a light hand with their management.

Danny keeping me well supplied with good beer.

Such a short visit and on my last day, I walked up to Avenida Providencia and met up with Dany, Marisol and Mia. Dany is quite the Chilean gourmand and brought me to Tip y Tap for some traditional food.

Some of my favourite foods in the world, all on one plate.

I had this nice appetizer with grilled shrimps and veggies and smoked salmon. 

More raw meat! And chips.

Then steak tartar, french fries, and artesanal beer. Frickin yum!

Mia, my charming luncheon companion.

Also managed to grill some delicious rib eyes and various types of kimchee washed down by some kick ass wines. And then off on the red eye to Lima where they let me stay in the lounge for my eight hour layover rather "inviting" me to re-register  (i.e. pay money) after my four hour Star Alliance allowance ran out! Still, it was a long trip and I was relieved to get to Havana where a cold beer and a cigar was waiting for me.

Del Frente, before the lunching hipsters rush.

Just briefly, had a nice meal at El Frente but it is getting too crowded with American hipsters! Ate three times at Bella Ciao, once at Nero de Seppia. 

Not Tibetan monks but cold Canadians.

Went to Cocinero on one very cold night (which meant we could actually get into the place, frickin American hipsters ruining another place) and they kindly handed out orange fleece blankets so we could stand being there. Also went to 4You for some drinks where, if you can believe it, we ran into a crowd of about 12 wannabe hipsters from Buffalo, NY! Then it dawned on me ... spring break in Havana. Yikes.

Danny back at Meson de la Flota!

Great to see everyone back together.

  Highlight was seeing Danny Villalonga coming back from Ecuador to dance flamenco with Ana Rosa of Grupo Ecos! Haven't seen them dance together for about 7 years.

Flamenco a second night at Tablao under the Gran Teatro.

My last chance to see Grupo Ecos before their 6 month tour in Turkey.

Had many late nights and closed Fabrica de Arte at 3 am and then closed another bar in Miramar at 4:15 am. Huge line up as usual at FAC but some of our compatriots have VIP cards so no waiting, no cover and we could go out onto the terrace of the VIP bar and smoke cigars. Have to get me one of those.

Hmm, apparently we are the hipsters at FAC.

Notable new restaurant, the Buena Vista Curry Club. I haven't mentioned it before since they only had a soft opening with a partial menu. But they now have Vindaloos, Butter Chicken (which was very tasty), and Tikka Masala (of course) to go with all their roast meats. They brought two Tandoor ovens from India along with Vilmar, the Indian hotel trained chef. He makes great Naan bread. And the best part, the place is cigar friendly! I brought some kimchi making supplies for the chef and they gave me one of the owner's giant custom cigars and a Chai Rum for dessert. And the kicker is, they have a large live band playing on the mezzanine that is a bit too loud BUT they have the last remaining orchestra member of the Benny More Orchestra. That is amazing.

Delia waiting for the curry!

The week also saw the baptism of my best friend Delia's son Jose, now residing in Miami. 

Enjoying cigars and the terrace with Pedro.

So Pedro came down from Toronto and I got to meet Christy's lovely adopted daughter Ester who now live in Rome. Lester was also down from Toronto with his two great kids Diego and Isla and it was awesome getting together with everyone at Delia's house (where I lived for about 7 years). 

The lovely senoritas Ester and Isla.

And another old friend of the house saw Lester's FB post on his way from Bolivia that same day and came by to play dominoes. 

Proximo!

Wonderful to sit out on the terrace with many bottles of rum, big cigars, and the family playing dominoes!

Jose's lovely wife Arlin

First time in 20+ years I have seen any of this family in a church!

Everyone in their Sunday best.

The Priest's assistant was a bit casually dressed ... Miami Heat sweatshirt, shouldn't be a surprise!

So made it for the first five minutes of the baptism before I had to head for the airport but that was nice to see as well.

Then after some ridiculous travel days, a short two hour flight home to San Salvador.

Comida Típica and the Market

I have really been enjoying writing this blog and think it is great that someone from Moscow is reading about my life here. I am in the middle of reading Stalin’s Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith and would love to experience the Moscow of the homicide detective Arkady Renko. Interestingly, one of his novels was set in Cuba (Havana Bay) and I still recall from the first novel, Gorky Park, Renko walking around Moscow with a small Cuban pineapple in his pocket which he would periodically take out and smell to transport him to the sunny island paradise while his world was threatening to crash down around him in cold Moscow.

Rene, Fatima and myself at the Mercado
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I also see that friends in Spain are reading my blog - so leave comments if you have any questions about life here.

The pupusa!

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So I will finally turn to the local food or comida típica. I think I have delayed this because, while I really enjoy it, I don’t know it very well yet.

Our first starter at Maurita's - Quenelles of fresh salty cheese
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The most traditional food here is the pupusa - a corn or rice flour thick tortilla that is stuffed with cheese, chicharrones, and beans. It is made by making a masa or dough with the right amount of water because consistency is very important. Then you take a ball of dough, make a hole inside, put the filling in, fold the top closed and pat it out between your hands - no press or machine can do it as well. Oh, you can put a bit of oil on your palms so it doesn’t stick. Then fry it up and eat it with cortida (which is a vinegary cole slaw made with hand cut cabbage, carrots, sometimes onions and jalapenos, and oregano) and a water tomato sauce. Oddly, this national meal is also slang for a woman’s private parts because the patting together of the hands while forming the pupusa reminds some people of Lesbians getting it on. Excuse the vulgar anecdote here.

Our second starter at Maurita's - Chicharrones with fried tortillas and pico de gallo (the salsa like stuff)

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This food is popular with all Salvadorans although some of my gringo friends hate them and claim that you will always get sick from eating them and that the pork is rancid. I have eaten them from maybe 10 different places/stands and never had a problem. On the Travel Channel, I saw a show where both Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern ate pupusas in NYC and they were both familiar with them and love them ... so that’s great food cred right there.

Fatima's separate and stuff technique

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I think that Fatima has the best way of eating them. She separates the two halves and then eats them like two soft tacos with the cortida on the inside. We all love them in the house but don’t eat them very often since they are very fattening and very condusive to turning regularly proportioned people into very round people.

The girls at Maurita's
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What I find really maddening is that pupusas can only be found for breakfast or dinner - and I think it is the perfect lunch food! I have heard various explanations for this - that it was supposed to be a big filling breakfast that workers would have at home before heading out to the fields to work all day. And the opposite where the workers have such a big lunch with meat, rice, beans, salad, tortillas or bread that they only want something small like a pupusa at the end of the day. Whatever the reason, this is harsh fact of life in El Salvador - although we were able to get pupusas for lunch one day when Elliot and his two friends were visiting from Canada.

The amazing waitress (left) who found us lunchtime pupusas!
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We were at my favourite comida típica place, the Mercado de Antiguo Cuscutlan, looking for a food stand that had pupusas. A lot of the big flat top grills were making tortillas but all the fixings for pupusas were put away. I offered women $5 tips to make a few pupusas ... and was turned down at 5 different places.

Fresh oysters on the half shell at Maurita's

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We ended up at Mauritas where I explained the problem to a waitress and she said hold on ... and came back saying she found someone who would commit the social outrage of cooking pupusas for lunch but we had to pay a 10 cent premium on each one and we had to order 20 of them ... done ... and enjoyed!

My favourite ... Sopa de Patas

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So that is how we came to become loyal to Mauritas. There are probably about 40 food stands and we have eaten at maybe 8 of them. Many of them are very quiet and empty but Mauritas is probably the biggest and busiests (and they take credit cards). They have fresh oysters (for $8, $10 and $12 per dozen, depending on the size), black clams that my friend Minh says are like the kind they had in Viet Nam, and all the traditional meals. We always start with a fresh soft cheese, avocados, and chicharrones (which is actually the name of a fried pork rind but is made here with big chunks of pork meat fried in pork fat), with fresh and fried tortillas.

Sopa de Mariscada

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The the girls usually have a big seviche and I will have a big bowl of Sopa de Patas - a very hearty soup made with cow’s feet and served with big pieces of tendon, tripe, and big chunky vegetables like corn on the cob, cabbage, yucca, wiskil, and carrot. It is served with chopped onion and cilantro and I cover it in hot sauce.

Counting the empties to get a free Pilsener key chain ... sweet!

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Yum! Usually have 3-4 beers provided by the lovely Constancia and Brava beer girls who are constantly fighting for our patronage - Constancia has skinnier girls who offer little gifts like glasses and beer openers while the Brava girls are larger and bustier women who offer a free beer after having 6.

What's that smell? Oh, they brought the kids.
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The other great traditional soup is Mariscada which is a rich seafood soup made with fish, shrimps, langostine, and crab. Maybe some clams too? Then they pour heavy cream into it when they serve it (which is optional - you can have the healthy version which has more veggies in it at some places). Very delicious, rich, and messy if you take the small crab apart.
You can also get really fresh seafood - it goes from the fishmongers into the frying pan here. I tried a turtle egg once ... I know, a protected species but very popular here. It was put into boiling water for maybe 30 seconds and served to me ... it had a soft and leathery shell, you make a hole in the top, put in salt (maybe lime or hot sauce as well), then you suck out the liquidy mess ... did not enjoy that at all.

The stand where they grind the fresh corn for masa for tortillas
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Reminds me of the Sopa de Garrobo that I had once at another restaurant. An iguana soup where the reptile was first boiled to make a broth and then the carcass was fried and served as meat ... the broth was bitterish and quite unpleasant while the animal was extremely bony and had virtually no meat on it. Wow, not good. BUT, I was at a gastronomical food fair where 300 Salvadoran chefs set up at the Sheraton’s big ballroom and the best thing I tried was a Sopa de Garrobo ... rich, deep, delicious ... and am kicking myself for not finding out where that chef worked.
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Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables
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So we like to meet friends at the Mercado and we have a big weekend brunch meal. It has been getting a lot more crowded on Saturdays since Sky TV in Mexico took over the rights to broadcast Spanish Football in Central America. So the thousands of fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid have to go somewhere that has a satellite feed to watch their beloved team ... which makes the Market a popular place with TVs at every food stand. Afterwards, we go to the DVD stand and I buy a bunch of bootlegs to bring to Cuba and we go buy vegetables. The Mercado also has a shoe repair place, shoe stores, hair salons, a florist, stationary shop, and an artesanal goods shop. If you make it down to visit, I'll have to take you to this place.

Cooking pots and corn grinders made from volcanic rock

If you make it down to visit, I'll have to take you to this place.