Santiago Fish Market

One of the best eating experiences in Santiago is at the fish market. It is a huge building of wrought iron that was manufactured in Birmingham in the mid 1800's, and you can see architectural similarities with typical English market halls.

There are numerous stalls selling bass, dorado, merluza and others that we had never heard of. There is a huge array of shellfish too, including the biggest clams I have ever seen, mussels, sea urchins and huge hermit crab type creatures that poke their claws out of their shells.

Chupe de Mariscos 

In addition to gaping at the stalls, you can eat lunch at one of the many restaurants at the centre of the market. These range from stools at a bar where there is no menu and you choose what you'd like by pointing at a fish, to more formal sit-down restaurants with waiters. We ate in a few different restaurants and found them all to serve delicious food at excellent prices. We tried ceviche of bass, which was fresh, spicy and plentiful. Clams coated in Parmesan before baking (a Santiago speciality) were huge and delicious, and not to be eaten too often for the sake of your arteries! Consommé de mariscos was a clear seafood broth with chives and a floating poached egg. Paila de mariscos was a similar broth but this time loaded with mussels, prawns, crab, squid and octopus, and decorated with a huge crab claw. Chupe de mariscos was a stew of seafood and white fish thickened with ground corn and cheese.

The food was always washed down with beer or white wine, with pisco sours for pudding, and was always delicious. Being surrounded by the noise, sights and smells of a bustling market makes for a fantastic atmosphere, and if I had to choose one place to eat in Santiago it would be here.