A taste of Chile — An Elegant Sufficiency

Some of which comes in a glass!

Just three hours time difference here means that we weren't too troubled with jet lag. However, a poor night's sleep on the plane meant that we were both struggling to stay awake into the evening. Our usual means of managing that is to book a table for dinner. Thankfully we'd driven along a row of attractive restaurants before turning the corner to our hotel, so we knew we didn't have to go far. A quick internet search identified La Cabrera which had great reviews and sounded like the kind of place we’d enjoy.

Catalina, who'd met us at the airport, had asked us what we loved about Chile and smiled at the answer 🍷. She also recommended we try Pastellera di chocclo, so with a glass of delicious Chilean Carmenere in hand, we looked for it on the menu.

Sure enough, there it was on the list of side dishes, immediately below another curiosity, “Chilean style side”. We made a note of those two and turned to the main event over the page.

Now Catalina had also recommended pasta, but there wasn't any way that we were going to spent one night in South America and eat pasta! So, appreciating the aromas which came from every waiter's tray of sizzling meat as they passed by, we swiftly moved to the list of steaks. Our waiter Diego recommended the Striploin cooked medium rare for my Hero and the peculiarly named Outside Skirt for me, best cooked, he said, medium. OK.

“And sides?”

We explained that we'd been recommended to try the Pastellera di Choclo and asked about the “Chilean Style side”. He rattled off a list of components that I didn't quite catch, but nodded and said that he thought we'd like it. OK again.

Ten minutes later…

The Strip Loin.

The Outside Skirt.

The Pastellera di Choclo

and the Chilean Style Side!

The steaks were delicious, wonderfully seasoned and cooked to perfection. Juicy and flavoursome, the condiments served alongside (a variation on Bearnaise sauce, a seasoned salt/pepper mix and a flavoured olive oil) were terrific. Both sides were interesting - the corn pudding rather sweet for our liking, but the combination of chips, caramelised onions topped with a couple of fried eggs…well, what's not to love?

As he came for our empty plates, Diego asked if we were interested in dessert?

We’re in South America. Come on…Churros! With Dulce de Leche!

We agreed we'd share one portion - though Diego added some blueberry sorbet on the house, blueberries being another Chilean speciality (who knew?) I'm sorry, but we'd polished off the lot before I remembered to take a photo!

We sat for a while and savoured the last drops of Carmenere, recalling the fabulous meals we've enjoyed on our travels in South America, one of which was as we left Mariner in Buenos Aires a few years ago. I just found the blog post about that and note my steak there was 875g!! (Last night's was 300g) We really enjoy travelling here and this short overnight stay has been great.