Mercado Paula Gourmet
Last weekend, Rodolfo and I went to a gourmet fair put on by Paula magazine. It was held in Vitacura, at Parque Bicentenario, which is a huge, pretty park where Lola loves to play – they even have a dog agility course – and we go there pretty often. Bonus points for swinging by Punto Limpio first to drop off all our recycling. Anyway, last weekend we brough neither Lola nor bottles and cans because we were focused on one thing: scoring as many free samples of gourmet food as possible.
The entrance fee was $3.500 (US$7), which isn’t cheap. Notwithstanding the price, the place was packed when we arrived at 3. We made our way down one end of the stalls to be met with all sorts of culinary delights. Olive oil featured prominently, with avocado oil a close runner-up. Honestly, I don’t know much about what makes for a good quality olive oil, but I could taste the difference at one stall where they had single-varietal oils (apparently most olive oils are made of a blend of different types of olives). I don’t like avocado – I know, I live in Chile, it’s a sin, moving on – but avocado oil didn’t taste like liquid guacamole, and both Rodolfo and I agreed that it would be yummy in a salad dressing as it had a bit of a deeper flavor than olive oil.
We only remembered to break out the camera after lunch – cheeseburger for Rodolfo and organic salad for me, which just makes me laugh because those are such stereotypical male vs. female lunch choices – so we didn’t take pictures of the stands where we actually went back and bought products! Ocle makes yummy sparkling juices, and we got a 4-pack with two bottles of apple and two bottles of their “black” flavor (blackberry and plum). Very refreshing on a hot day. We also bought two different spreads as gifts for people. One was artichoke with merken and the other sea urchin and coconut. I didn’t try it, so I can’t comment, but Rodolfo said it was good. Our last purchase was a replacement for the pizza stone I decided to throw on the ground a couple months ago. Luckily I didn’t have to make time to go to the grd store during work hours because they had a stand at the fair. They have some really cool, modern products made out of traditional dark brown clay and are starting to work with other materials as well, so I’d recommend them if you’re looking for fun housewares in Santiago.
Now, without further ado, onto the pictures!
I’m really sad that blogger insists on making this photo sideways because I think it looks pretty good the right way up! Rodolfo took this over my shoulder as I tried the sun-dried tomato pesto, and I think he had the camera upside down, so even though my computer puts it the right way up this stupid platform think it needs to go sideways. Ugh. At least the pesto itself was good.
Nothing for sale, just a display of locally grown produce where they were handing out pieces of fruit
Cooking demonstration with some chef whose name I can’t remember
Honey was another common product. This particular stall had honey with different spices intended to be used for cooking.
Hard to take a photo of, but it was cool to see these bees making more honey
Stall offering goat cheese with different spices and even salmon
Clearly we weren’t the only people there! By the time we left at 6, you could hardly walk, and more people were pouring in. Lesson learned: go in the morning or at lunchtime.
that looks like it was really fun! i was planning on going to it but a few people talked me out of it saying it wasn't all it was cracked up to be but it sounds like it was exactly what I was hoping for–oh well! I'll go next year.
I wouldn't say I'm a foodie…I mean, I don't even like cheese or fish. But, I do like EATING food. And that sounds like a perfect way to spend a Saturday!
Isabel, definitely check it out next year! It was a really nice afternoon out, and I think we probably ate at least $3.500 in samples, so I don't feel like it was too expensive
That looks like fun! And $3.500 doesn't seem too steep, especially if sampling is involved. Great pictures!