Saturday in Santiago: Despensa Gourmet
Last weekend, we went to yet another food event: La Despensa Gourmet. Despensa means pantry, and this event was focused on gourmet goodies to stock your larder. Yum.
No strangers to Santiago food festivals, we found ourselves impressed by the quantity of samples on offer. Usually these things see me scrounging around for tiny pieces of bread dipped in olive oil and little mini crackers with various spreads. Here, we got small plates of pasta with a choice of sauces and a side of pasta salad. Fancy!
Another hearty option was the Maggi soup stand. The very generous cups of corn chowder or spinach soup were very welcome on a cold day.
Probably because of the weather forecast, this event was held inside. The only downside of La Despensa Gourmet was that the crowds were insane, making it hard to get close to any of the stands to try or buy, and making photos all but impossible. (Yes, that was me excusing myself for the picture quality here)
Of course, there was still plenty of olive oil on display. The guy selling this particular brand made it interesting by teaching us how to properly taste olive oil. No bread dipping here, just proper slurping technique.
Other old standbys made their appearance – cheeses, spreads, charcuterie. But Rodolfo and I commented on having seen different brands than we usually find at these things, which made for a nice change.
We did buy a couple things, but our big score was those delicious chocolates. The cream cheese we got was a steal, and the sausages absolutely delicious, but nothing competes with artisan chocolates.
Based on that purchase alone, I’d declare Despensa Gourmet a success, but the truth is that apart from the crowds – which did thin out eventually – it was all good. I only hope they repeat the event with the same level of quality next year!
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Saturday in Santiago
Oooh – nice samples! I wish we had a place like this here…I miss gourmet shops. I’ve given up on yummy imported things from the EU in Norway – the taxes are so high you’d spend a paycheck on them.
Boooo to expensive Norway. Gourmet things can be pretty pricey here, especially if they’re imported, so it was nice to get some tastes for free.
I wish we had such an event here too. That is why I miss Montreal and Europe so much. What were they selling at Patagonia Austral? The stands look great…your pictures do show us quite a variety of available products. Is it free to attend one of those events? Or do you pay a fee and have access to free samples? Thanks for sharing
I got to go to this one for free because my bank was one of the sponsors and gave out some free tickets to the first people to ask for them. The full-price fee was US$8, which I think would have still been very worth it, especially since you could get 25% off by giving them your details (presumably to market to you later on, which I’m perfectly fine with when it comes to people trying to sell me food!).
I miss food festivals and markets! I am closing my eyes and can imagine eating one of those heavenly chocolates <3
They are truly delish. But surely there are some good food festivals in DC, no?
I’m sure there are but it’s hard for me to get up there — even though it only takes ~2.5-3 hrs from my house to the city itself. With everything I have going on recently, I haven’t been able to afford the gas or time. *tear*
Oh whoops, I thought you were closer than that. Sorry for rubbing it in!
Ha, no worries
Charlottesville has plenty of great places to eat. It’s just not large enough for festivals. I finally went to our Farmers Market and was gone within 30 minutes. Alas.
This looks like so much fun! Our food festivals are quite different from yours haha. You have bread, cheese, and olive oil…we have fried pickles and pigs feet.
Haha, ohhhh, the south. I’ll keep my kind of food festivals, thanks!
Looks delicious, especially the chocolates! There might be nothing better in the world than a food festival!
The chocolates were amazing. And I agree, food festivals are great!
Hi Emily,
Looking great! I was wondering how you find out about these food events. Is there a website that lists them?
Thanks
I find out about these things somewhat randomly, but FoodyChile.com (who I actually just wrote about in my most recent post) is a good resource for a lot of food events.