Donde Augusto
San Pablo 967, 8320009 Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile
This restaurant is located inside of Mercado Central de Santiago. Mercado Central is a large market that sells many things, bust mostly seafood. There are booths with giant fish being bought and sold, as well as other types of seafood like octopus. I enjoyed seeing the market, but I can see how some people would be uncomfortable being in what is literally a fish market.
I was going to film a video of the market, but I stopped and ate lunch instead. A very friendly worker at the market started talking to me about the different types of traditional food in Santiago, and he mentioned a dish called pastel de choclo. Choclo is the word for corn in many parts of South America.
I was confused, because pastel means cake, and I thought it was going to be like a sweetened corn bread. He explained to me that it is more of a savory dish. He showed me the pastel de choclo and a number of different dishes that the restaurant made and explained to me what they were. They had a lot of different seafood dishes, but I had tried a lot of seafood in Chile already, and was intrigued by his suggestion to try pastel de choclo.
It was served in a large dish, similar to the way a pot pie would be served. It looked similar to a tamale pie, with the top made out of a cornbread. The top was something like a corn pudding, or a sweetened corn bread. Underneath was a mixture of ground beef, a chicken wing, black olives, and I swear he said raisins, but now I wonder if that was something lost in translation.
I forgot to write down the exact price, but I think it was about 10,500 Chilean Pesos. It felt like a very authentic recommendation because it was one of the cheaper items on the menu. Based on the size of the dish, the significant amount of meat it contained, and the relatively higher prices of restaurants in Santiago, I felt like it was a fair price.
I had a great time at Donde Augusto and would not hesitate to go back and try other things there. I would also like to get to try pastel de choclo at other restaurants to see what it is like.
Everyone at Donde Augusto was very friendly. It was fun to get to chat with them and hear about their favorite foods. I was worried that because it was in a market they would not take credit cards, but they did.
I only wish I had more time to get to explore the rest of the market. It is a very large market, and I think I could have spent a lot more time there.