The markets of Santiago and the worst dish I had in a while

Yesterday was my third day of free guided tours around Santiago (they're obviously not really free as you leave a tip, but really good deal anyway). This one was my favorite one. It lead us through the more chaotic and less touristy parts of town, four food markets and... the Santiago cemetery. The visit to the cemetery was actually really interesting but that's a topic for a separate post...

Mercado Central dates back to 1872 and is the most famous and the most touristy of the Santiago markets we visited. It boasts a pretty cast iron roof, which interestingly was produced in Glasgow and shipped over here. Apparently the locals did not have the technology capable of producing a similar construction, unlike the good old Scotland. Mercado Central focuses on seafood and so it does not have that much interest to me unfortunately (although veeeeery slowly I'm widening my seafood horizons - I've very recently started liking shrimp! Great success!). We left mercado central and crossed the river over to the dark side of town... La Chimba!

The streets got busier, sketchier and dirtier but also much more lively and interesting. We passed by a smaller fruit & veg and meat markets and ended up at our final market destination - Vega Central. It was total and absolute chaos there. The labirynth of paths was lined with discarded corn and cabbage leaves, it was so crowded it was hard to move at all, sellers were shouting prices at the top of their lungs, and in the middle of this all there was a live performance by a Peruvian busker. And there were cats everywhere. They couldn't care less though, they were just chilling in empty boxes and on top of produce...

I'm not sure how we managed not to lose anyone from our group there. I almost got lost because I was too busy imagining how much cherries I was going to buy there after the tour - it's summer here and all the delicious summer fruits are in season! Paradise for true cherry lovers like me. Might I also mention that cherries in Seattle cost $5 for half a kilo while here it's $1.5 per kilogram of this red gold.

After the tour finished I did what had to be done and jumped back into the madness of Vega Central. I came out victorious carrying multiple bags filled with fruit. But something else also happened... Apart from the fresh produce stalls, the market also features a bunch of eateries offering local cuisine. So I decided to finally try the dish that I had been hearing about for a few days by then. PASTEL DEL CHOCLO. Let me get straight to the point: it is truly and utterly terrible. It sounded like a terrible idea before I tried it, but I thought maybe somehow magically it just worked. Well it absolutely doesn't.
What's inside? This is a fun list:
- corn paste (normal so far)
- ground beef (standard combo, carbs&meat)
- onions (onions are always good, true)
- raisins (now it's getting weird. Although sweet & savoury is often really good so maybe?)
- chicken (throw in more random meat for good measure)
- piece of hard boiled egg (because chicken comes from an egg?)
- olives (because why not)
- SUGAR (go away.)
The sugar goes on top and the whole thing is baked. The sugar melts into the rest of the layers and also forms a caramelised later on top.

WHY.

I thought maybe it was some weird traditional dish that normal Chileans didn't eat anymore but no, it seems to be pretty popular and also widely available as ready made meals etc.

I've been trying to remember any other disgusting foreign foods that I've tried. Only a few come to mind actually:
- Gjetost cheese in Norway
- long-life presliced toast bread in the UK (the first bread I bought there, I still remember my horror)
- spray cheese sold in the US
- pickled eggs in the UK
I'm sure fermented shark meat would be on this list if I had had the courage to try it while I was in Iceland...

Time to eat some more cherries now :)