Jan 30, 2013
La Vega Central Market
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Credit: Ivan Kashinsky/Panos Pictures
A sprawling landscape of stalls and carts in the center of Santiago, Chile, La Vega Central Market vibrates with the brilliance of the country's agricultural bounty: fat yellow onions stuffed in mesh sacks, comically gigantic ears of corn, squash in every shape and hue; persimmons, custard apples, and other fragrant fruits; wild potatoes from Chile's Chiloé Island ranging in color from pale yellow to saturated scarlet and a purple that verges on black. At lunchtime the place fills with office workers and laborers and indigenous people in colorful garb eating steaming bowls of
cazuela, chicken stew; sopaipillas, quick breads made with pumpkin; and tamale-like
humitas. It is the best place in the country to get to know the universe of Chilean food—and to fall in love with it.
La Vega Central Market
700 Calle Davila Baeza, Recoleta, Santiago, Chile
This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #153
