On our last day, we go to Emporio y Restaurant Melí in
Frutillar, a small town on Lake Llanquihue in the southern
reaches of the country. Albisu eagerly joins executive chef
Claudio Ávila to help him prepare a lavish lunch featuring a
multitude of Chilean ingredients, many gussied up with the
house-made condiments, like mustard laced with blueberrylike maqui berries and a smoky, spicy merquén sauce. When
the meal is ready, we all gather at a communal table aglow
with the rays shining through the skylight above us. Albisu
thanks our hosts, we all toast, and we dig in.
Biting through the fryer-kissed exterior of a quenelleshaped papas rellanas to reveal the stewed beef and smooth
whipped potato inside, I’m reminded of Neruda’s “Ode to
French Fries,” in which he references the spuds’ conveyance
of “the delicious simplicity of the soil.” And then the poetry
fades into the background as I take another bite.
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