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Published: March 8th 2007
Birthday Lunch
Reineta (pink Chilean fish), salmon, and tuna sashimi. Can't you just taste it?Up early in the morning with a whole day to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the birth of Meli. I tell her from the jump, “what baby wants, baby gets!” She wants sushi and to see Pablo Neruda’s house. Done and done! We drop off our laundry—who really wants to get back to the USA on Saturday with laundry to do—and walk to Restaurant Japon. The stroll over is in the opposite direction we usually take, and we start to see everything we wanted to see from Santiago. Fruit stands, bigger and better markets, bookstores, restaurants, and more. Once we get to Japon, a place Meli was lucky to find on the web and that was on a street our map didn’t label, it turns out that they open at 1pm, not noon. With an hour to blow, we search the Plaza Italia for Internet access. The spot we landed at had the dirtiest keyboards on earth. Meli’s fingertips had black dots on it after only40 minutes. Disgusting! But, good news. We find out that there may be a new addition to the family, predicted by Nostradamus (aka Tito Raffy), that
La Chascona
Matilde painted as two-faced by Diego Rivera, who was also friends with Neruda´s second wife. She put it up anyway as she knows "the value of a Diego Rivera." everyone remembered Meli on her big day, and that Napo in the Fache is going triple Uranium (ring tones coming out soon so you got to stop hating, Louis). After 30 minutes of soiling our fingertips in the Internet café, it’s time to celebrate Meli in style.
A Funamori is too much, but Sashimi and Pisco do the trick 1300 hours and it’s time to open up Japon. Meli has passed up several opportunities for snacks, with my urging, and is more than ready for her birthday lunch. Our eyes are much bigger than our stomachs, so we order up a meal for three: miso soup, shrimp and vegetable tempura, sashimi grande, arco iris (rainbow roll), mitad salmon/mitad palta (salmon rolls and avocado rolls), urumaki with spicy salmon, pisco sours, and water “without gas.” The miso soup never came, but it’s just as well. We pondered going for the Funamori, a large boat packed with more food than previously mentioned, but we exercised self control. First up, the pisco sours. I am a big fan of this drink, which has a Tequila taste to it. Meli hates Tequila, so I know I’ll have to finish hers. We get half
La Chascona
Could you pass the weed, please? I need more morphine on my french fries... Neruda liked to tease his conservative friends by putting the salt and pepper in these shakers. way through the piscos, when each dish begins to arrive in quick succession. We have our work cut out for us! The tempura is scrumptious, especially the squash. Next up, the sashimi grande. The highlight of this platter was the Reineta (a pink Chilean fish that tastes familiar). The other dishes were not far behind. We went to work. The waiter laughed as he brought platter after platter. No worries…we did not disappoint. The only thing left was the ginger and one sad little spicy salmon roll. In my opinion, Meli did not bring her A game. A third of the way into lunch, she was claiming “Full” but I told her to bring it, so she started taking the rice out of the rolls. I finished up my pisco sour and Meli’s. Still, her birthday lunch met her expectations…I’m happy, she’s happy, our bellies are happy!
Basoalto just doesn’t do it, I’d go for Neruda too We hoofed it to Bella Vista to look for Pablo Neruda’s house, La Chascona—meaning, a woman having a bad hair (buhaghag) day. The place was named for Matilde, Neruda’s third wife with whom he started their relationship while still married to
his second wife. She had curly, red hair and was a strong featured beauty. She is the one depicted with Neruda in the film “Il Postino.” La Chascona’s other name is La Medusa, so she must have had some tangled crazy hair, although I must admit, all her pictures in the house showed her with well-placed curls. Bellavista is one of the thus far undiscovered treasures in Santiago for us. This discovery rapidly changes our entire outlook on Santiago. Barrio Bellavista is what we’ve been looking for all this time, and we’re sorry we didn’t hit this spot up sooner. Meli knew she wanted to go to La Chascona from day one, and if it weren’t from those sporadic events that tainted our first few days, we would have discovered this place sooner. I’m feeling this bohemian/cultural neighborhood. It is full of young people that look as granola as Berkeley. Pubs, restaurants with outdoor terraces, patios with boutique and quaint locales, museums, hostels, law school, German immersion high school, book stores with travel guides (oh, if we had just been here last weekend!), and lapis lazuli artisan stores. Schweet, kewl! I take back my negative impression of Santiago. It’s been
Salud! Happy 31st!
Leroy started without me! there all along. I’ve been too ignorant to know it. Santiago, I’m sorry! And thanks to those of you who have written us with advice in hopes of saving our trip here!
At the base of the Cerro San Cristobal, we find La Chascona. It is a work of art. Instantly, I return to the autumn of 1999 when I was in Paris. The class was called “Translation—what is gained and what gets lost!” with Dr. Fieldsteiner from Stanford at ESCP. Maman, remember the Tintin translation project I did? It was for that class. During the autumn, we studied Neruda and Cézanne, among others. Here I am, in Pablo Neruda’s house. Meli recalls the Neruda poem she read at Xandra’s wedding, with Sam providing the English translation. She also remembers her Generación del ’27 poetry class during her study abroad in Madrid in spring of 1997, where they pored over the verses of Spanish poets like Lorca and Cernuda, and of course included greats like Neruda. Her favorite poem is by Neruda, and she owns the “Il Postino” DVD. This guy holds so many memories for both of us. What an ideal setting for Meli’s 31st!
We take
La Chascona
The Bad Hair Day house of Pablo Neruda a tour of the house/museum, which is built like a ship. Supposedly, Neruda was afraid of the sea and did not learn to swim until age 48. There were numerous items from a ship there, including two sculptures from the prows of boats, a bar, a table, portholes, and many lamps and lanterns. He considered himself a “man of things,” not a
collecionista but a
cosista. The windows are designed with symbols representing Matilde (medusa hair) and the two of them (P and M). There are paintings by Diego Rivera, Siqueiros, and many other famous artists whose names I cannot recall. He said his house was also built like the human body; the first building had the bar, dining room, and pantry with guest room above (the stomach); the second, designed like a lighthouse, had the master bedroom (the heart); and the third housed his library and reading room (the brain). Each room was filled with glass, metal, and wood items from all over the world, placed together with no logic whatsoever. Oh to be an artist! Meli’s favorite room is the library, which is just a replica because the original one was burned down during a coup, especially because
Neruda was a known communist. She could not help staring at the old copies of “Veinte Poemas de Amor” (20 poems of love), which has some of her favorite poems. The library also showed a picture of Neruda accepting his Nobel prize two years before he died, complete with parchment and medal. There were pictures of him with Picasso (kissing him on the cheek), Jorge Amado (famous Brazilian author whose museum we mentioned in our Salvador blog), and Vinicus de Morães (the author of Girl from Ipanema). The entire time, I’m thinking that I want a house just like this, escape door via the pantry and all. We fall in love!
How did a man named Neftali Reyes Basoalto become the world famous Pablo Neruda? How did he know that he had to change his name in honor of a Czech poet (Jan Neruda) and a French poet to become big time? Neftali Reyes Basoalto just doesn’t do it for anyone I guess, including the man himself. Cerro San Cristobal was so near that it almost made it to our list of “things we did in Santiago” despite our earlier reluctance, but with the bad smog today (we couldn’t
La Chascona
A painting at the museum cafe even see the Andes from La Chascona) and the late hour, home was our next destination. We leave La Chascona in good spirits and take a circuitous route home so that we might run into more Santiago treasures. Funny thing, we find ourselves on the other side of Cerro Santa Lucía and then make our way home (after grabbing a piece of chocolate cake with raspberry and dulce de leche for a little candle blowing ceremony later).
Thierry Henry meets the Devil, with the Colonel supplying dinner Long story short, Arsenal loses to PSV—score 1-1, but PSV advances on having more away goals scored. Meli decides on KFC for her birthday dinner. The great thing about being in a foreign country…KFC delivers. Bottom line: We were hungry, but we were not going to leave the apartment while the game was on. 4 pieces of chicken, 3 chicken strips, fries, coleslaw, mashed ‘taters, 3 cheese mini-empanadas, and a 1.5 liter of Pepsi hooked it up. Add a bottle of the Devil’s Cellar Shiraz and she got a birthday dinner fit for a queen. That and lighting a match (representing thirty-ONE candles) on top of her cake. Where Thierry Henry failed
La Chascona
Leroy and vases await a cafe cortado before the museum tour. Ship´s prow in background. us, the Colonel from Kentucky looked out. As it stands, the champions and the runners-up from last year’s UEFA Champions League are out. Thierry Henry, Ronaldhino…what happened?? This is the World Cup all over again. How do we always end up rooting for the losers?? Athens in May is not going to be what we expected. Oh well, we have to show up. Only question is who will be there with us.
Meli’s birthday was just as she wanted it. “I was with my baby, I got sushi, Neruda, cake, vino tinto, KFC, and UEFA all in one day.” I suppose the only thing that would have made it better would have been Real Madrid and Arsenal advancing to the UEFA Champions League quarter finals. One of the best parts of today was enjoying Santiago and finding some of its treasures. Tomorrow, we go for another one - Valparaíso, a seaside town and world heritage site which Neruda also made his home (La Sebastiana).
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Mel (Bigger Brother)
non-member comment
Age & Vacation
First let me stop crying long enough to wish you happy birthday. And next I am so friggin jealous of all the cool spots you guys are getting to visit. Meam gets to go to Chile this summer with her EMBA program, I don't get to go, what's that about. The art is fantastic! Mel