Valparaiso Food: Seafood, Chorrillana, and the Casablanca Wine Valley
The food culture of Valparaiso reflects the port city's access to the finest Pacific seafood alongside the working-class Chilean cooking tradition and the proximity to the Casablanca Valley, one of Chile's premier wine regions known for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.
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Chorrillana: The Iconic Valparaiso Dish
Chorrillana, a loaded plate of french fries topped with caramelized onions, sliced beef or sausage, and fried eggs, is the signature dish of Valparaiso and the most requested item in the traditional bars and restaurants of El Plan and the cerros. The dish originated in the Bar Cinzano on Plaza Anibal Pinto and has spread to become the defining working-class meal of the port city.
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Pacific Seafood: Congrio, Locos, and Choro Zapato
The Pacific seafood available in Valparaiso's restaurants and markets represents the full range of the cold Humboldt Current upwelling: congrio, the Chilean cusk eel that is the basis of Pablo Neruda's famous ode and the most celebrated Chilean seafood dish; locos, the Chilean abalone; choro zapato, an oversized mussel unique to Chilean waters; and the full range of Pacific fish from reineta to lenguado.
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Empanadas de Mariscos: The Chilean Seafood Turnover
The seafood empanada of the central Chilean coast, filled with a mixture of shellfish, onion, and cheese in a hand-crimped pastry case baked in a wood oven, is one of the most satisfying portable foods in Chilean street cuisine. The empanada vendors of the Valparaiso port area and the beach towns of the coast are among the most reliable sources of the authentic version.
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Casablanca Valley: Cool-Climate Wines Between Santiago and Valparaiso
The Casablanca Valley, situated between Valparaiso and Santiago at an altitude that benefits from the cooling Pacific influence, is Chile's most important cool-climate wine region and the primary source of internationally recognized Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Day trips from Valparaiso to the valley wineries combine tastings with the coastal landscape that defines the character of the wines.
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Bar Cinzano and the Historic Port Bars
The Bar Cinzano on Plaza Anibal Pinto, one of the oldest continuously operating bars in Chile, embodies the authentic working-class bar culture of the Valparaiso port with its dark wood interior, live folk music on weekend evenings, and the combination of chorrillana and local pisco that has sustained the institution through more than a century of operation. The bar's atmosphere is an experience of Chilean coastal social life unavailable anywhere else in the country.
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Pisco: The Chilean National Spirit
Pisco, the grape distillate produced in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions of Chile from muscat varieties, is the national spirit of Chile and the basis of the pisco sour cocktail that is the standard welcome drink in Chilean hospitality. The debate about whether pisco is Chilean or Peruvian in origin is a matter of national pride in both countries; the Chilean pisco sour, made with pisco, lemon juice, sugar, and egg white, differs from the Peruvian version primarily in the pisco style used and the garnish applied.