Wednesday, January 12, 2011

SANTIAGO's (Chile) superb seafood experience is ACQUI ESTA COCO(12-18-10)

While I am not sure how many of you get to Chile, but if you do, don't
skip dinner at ACQUI ESTA COCO (www.acquiestacoco.cl) in the
Providencia neighborhood in a grand mansion that has been totally
rebuilt since devastating recent fire. The seen is fun plus with an
inverse wooden ship hull design as the ceiling, a cute raw bar mini-
ship with mast at the rear, red leather whalefin chairs and sinks
outside the bathroom that Samuel simply called awesome. There were
three huge driftwood basin sink with foot pedal pumps to boot.
Even the Christmas decorations were adorable and tasteful in miniature
red wood webbing. Add all this to some of the best seafood we have
ever had, and you have a great night out.
It was impossible to choose so Will & I chose three starters each as
delectable as the next:
OCTOPUS CARPACCIO with Black Olive Mayo Sauce, Lemon & CIlantro was
superb and the mayo was more of a light dressing than a creamy
overpowering mayo. RAZOR CLAMS in Parmesan Cheese are a long narrow
not at all chewy local tender clams cooked a la clams casino and
broiled with smothering parmesan cheese that will make anyone have a
foodie orgasm. CHILOTAN CEVICHES come in the coolest of stemless
martini glasses held on iron 4 prong "trees" from a large dark wooden
plank. The presentation is gorgeous and the ceviches are true bliss:
Sea urchin, shrimp, octopus, scallop and crab claw were in one glass
and a spicy Peruvian style sea bass with lime, onion, and endive was
in the other.
Our first wine was a LEYDA Single Vineyard GARUMA Sauvignon Blanc that
would outshine any similar wine and worked brilliantly with the
ceviches and everything else.
Samuel opted for the Seared SALMON with SOY and Fried RICE. The rice
was really not "Chinese" style fried and Sam declared "I could come
back again and have this tomorrow..." We agreed.

The main courses were good but not as amazing as the appetizers.
SEARED SWORDFISH with Black Butter Sauce & CHARQUICAN, a vegetable
smash of squash, peas, corn and more benefitted from the slightly
spicy salsa on the table (at every meal in Chile), while the MAI MAI
CONGER EEL was a monkfish textured thick fleshy eel that you would
have sworn was fish. It was beautifully prepared with ham, corn,
mushroom and shrimp in a yummy sauce. The two steamed potatoes seemed
so weird and useless and I would have preferred rice to mop up the
yummy sauce instead of the potatoes.
Our main course wine was from the uber famous MONTES ALPHA vineyard in
Leyda as well and for $40 their PINOT NOIR '07 was perfect with these
big fish dishes as the were aged in French oak and had spice and fruit
in the back of the mouth with each sip.
Did I mention that at each place was a different colored dyed eelskin
"place mat" although they were narrow
and really did not cover the place setting, they were novel and fun.
While Samuel enjoyed scoops of MANGO Ice cream we chose the ELOGIO a
la LACUMA. Lacuma is a traditional Chilean dessert made from eggfruit,
but here the "homage" turned it into a delightful and thick with
superb topping creme brulee with Myrtleberry Compote. Even a cute spun
sugar "spoon" was on the side.
We loved all the food, all the fun and got used to the slightly off
service (which is pretty basic here we have been told by everyone),
and had a delightfully fabulous night on our first day as we head even
further south.