540 Kaleuche 01 - caldillo de congrio

            When and where were you happiest? For me, it might have been on October 20, 2023, at a seaside restaurant called Kaleuche in the central Chilean town of El Tabo, enjoying the conger eel soup depicted here. Earlier that year, my wife and I planned a two-week trip to Chile to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary and, early on in the process, I began lobbying for a visit to this restaurant. The reason relates to the late author Roberto Bolaño. My reverence – or, to some, "ridiculous, fawning admiration" – for Roberto Bolaño is the subject of mockery in my home, but that's only deepened my affection for him. (Bolaño's incendiary genius is undeniable, but my wife disagrees.) In 2022, I'd read the collection of his essays and articles titled "Between Parentheses," which is the closest thing we'll ever have to a Bolaño autobiography, and found in it a gem of a piece about the author's return to Chile after a self-imposed exile of 25 years. In that piece is the wonderful tale of Bolaño's encounter with the renowned poet Nicanor Parra (one of Chile's literary immortals – almost literally, as he lived to the age of 103). After visiting in Parra's home, Bolaño and Parra came to this restaurant, a favorite of Parra's, to eat and continue their tête-à-tête. I put "Between Parentheses" down and solemnly proclaimed to my wife that this place, Kaleuche, had called to me, and that I must go there. "You just want to eat weird seafood," she said. (Touché. But don't we all have our passions?)

October 20, 2023, was gray and misty in El Tabo. A day made for reflection and poetry. We arrived at Kaleuche at 3:00 PM and were the restaurant's only customers. I got the most exciting-looking thing on the menu – the eel soup depicted here – and it was absolutely delicious. I was in heaven with my exotic seafood and the woman I love across the table from me, smiling, happy that I was happy. I realized that the differences in our literary tastes truly don't matter. Out of deep appreciation and respect, I didn't bring up Bolaño again in conversation for another two or three days.

Some rights reserved

Taken in: Chile / Región de Valparaíso / El Tabo / El Tabo (show map)

Taken on: October 20, 2023

Tags:

El Tabo

Valparaíso, Chile

Chilean restaurant

Chilean cuisine

Kaleuche

caldillo de congrio

conger eel soup

soup

dining

eating

Poets' Coast

Litoral Poeta

restaurant

beachside restaurant

seafood

food « less

Sets appears in: • Poets’ Coast & Viña del Mar, Chile ~ Oct. 2023 ~ 50 photos • Food! Of all kinds!

Groups appears in: • Chile • Real Food more » • Lugares de America Latina y El Caribe! • Bonne, et belle cuisine du monde / Good and beautiful food • Chile es TUYO « less

Camera: motorola moto g(7) power, f/2.0, 1/100 sec, 3.9mm, ISO 152 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	motorola moto g(7) power
Aperture:	f/2.0
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	3.9mm
ISO:	152
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.0.1 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 112 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder