Chile Forum

I apologize, if this seems like a trivial question but is it possible to buy cast iron cookware in Chile?

If so, what type of stores would offer it? Department stores, smaller specialty shops only? How expensive would it be?

We've accumulated quite a bit of cast iron stuff but shipping it is a bitch because of the weight, so it'd be nice to just get the stuff from Chile.

Thanks in advance!

You will have to bring your own. Good luck with the transport part.

Thanks. That's what I suspected.. I guess Chile is not big on the whole health revolution? Also means organic or healthy products will be hard to find gazing from some posts here.

I bring in my US bought food supplements and certain herbal and alternative medicine concoctions rather than bother finding something similar (if even possible) at a higher price in Chile.

There are stores though that sell Mapuche and herbal remedies and simple things like eucalyptus leaves can be had for free here on the coast.

Local vegetables and local fruits bought at the weekly feria are mostly organic because small scale producers are too cheap to spend money on pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, etc. I still recommend that a good organic veggie cleanser be brought to wash your produce in.

loreleiah wrote:Thanks. That's what I suspected.. I guess Chile is not big on the whole health revolution? Also means organic or healthy products will be hard to find gazing from some posts here.

Bring the cookware. Not in your suitcase but if you have some stuff shipped later you should bring it for sure.

Quality cooking tools are hard to find and expensive when you do find them. You'll find in Chile that everybody seems to have the same stuff, clothes, tools, cooking items, electro domestic stuff. There is not a lot of variety being sold in stores. It's almost Soviet in a sense, a limited selection of many items.

As for food, every town has a farmers market where you can get fresh veggies etc. at better prices than the super markets.

Good quality stainless steel cookware is available at the department stores - Paris has good stuff - and for a pressure cooker, definitely buy it here.

I truly regret leaving behind my cast iron, especially the monster griddle. I saw some cast iron in Esquel, Argentina, but around this area of Chile most people cook with aluminum! I eventually hope to buy a few pieces of cast iron here, but nothing will ever be as wonderful as the old seasoned stuff I left. It weighed a ton, but somethings really are priceless.

Thanks for the tips. I will do so. I was looking at the Ripley department store website online and did not see any non-standard items, so that should have been a hint. Maybe some expat can start business of selling organic and homeopathic items in Chile for the foreigners that seek them and maybe some locals too. But I guess it's as easy to order them online from the U.S and have them shipped via one of those package forwarding services like Procomex.

p.s Does the Paris department store have a website?

Where is Falabella? Was your griddle cast iron and how much did it cost?

loreleiah wrote:p.s Does the Paris department store have a website?

Like most sites in Chile, ends in ".cl"

Try:
http://www.paris.cl

Also, many Chilean sites are not configured properly so always type in the "www" part as "<domain>.cl" may not work without the "www" at the beginning.

Muchos gracias! Good website. I like their logo and name. Good to research on what is costly there prior to moving.

And was cast iron, Gloria?

http://www.taboada.cl

Looks like a Valdivia only chain.