An ode to the sea. (Ojo!).

THERE'S A SAYING among Chileans. God created their country last and built it out of the world's leftovers. The linguini-strip of a nation has mountains, deserts, rivers, fjords, glaciers--the works. Spend some time pondering menus of baby conger eels, sea urchins, and a shellfish called pivre that looks like the inside of diseased brain and you'll start to think the native cuisine was created from the ocean's leftovers.

Credit the Humboldt Current, the cold deep-sea stream that sweeps north from Antarctica for yielding a fishmonger's dream. ...