The best café in Santiago

My favourite place for breakfast and lunch in Santiago is in a neighbourhood called Barrio Brasil near the university. It's a quiet haven of loveliness in the chaos of the city, where you can sit and read a book for a couple of hours.
There you'll find a café called Café Tales. They do a good line in salads, sandwiches and even Whittards teas.

This salad - verduras de temporada - is particularly tasty. It's a warm stir-fry mix of red and green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and carrots and costs $1,700 - that's around two pounds. I have it for breakfast or lunch - sometimes both.

Sometimes they serve it in this round wooden bowl, sprinkled with finely grated Chilean cheese called chanco and huge parsley leaves. Other times it arrives on a white plate, spooned into a large lettuce leaf.

It depends who's on in the kitchen.

Either way, it tastes even better with a good glug of olive oil at a table on the covered balcony that overlooks the old square with a fountain.