The historic Mercado Central, the long-time covered marketplace in central Concepción, burned down in 2013 and never quite returned in the same form. Most of its traders moved to the Vega Monumental, a vast covered market to the east of the centre, which is now the city's main food market — fruit, fish, cheese, mote, fresh seafood, and rows of cocinerías serving plate lunches.
Come hungry and at lunchtime. The cocinerías specialise in Biobío classics — paila marina, congrio frito, cazuela de vacuno — at prices that have not been adjusted for tourists, because there are essentially none. It's noisy, slightly rough around the edges, and entirely real.