There’s this place on Rodriguez Pena, near Santa Fe, that I have walked by almost every day for 7 months now on my way home after multiple hours of pumping iron and flexing my glutes at (!!!)MEGATLON(!!!). This story is not about La Chuleta (whose locro I still need to try), El Salto de las Ranas…
Another elusive little folder hiding in my “B.s. old food” file (which doesn’t sound that appetizing, forgot the “-As”) gave rise to some good, old-fashioned yummy-pan-chori photos I took when I still thought they were the best thing in the world (now I think they’re just ONE of the best…) What I like about this…
Time stops. You can’t seem to remember what day it is and you don’t really care anyway. Your mind is shaken clear of deadlines, of meetings, of money and what fills the newly vacant space is an overwhelming appreciation for everything around you and a pointed attention to the detail in those things. Rays of…
I was looking though some old files on my computer today as part of a desperate attempt to recycle-bin some shiz and free up space on my hard drive, because I’m a cheap bastard and don’t want to get an external one. Unfortunately since 90% of that virtual eh-space is occupied by food photos and…
I don’t exactly know or care what went on in “El Mejillon” between a certain Mr. Cabrera and the Argentine broad who ordered goat and got a sandwich instead – if it is indeed what lead to the birth of the chivito then I’m sure they worked it out. Constantly tempted, when in Uruguay, to…
There’s this super-exclusive little place in La Barra I’ve been frequenting quite a lot lately that serves up deliciously comforting home-cooking in very small batches (for 2 plates and leftovers). The chef is a slightly erratic Argentine man with longish hair and sharp incisors who was first inspired to cook by the all-too-cool lisped Brit,…
Medialunas Calentitas in La Barra. Very well established (it has a website! an Uruguayan eatery with a website!!!) and known, often reviewed, in NO way overrated. Don’t be a ding-dong and try to find something more original. Just go. Hands down the best medialunas I’ve ever had. For a while now I’ve thought of medialunas…
Parents meeting boy, a strange melange of accents and ideas, mutual concessions both forced and strangely natural, an exciting but stressful exchange to moderate. We needed a spot that would ease the excess anxiety like bread soaking up a spicy sauce. Fish Market Manantiales was the one. Chill sidewalk terrace alongside a sloping road which leads…
Piriapolis, a first stop in Uruguay on our drive from the Montevideo airport to Punta. Weird little beach-ville with a Niceoise boardwalk, a crumbling yet not THAT old hotel, some houses plucked out of Frankfurt. Beautiful blue water, soft white sand, towering hill in the backdrop and that painfully green, cattle-spotted Uruguayan countryside behind that.…
Usually when one gets to know a city for the first time, they look at a map, find something that says “old quarter,” find a museum to go to and then circumnavigate, find a plaza or port to explore and have a sitting-down cigarette and a coffee/beer in. Perhaps a cobblestoned shopping street to stroll…
That Best Bite 