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…
Although I personally have grown quite weary of the very concept of the milanesa, having ordered one too many grease-bombs that left me curled up in bed, whispering little-league-coach-like encouragement to my digestive system (“Come on little fellas, we can do it! Let’s take ’em out of here!”), I had to put one in front of…
Morcilla is where most U.S.ers draw the line in the context of “sketchy” meat parts, seso is where many Argentines do. I’m talking about the young, cool Argentine, the overpriced Vie Bohème rag wearing portenos, long-haired collectors of neon platform Birkenstocks and identical Prune bags. Mention eating brain for dinner to these painfully hip youngsters and they’ll…
On nights when I don’t want to treck it to Palermo but still want to partake in some low-key merriment here in Recoleta, I usually go for El Sanjuanino. There are many reasons why it is my dive of choice: 1) a pinguino (nifty penguin-shaped porcelain jugs which can hold an always-surprisingly amount of crappy…
That Best Bite 