Mercado del Puerto

Bienvenido a Montevideo! For my welcome to Uruguay meal I ate lunch at a swanky restaurant in the Mercado del Puerto. I was expecting this Mercado to be more along the lines of the Boqueria in Barcelona. It's not. Here the market consists almost entirely of parrilladas, restaurants specializing in MEAT (welcome to Uruguay!). When I say meat, this is over the top. They have whole racks of sausage, chicken (splayed flat as well as pieces), offal, cuts of beef, pork, lamb, the list goes on... all sitting over charcoal cooking. Each parrillada in the Mercado has a counter where you can sit and watch your meat grilling, or a seating section. There are only a few actual shops in the market, and they consist mostly of Uruguayan chotskies.

 So for lunch I played it safe. I decided I would have a spur-of-the-moment splurge, welcome-to-South America meal. I chose El Palenque which was the nicest looking restaurant in the Mercado and also one of the more crowded. I ordered grilled swordfish and a glass of medio y medio. Medio y medio is the other national drink of Uruguay (after yerba mate). It is half sparkling wine half still. Mine was pretty good and went straight to my head, which is a good thing because the fish was sub-par: a very large piece of swordfish lightly floured and pan fried, swimming in oil, and very overcooked. The zucchini strips sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onion were excellent. All of this for $690 (34.50 @ 20 pesos/U$S) which puts me way over budget for the day (which would be ok if it were at least worth it!). Lesson to self: Do not be tempted by the "nicer" restaurants. If I'm going to splurge on this trip it's going to have to be for a restaurant whose reputation precedes it!