الاثنين، 25 أغسطس 2014

Montevideo's Amazing Puerto Mercado

By Jonny Blair


Markets are an amazing part of travelling!! Montevideo has a lot to offer market wise, none more so than the indoor Puerto del Mercado in the Old Town. I loved it!

THis market in Uruguay is the Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo - it is situated down by the Old Town near the harbour and features a good range of Uruguayan style food to suit all tastes! The area is rumoured to be unsafe by night so best to head late afternoon for your feast!

The market is well laid out and very clean. You basically just rock over to a seat by each bar/restaurant and order from the bar. Some are slightly more posh with waitress service. We ended up at La Maestranza, a wee barbecue restaurant with a very pretty waitress who I believe was called Natali.

The beer was Patricia - very popular and thirst quenching in Uruguay. You buy beer by the bottle and share it in glasses. This is the cheapest option and the beer doesn't get too hot quickly. At that time (November 2010), Montevideo was enjoying a hot summer.

At the entrance to Puerto Del Mercado. We went there by bicycle, hired from the hostel and you pay a guy to look after the bike - this seemed to be the safest option.

You choose what you want from the many items on the menu - as much or as little as you want (and you can buy more if its not enough) and they fire it on the barbecue and cook it in front of you. When it's ready they put it on a plate and you share it. Wesley and I both had similar tastes so no arguments! We chose Chorizo, Morchillo, Salchincha and Rincon - 4 types of cooked (pork or beef) sausage and meat. You get bread and sauce to eat them with.

With your barbecued meal you get sauce and some garnish and crackers - you don't pay for this - it's free - you only pay for the meat and the beer so leaving a small tip is a good idea.

While we were eating a local TV crew were filming and they came over to ask us questions! This was funny as my Spanish wasn't very good but we were able to have a chat and talk about a few things! I enjoyed it!

The menu - prices are individual in Uruguayan Pesos. At the time my bus from Parque Rodo to Plaza Independencia cost me just 17 Pesos, and a 1litre beer was 100 Pesos so you can see the barbecue was quite cheap for what you get. Some of the options were meal deals, but Wesley and I chose the "pick and mix" idea, choosing our own and sharing them. We did this in order to get some variety for our money.

The market has an upstairs as well and I just popped up to capture a photo. Our restaurant - La Maestranza. Well recommended. Seriously, as foods of the world go - you will love it! Uruguayan Parrilla (pronounced Parisha by the way). Yum!




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