Markets are magical everywhere you travel and Montevideo offers a lot of these. I went to a lot of them while in Uruguay and simply loved them, whether it's a food market or a goods market.
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 layout of the market is easy to navigate and it is clean. You find a seat by any restaurant and oder directly from the bar in front. Some bars and restaurants have waitress service. We ate at a place called La Maestranza a barbecue restaurant with a waitress called Natali.
You have a few options for beer, I chose Patricia one of the local Uruguayan beers and it went down well. Buy it individually by bottles and share it - this saves it from getting hot which was a hot time when I visited.
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.
I'm never far from drama however and while this was all happening, a local video crew notice I'm foreign, and hear my accent so they come over and make a video of me. I had only started to learn Spanish and wasn't great at it. But they ask me what I think of Montevideo. I said that I love the food, I come from Irlanda del Norte and I liked watching Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez in the 2010 World Cup. It was all over in a flash and I got on with my dinner. It was funny yo be interviewed as you can tell the camera crew are giggling at me!
A beer cost around 100 pesos and for the food it's best to do a pick and mix option which gives you variety and saves a bit of money as you are buying in bulk. The menu is straight forward and no problem with ordering.
To summarise, Montevideo is excellent for barbecued food, known locally as Parillas and you should head to the excellent Mercado del Puerto to try 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 layout of the market is easy to navigate and it is clean. You find a seat by any restaurant and oder directly from the bar in front. Some bars and restaurants have waitress service. We ate at a place called La Maestranza a barbecue restaurant with a waitress called Natali.
You have a few options for beer, I chose Patricia one of the local Uruguayan beers and it went down well. Buy it individually by bottles and share it - this saves it from getting hot which was a hot time when I visited.
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.
I'm never far from drama however and while this was all happening, a local video crew notice I'm foreign, and hear my accent so they come over and make a video of me. I had only started to learn Spanish and wasn't great at it. But they ask me what I think of Montevideo. I said that I love the food, I come from Irlanda del Norte and I liked watching Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez in the 2010 World Cup. It was all over in a flash and I got on with my dinner. It was funny yo be interviewed as you can tell the camera crew are giggling at me!
A beer cost around 100 pesos and for the food it's best to do a pick and mix option which gives you variety and saves a bit of money as you are buying in bulk. The menu is straight forward and no problem with ordering.
To summarise, Montevideo is excellent for barbecued food, known locally as Parillas and you should head to the excellent Mercado del Puerto to try it!
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