Punta del Este, Uruguay
There is a Spanish word for cloud, nube, but I had to look it up, because nobody in this part of Uruguay, which is a very good part indeed, ever uses the term. Uruguayans, being very straightforward people, have tried to depict their country as it really is on their flag: deep blue sky, bright sun shining, and white for clouds.
I cannot say that I have not not seen a single cloud in Punta, it is just that the slight white wisp of a thing I saw floating by out of the corner of my eye resembled a tiny feather lying on a large blue couch, which is still a feather, but of so little consequence, it is not worth mentioning.
But, why beat around the bush; the weather's great.
All Punta is divided into two sides, as some Roman might have said: La Mansa and La Brava, or the calm and the windy. Such are our lives these days that, of course, we visited La Brava, where many Argentines tend to congregate. Generally speaking Uruguayans favor La Mansa.
You do not need to know much more than that to begin to understand the main difference between Uruguayans and Argentines ( Note: my dinner companion one night, herself an extremely attractive Argentine, with a beautiful La Brava casa, politely but firmly explained to me, Senor Hayseed, that there is no such thing as an "Argentinian").
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My new friend Miguel is a beef broker, which is an excellent thing to be in Uruguay, because all of the beef here is grass-fed, making the quality extremely high. In fact, those Argentine rib-eyes you picked up recently at home, that genuine Argentine grass-fed filetto you're grilling in the States? Uruguayan, amigos. They may have passed through Argentina on their way to your grill, and even picked up a passing affection for the tango, but Argentina has not sent any beef directly to the US in many years. It all comes from Uruguay.
You don't think so? Try telling my friend Miguel, or, even better, get yourself over to the TI Inglesa store in Punta and see for yourself. I took this photo (above, right) one night there at about 9pm and the place was packed with people aching to get their daily average of about a pound of beef each. 9PM in the grocery store? Well, calling TI a grocery is like calling Gisele a model (Note: Brazilians love Punta too). They sell just about everything, but their food products are packaged as if they were curated and not merely displayed.
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Just in case someone in the TI is not eating their fair share of beef while I am in town visiting my friends, I make up for them at lunch and at dinner. Rump steak? Check. Filetto? Milanessa? Salchichas (Sausages)?Check, check, and check.
Later in the trip, while Driving the 130 or so kms to the aeroporto in Montivideo to return home, I actually let out a moo. Ask my companions.
Later in the trip, while Driving the 130 or so kms to the aeroporto in Montivideo to return home, I actually let out a moo. Ask my companions.
One of the reasons people eat so much beef, aside from the high quality is that they cook it more often than not on a parillo or iron grate in an asado, an indoor or outdoor wood-burning grill using the shoveled coals from local hardwoods. We cook meat, sausage, and chicken over what are mainly eucalyptus wood sticks. Yes, that is as good as it sounds. Not recommended for people thinking about becoming a vegetarian.
There is, of course, no equivalent to the term "full" meal in Uruguayan Spanish. The concept of a meal which might be anything less or more than full, simply does not exist in this culture, and for very good reasons, which you should go and experience for yourselves very soon.
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Not far from my friends' beautiful home in Punta is the wavy bridge. This is the way to a town called La Barra, but, much more importantly, it is the way to an ice cream shop called Freddo. It is a testament to Freddo's ability to attract communicants that they are willing to cross and double-cross the wavy bridge after lunch and/or dinner in a state that would, as we've already explained, normally be called full.
This is an especially good idea (ice cream, not the bridge) after having spread chimichurri (olive oil garlic, parsley, oregano, etc) on your meat. Banana? Very good. Strawberry? Yes. Mango? Decidedly. Dulce de Leche? A sign in La Barra itself said it all:
Ed Note: Aside from my Punta friends Jim and Jenny, and their wonderful cook Susanna, the best available source for learning about Argentine and Uruguayan cooking with wood is Francis Mallmann. His book, Seven Fires, is not only the best book about this subject, it is among a handful of great cooking books that one might read as one reds a novel or other great work of literature.
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