Montevideo's amazing Puerto Mercado

Montevideo's amazing Puerto Mercado

by Jonny Blair

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.

Mercado del Puerto is obviously down near the port and is actually indoors, the area nearby can be dodgy at night I heard but by day and especially late afternoon, this is the place to eat! A great atmosphere and aroma within!

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.

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.

To get there I hired a bike and paid a local guy to look after the bike while we were inside, this is actually safe enough!

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 prices were decent - a 1 litre of beer was 100 pesos and we foundt hat to pick and mix the barbecue food is the best option - variety and a deal by buying in bulk. The menu is fairly easy to read.

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!



To read more stuff like a <a href="http://tinyurl.com/a5p3kqq">Barbecue in Montevideo</a> head to Jonny Blair's insightful site about <a href="http://tinyurl.com/d739bzx">a lifestyle of travel</a> for amusing travel tips and stories.

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