Montevideo & Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay sits between Argentina and Brazil, a small country with one of the highest rates of beef and pork consumption per person in the world. Montevideo, the capital, holds half the national population and concentrates most of the parrilla culture. The Río de la Plata estuary runs along the city's southern edge, and the Rambla, a long waterfront promenade, is where locals walk on Sundays after asado. The Mercado del Puerto, a 19th-century iron market hall near the old port, houses the largest concentration of parrillas in the city and burns wood fires every weekend. Chorizo, morcilla, and beef ribs fill every grill. The national drink is mate, taken from a gourd throughout the day. The national wine is Tannat, a grape from southwest France that found a second home in the Canelones hills outside Montevideo and became something different here: darker, more structured, built for grilled meat.

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Sausages from Montevideo & Uruguay

Chorizo Uruguayo

Montevideo & Uruguay

Uruguay has more cattle per person than any other country on earth, and this fact shapes everything about its food. But at an asado, the chorizo goes on the grill before the beef. These short, thick fresh pork sausages, seasoned with garlic, oregano, nutmeg, and black pepper, cook fast over hardwood embers while guests drink wine and wait for the main cuts. The asador checks them often. A skin that puffs and chars at the edges signals they are ready. The choripán, chorizo split and tucked into crusty bread with chimichurri or salsa criolla, is the street food that defines Montevideo. You find it at parrillas, at football stadiums, at Sunday markets, and at the smoke-filled stalls of the Mercado del Puerto.

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