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Uruguayan Flag
Fast Facts:
Land Area: 176,215km2
Population: ~3,324,460
Capital: Montevideo
GDP (PPP) per capita: $17,204
Official Language: Spanish
Known For: Hosting the first ever football
world cup in 1930, gaucho (cowboy) culture |
According to Lonely Planet Uruguay, a small country by South American standards, is notable as a place of relative peace and prosperity, being highly secular and having a strong independent press and low levels of corruption (things we Kiwi's tend to take for granted).
Apparently it is traditional to eat gnocchi on the 29th day of each month, in deference to Uruguay's Italian heritage and the fact that by the end of the month most foodstuffs except for flour and potatoes often would have run out.
'Chivito' translates as 'little goat', but has come to mean toasted a steak sandwich with seared rump steak and layers of salsa golf (tomato sauce & mayonnaise blend), smoked ham, red peppers, fried onions, dill pickles, pancetta, salsa and melted mozzarella (we didn't have any mozzarella so we used colby). The entire stack is held together with olive skewers and looks rather impressive on the plate.
Our chivito was joined by clerico, the national drink of Uruguay, which consists of very cold white wine served with fresh fruit macerated with sugar (Mum's trying to cut out sugar so she used a pinch of stevia powder instead).
What can I say? The sandwich was delicious; a meat-lovers dream that would happily grace the menu's of many trendy cafes (although theirs would probably look a little prettier than ours and have loads of garnish and a tiny side salad) . The drink was light and refreshing and chock full of yummy fruit to chew on afterwards...although the slow drinker will discover that the fruit readily absorbs a lot of the alcohol and gives a bit of a kick to the unwary.
Rating (out of 5):
Chivito 4/5
Clerico 3/5
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