Category: Food

Ah, America

Ah, America:
the visual jingoism of
omnipresent flapping flags.
Shiny cars, beseeching churches;
smooth roads and ads for shiny
vehicles, tank-like or claustrophobic:
sometimes both.

My people: fun to help, make laugh,
cheer along. That I can do so easily,
waitress or Walmart Greeter.
Casually conversational, easygoing,
but so must I bear
the oppressive banality
of overheard conversations.

And not indulge intellect, perception,
nor reveal observation, awareness.
My son says they’re stupid:
given two days, I cannot disagree.

Triscuits, flavor rosemary
and olive oil; cheese a combo:
monterrey jack and cheddar.
Chardonnays not Southern Cone:
cheap good California Barefoot;
Onduraga from Oz. Not special,
just not Southern Cone.

In the hotel, we offer to leave
carry-on unfriendly corkscrew
for future guests. Two wine glasses and
real — not-plastic — knife appear
to carry upstairs
for our evening snack.

triscuit-barefoot

(from November 2014)

A “new” restaurant

La Cuchare de Madera Restaurant in Parqu del Plata, Canelones, Uruguay

La Cuchara de Madera restaurant, Parque del Plata, Canelones, Uruguay
Click to enlarge

‘The Wooden Spoon’

Excellent food, ambiance, and presentation at reasonable price (entrees UYP 290, a little over USD 12). One block form the bus station. Surprisingly, it has been open for three years, but we’d never heard of it until recently. Open daily noon to midnight.

I would have taken a picture of our lunch but I don’t Instagram 😉

Carnicería

I have an ongoing joke at the local carnicería (butcher shop). They ask me how much I want, and I reply 454 grams, una libra (one pound). Like every other country in the world except for Liberia, Myanmar, and one other, Uruguay uses the metric system—mostly).

Butcher, Carnicería Progresso, Atlántida, Canelones, Uruguay
Alvero reacts with dismay at widely missing the mark with bacon (though one time he hit 500 exactly)

We then asked if they had lamb. Siempre. Always. Who knew?

Sawing half a lamb, Carnicría Progresso, Estación Atlántida, Canelones, Uruguay
He brought out an entire frozen lamb carcass, cut the length in half with the band saw, then cut off the hindquarter we wanted. The band saw blade is within easy reach of the customer.

I grew up using, and still use, dangerous power tools. But band saws terrify me a little bit, ever since 8th grade (age 13) shop class, when the teacher demonstrated the capabilities of a band saw by cutting through a piece of 2×4 like it was butter, and probably at the same time encouraging us to imagine that 2×4 was some part of our body.

But hey, that was in the United States. It’s probably not too late to sue for psychological trauma, mental distress ….

Se terminó.

Sunset during an asado in Uruguay
Photo: Wayne Ready

Yes, it’s been a while since my last post. Shortly after it, I commiserated with an older neighbor whose bicycle had bogged down in the mud I’ve never seen before. We got onto the strange rain and weather, and he told me summer was over (se terminó el verano).

I didn’t believe him. But I think it’s true: by the equivalent of mid-August in the northern hemisphere, and summer was gone. One of our neighbors in the campo told me he‘d seen swallows flocking to migrate north to Brazil or Ecuador. And I have gotten nothing—absolutely nothing—from the garden. Lettuce in the supermarket costs 3-4 times (factoring quantity) as much as we’d expect.

But we had a lovely day for our neighbor’s hangi-style pig roast, complete with tranquilo sunset that reminded me why I enjoy being in the country (all of 10 km away!).