An inquisitive old fart with a camera
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 😉
I took this photo a week or two ago. I can pretty much make out what’s available.
This is the cuenta we got yesterday when we went with friends. I just realized it has nothing to do with what we ordered. Apparently.
24.35 UY/USD
Last time we got over 24 pesos, five years ago, an entrecot (steak) at a local restaurant cost 245 pesos.
Today? 425; almost 75% more.
No wonder cashews cost a bit — each of these fruits has one at the end. I picked on and ate the fruit, very tasty. But apparently they can only be eaten (or juiced) fresh. So in most cases the whole fruit gets wasted when the nut is harvested.
“Calidad T I” — Tienda Inglesa quality (presumably good, given the price)
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).
We then asked if they had lamb. Siempre. Always. Who knew?
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 ….
 | USD prices per pound: Cativelli Sausage: 4.58 Panceta—bacon: 5.20 Chicken legs:1.51 Picada—lean ground beef: 2.28 Chicken Milanesa: 3.58 Nalga—top/bottom roast: 3.90 |
After ordering at our favorite carniceria (butcher shop), I realized I had no money. No problem, the owner said, taking my name and writing the amount on a strip of paper. The next day, I saw he had a stack of these slips over an inch high. Mine was someone near the middle, so obviously this is a common thing. Interesting.
How do these prices compare with current prices elsewhere?
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!).
Hey, I’m just the messenger, OK?