Let’s eat the whole cow!

workers from the surrounding streets into the market. Each venue within the market serves the same or very similar dishes, steaks, kidneys, liver, sweetbreads, blood sausage, intestines and lots more which are cooked over wood fired grills. Some places are small, some are family orientated,

some have swivel chairs for you to sit and eat at the bar, many have white table clothed seating areas and a few even have enclosed dining room (best of luck getting one of these).

Alberto explained enthusiastically that each place had its own reputation and specialties for us to try and reconfirmed what we already knew; beef was the favourite dish. There is very little (in English) on the Internet regarding specific places to eat within Mercado del Puerto, so we were glad that we’d arranged to spend the afternoon with Alberto. We wandered through the market, taking in the energy, sites and enjoying meats at some of the busier looking venues.

I don’t think we would have managed to order as successfully without his help. We ordered mouth-watering steaks that were succulently perfect and huge cattle kidneys (I’m not a fan of kidney). I found myself pleasantly surprised, as they tasted like the steak. I enjoyed delicious chunky liver (cattle must be huge in Uruguay), sweetbreads that were light and tasted a little like bacon (an expensive treat and delicacy) and blood sausage barbecued to perfection.

The only thing I could not eat were the intestines, the tubes looked like something out of an alien movie, the blubbery consistency felt wrong to me, so I politely spat it into my hankie. Swallowing really was not an option. Two hours into eating we were stuffed and could hardly be bothered to move. It was at this point that half the market erupted into applause.

Alberto explained to us that it is customary to give the burly beef filled cook a round of applause when he has made a good job of the meat. If you want to get really involved just copy what the locals do, they’ll