Food, Asado

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Barbecue, or "asado" as we call it's the national dish, if there's such a thing. Uruguay's meat has very good fame, and for good reason. The conditions for cattle growing are ideal in this part of the world, or so they say. History goes that, a long time ago (in this galaxy;), one spanish guy, called Hernandarias, brought around 100 cattle heads to the land, that would later become Uruguay, and in a matter of years they had reproduced big time. Land and weather natural conditions turned out to be real good, as well as the lack of any kind of predators, including human populations. So we could say that Uruguay's territory was populated extensively first by cattle, then by humans.

Asados are social activities, instead of charcoal the meat is roasted by making a fire from wood, and using the embers (is that the word?) to cook the meat. It's a time consuming process, but all for the better, because while someone is preparing the fire (el asador) everyone else get's to eat snacks, and play cards ("truco" typically). It's typical to put some parmesano provolone cheese on the grill, and to serve hot cheese as entrance, along with the snacks. The meat is placed in a big, big grill, called "parrilla", expected to support considerable amounts of meat, and sausages ("chorizos").

Typically if the asado turns out to be good, the responsible cooker (el asador), get's an applause from everyone. Actually "el asador" always gets an applause, unless the asado is real bad, and you have a trust relationship with the person so you can tell him the awfull truth, that his asado sucks. Luckily this is not often. ...