Naturally, part of the cultural experience in any foreign country is the food. I made sure never to skimp on new eating experiences. Uruguay has a really small Chinese population and so I was surprised to find a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Montevideo. It was a nice little shop and I had been desiring something other than the usual milanesa, which is a fried meat that serves as one of the basic staples of the Uruguayan diet. Surprisingly enough, the Chinese food in Uruguay is very similar to the Chinese food in Arizona - somewhat comercialized with many fried food items. I spoke with the owner of the restaurant and asked her why she chose to settle down in Uruguay (this was also the first time I have met a Chinese person fluent in Spanish). She and her husband had originally lived in Shanghai working in a factory. They saved up enough money to move overseas and start a restaurant, and they chose Uruguay because of the laxer entry requirements (and she told me she had no desire to go to the US).
Or course I ventured to try the local cuisine - and one of the top food choices of Uruguayans is the chivito, which is like a hamburger with a very tender then slice of grilled beef piled with panceta, cheeses, olives, ham, tomato, lettuce a hardboiled egg and a fried egg - all between two buns. Needless to say, it was very good, but my life span was probably lowered by a couple of days. I also went to try out the parilla with my friends. One can't say that they have eaten in Uruguay without trying the meat, and the parilla completa is just that. It included everything from sweetbread (which is not bread... but the thymus gland of the cow) to blood sausages made with cows blood. We ate it at the very touristy Mercado del Puerto (I had a picture of the food previously when I was exploring the city, and now I have truly experienced the food here)
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