Traditional food

Uruguayan gastronomy is a product of the melting pot of immigrants, received from its foundation until the middle of the 20th century, mainly from Spanish and Italians, which is why you can easily find fish, seafood, pasta, and pizza dishes.

Meat, the leitmotif of traditional Uruguayan cuisine, was added to immigrant dishes, transforming the original recipes, giving them a local character that constitutes a family kitchen. The goodness of the soils and the climate, where cattle abound that feed on magnificent meadows, have contributed to making Uruguayan meat highly appreciated throughout the world and becoming the main food of Uruguayans.

Alfajor

This small but delicious sweet is made up of two or more cookies, joined by a sweet filling and usually dipped in chocolate, an icing or powdered sugar. The filling is usually made with dulce de leche, although there are also fruit alfajores and chocolate mousse.

If you visit this country, you will see that alfajores are one of the wonderful things about Uruguay. You can also find them in thousands of different shapes and forms, each with a special and distinctive flavor that characterizes them.

Asado

The first thing you have to know about this typical Uruguayan food is that it is not grilled on charcoal, but on firewood, and on a grill that is cleaned as a traditional Uruguayan method. This makes the asado have a special and particular flavor at every opportunity.

Although in some places it is usually accompanied with different types of meats, the traditional Uruguayan asado usually includes only the ribs of beef. It is seasoned with salt and pepper exclusively, allowing the meat to express all its flavor, and then you cannot miss a little chimichurri, a typical sauce of this country.

The asado is accompanied with different salads of lettuce and tomato, rice with potato and egg, or simply French fries.

Chivito

Within the Uruguayan gastronomy, the chivito, one of the most famous sandwiches in Latin America, also stands out. The traditional chivito consists of tomato, lettuce, thin slices of meat, egg, thick slices of mozzarella cheese, ham, mayonnaise, a little oil and salt to taste. It is usually accompanied by hearty French fries.

However, today you can get it with some additional ingredients that make the experience of eating a goat vary depending on the place you choose. Do you want to get the best goat? Well then you have to visit Uruguay.

Choripán

Choripán is another typical Uruguayan sandwich that is also very popular in Argentina.

The word choripán comes from the union of the words "chorizo" and "pan"(bread). It is, therefore, a chorizo in a bread, in the style of the famous hot dog.

The chorizo that is used can be Creole or barbecue, in any case, it must be fresh and smooth. The chorizo made in Uruguay contains mostly beef and a third of pork.

As a result, it tastes different from chorizo in other parts of the Hispanic world where it generally contains a much greater amount of pork. This chorizo is neither smoked nor dry, and contains many spices such as nutmeg, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, and fennel.

Then, lettuce, tomato, onion and different sauces such as mayonnaise and ketchup are added to the choripán. This inexpensive and nutritious sandwich is quick to make, a likely reason for its success.

Torta Frita

This dish has a peculiarity, it is tradition to cook it on rainy days. Although you can find sales positions any day of the year in any city.

Its main characteristic is that it is a dough made with wheat flour, salt, fat and water, which is fried in fat, either beef or sheep. The recipe for the dough has different variations from family to family, there are those who add yeast, egg, milk or sugar to the dough.

They are generally circular in shape and have a small hole in the center, like a navel. Dulce de leche, sugar or salt can be added to the outside.