Bad Vegetarian in Montevideo

Montevideo, Uruguay
17-19 October 2010

   I am not a vegetarian and have never claimed to be. But for the past couple of years I have turned to eating more and more vege meals, and with this I have been acused of being a vegetarian.
   My reasons for eating vegetarian has not to do with the killing of animals. I was raised (age 5-12) on a farm and I have always been quite frank about the killing of animals for meat. But I do not like much of the way animals are farmed in our modern society... feed lot cattle, hormone fed chicken, pigs that probably wouldn´t function as anything but meat factories, etc. And so I started eating vegetarian or meat that I could select as been more ethically grown. More importantly for me, I switched for environmental reasons. I don´t imagine ever switching completely to a vegetarian diet, and I love eating fish. I now first consider Vegetarian options for my eating, but I will eat meat for a number of reasons. I will eat meat when I am okay with how it has been grown (In Australia my choice is Kangaroo, or free range). I will eat small portions of meat when I crave meat. I eat meat when a host presents it to me (I hate to be an ungrateful or difficult guest). And I will eat meat when some place is famous for some dish involving meat. I am firstly a traveler.
  And so this is how I came to really enjoy the dish pictured below when I visited Montevideo. It is called Matambre, which sounds like a rough version of Spanish for what translates to Hunger killer. I had just a half portion, plenty enough for me, and washed it down with a glass of Tannat. Tannat is a Uruguayan Merlot (red wine). It was one of the best meals I have ever had, and I had it perched on a stool watching the activity of the meats being cooked and served. It cost $12, wine included.
   I also checked out the Tango dancing in Montevideo. It was Monday night, but, just like Buenos Aires, the night doesn´t seem to matter, there were still lots of people at the place called JovenTango. From what I saw, I would describe Montevidean(?) Tango as more homely, less complex and more comfortable than Argentine Tango. The women wore far more sensible shoes. I enjoyed my night out in Montevideo, but feel like I really want to experience more Argentine Tango, so I will look for it again when I return to that country.

The local lock seller might have thought this one up. If you put the initials of two people on a lock, and lock it to this fountain/fence, and those two meet at this fountian... their love will be sealed. (Or something like that.)

I hired a bicycle and cycled 4 hours along the coast of Montevideo. Montevideo is one the River Plata, as is Tigre which I visited from Buenos Aires, both have the same problem of dead and dying fish. Parts of the ride smelt really bad. The bike cost just $1 per hour!

Other parts of the bike ride were much more pleasant and overall I loved cycling along Montevideos coast. 

Uruguayans love drinking Maté. See the thermos hooked under the arm and the mate cup in his hand. This is very common.

This is the grill at Mercado del Puerto where I ate the fantastic Matambre.

And here it is... Matambre. Yummo! Basically it is the part between the ribs and the skin on the cow, rolled with spices, capsicum, more stuff... yummo!

Notes:

Accomodation, Montevideo, El Viajero Downtown and Suites. ok.