Monday, January 21, 2008

CARNIVORES


You know how most of the world eats healthier than Americans in general? That's true, but there are some places that defy preconceived notions as to what makes up a healthy diet. I think most people would expect us to be eating only a bit of meat now and again here in Uruguay. But they would be wrong. Quite wrong. The word CARNE in Spanish means meat, whence comes our word CARNIVORE—and that's completely accurate in the case of Uruguayans. They eat A LOT of meat.



We went to the Old City on Saturday with the students and the other onsite family, our back-at-home-neighbors Lynette and Lee Penya and their kids, to look around the flea market, to see the port area, and to eat dinner, OK, well, to eat meat. The place is huge, and stall after stall sells huge braziers of grilled meat: several kinds of sausage, pork, chicken, beef, etc. [A tip: if you order the grilled meat for two, more than four people can eat it; if you order the grilled meat for four, then half of our class can eat on it and have leftovers. Mostly this is because there's a whole lot of meat, but it's also because some of the meat is, shall we say, less commonly consumed in the United States, like tripe, which is yummy stomach lining, and which was in the pile of leftovers.]




A funny conversation happened between the girls and Sophie Penya, who is three years old and LOVES anything sweet. She saw Katie, Krista, Sarah Sims, and me eating (or at least trying) what looked like delicious chocolate cake but was in fact blood sausage, and she wanted some. Sarah told her that it wasn't cake, but Sophie wanted to try it. She took a couple of bites and then said something like "I've had better cake." I can imagine! J

[Also pictured are Katie and Krista "Fear Factor-ing" some blood sausage.]

9 comments:

Gayla Herrington said...

Since you are there and only have meat to eat, you should do the Atkins diet!
Gayla

Karen said...

That's true. And there are delicious fruits and vegetables too. Today I had a slice of watermelon that I think may be the single best watermelon I have EVER eaten. And their canteloupe is great too!

Thanks, Gayla, for commenting! I had JUST FINALLY posted something, and you commented within minutes. That makes me way-overly-happy! :)

Autumn said...

Yay... I'm soooo glad you finally posted... not that I've been internet stalking you or anything...

I'm glad you are enjoying the 4 food groups of Uruguay: Meat, Ham, cheese, and bread. :)

I also bravely tried blood sausage... I've had better cake too. I probably would have liked it better if I hadn't known what it was.

Karen said...

Yay! Autumn's here at the blog. I loved reading your blog last semester so much. For other readers, hers is /was at autumninmontevideo.blogspot.com and she did a GREAT job of keeping us up to date. The few things I do know about Uruguay and/or Spanish, I learned at her site!

Anonymous said...

Tell everybody to eat first and ask "What is this?" later. They'll discover some wonderful things that way. The stuff from the "leftover pile" is some of the best.

I'd forgotten about your blog. Glad I remembered this morning.

Grace and peace,
Tim Archer

P.S.--I'm still mad at Google for coercing us to use our Google login for everything. They changed that a month or two ago. Sorry, I'll remain anonymous

dlecroy said...

Me likey meatses...yummm!!! looking forward to binging on red meat!!

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