Uruguayan cuisine

Spanish influences are abundant: desserts like churros (cylinders of pastry, usually fried, sometimes filled with dulce de leche), flan, ensaimadas yoo (Catalan sweet bread), and alfajores were all brought from Spain.

Uruguayan preparations of fish, such as dried salt cod (bacalao), calamari, and octopus, originate from the Basque and Galician regions, and also Portugal.

The Biscochos were re-christened with local names given the difficult German phonology, and usually Uruguayanized by the addition of a dulce de leche filling.

The base of the country's diet is meat and animal products: primarily beef but also chicken, lamb, pig and sometimes fish.

This can be explained by the low cost of bread, and that Uruguayan pasta tends to come together with a large amount of tuco sauce (Italian: suco - juice), and accompanied by estofado (stew).

During the 20th century, people in pizzerias in Montevideo commonly ordered a "combo" of moscato, which is a large glass of a sweet wine called (muscat), plus two stacked pieces (the lower one being pizza and the upper one fainá).

[1] The only permanent establishment at the time was constituted by Franciscan friars and was located in a territory now belonging to Brazil called Misiones, because their mission there was to Christianize the native peoples.

The asado tradition came with gauchos that lived in the country, descendants of those first families that having no land nor home, made cattle raiding their way of life.

Such immigration enriched the importation of dishes, as there is now pasta, Russian salad and innumerable types of pastries from France and Germany, resulting in chajá and alfajores.

In Uruguayan cuisine, there is a significant list of preparations and dishes that are included in this category, the most typical or autochthonous is the picada, probably descending from the Spanish tapas, and as for everyday food there are also matambre relleno and lengua a la vinagreta.

After being separately fried, it is parboiled on a vinaigrette made of oil and vinegar that is added to sliced onions and carrots and whole garlic cloves and black pepper.

Sharing the same name as the Spanish mojo, it is a simple sauce made with garlic, oil, parsley, oregano, paprika, water and salt, and is added to asado during the cooking process and optionally on the dish.

Chimichurri is between a vinaigrette and a pesto variant, made with parsley, chopped garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, paprika, oil, vinegar, and salt.

Made with finely chopped tomatoes and onions, oil and salt, salsa criolla[6] is used for garment of asado, choripán and sometimes panchos.

The salad common to Uruguay contains tomato along with lettuce and onion and is served with a single vinaigrette made of oil, vinegar, salt, garlic, and oregano.

These small barbecue grills are called medio tanque (half barrel), because they are made with on adaptation of a split steel drum.

In the larger cities, such as Montevideo, markets commonly have one or more grill stations where customers can order and eat asado directly at the bar, which may be served with offal, sausages, tapenades, and tapas.

The meat is served with bread and salads, condiments such as mojo, chimichurri and Uruguayan salsa criolla and beverages such as wine, clerico and sangria.

[14] Grappamiel or Grapamiel is a mixed alcoholic beverage popular in Uruguay containing grappa, spirits obtained from various grains plus honey and water.

All these ingredients cut in big pieces are cooked and served, with the broth are made different soups containing small noodles, rice or any cereal of predilection.

A dish for summer days and popular on rural areas, consisted on broth, noodles and gross slices of meat, chorizo sausage.

Its main ingredient is the mondongo, which is a tripe from the cow's stomach, it is pre-cooked and boiled along with meat, chorizo, peachick, tomato and potato.

Consumed not only on the northeast but also all along with the country, it is a black bean stew that, unlike the Brazilian feijoada, comes with potatoes (besides bananas and fariña), and made with beef more often than pork.

It is a dish that contains meat and chorizo or chicken, stewed in tomato sauce, and sometimes served with a side of boiled potatoes or pasta.

The most notable minutas are milanesas, refuerzos such as choripanes, chivitos and pizza and faina; also, the bauru is common along the Brazilian border.

Brought by Italian tradition and spread all over the world, Pizza is not an exception, pizza-like bread and pasta are part of everyday food.

It is a warm sauce that is made of cream, sliced onions, ham, cheese, nuts, and mushrooms and is served with cappelletti.

Marsellés is named after the city of Marseille and resembles a pair of twin Vienna bread with harder crust and covered with maize flour.

Pasteles (pastries) are triangular-shaped empanadas that are made from a batter identical to such of tortas fritas with the addition of being puffed using cow fat.

Alfajores consist of two round sweet spongy doughs poured together filled with dulce de leche and covered onto two variants: ″chocolate″ and ″nieve″ (snow).