Port Market in Uruguay – a gastronomic feast
Montevideo is a quiet city, a capital with over one million people, but that still keeps a village feeling favored by those who take a trip to Uruguay as a way to escape the frenzy of the places where they live. Taking vacations in Uruguay means living lower pace, enjoying the bayside, the beach and the sun. You can choose to stay in Montevideo, with over 22km of coast, or go to the Summer resorts in the Atlantic coast.
But Montevideo is not only a place to rest and live a slower lifestyle. It is also a city full of life, with lots of restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs. In daytime, a hotspot for those during tourism in Uruguay, as well as for most of the locals, is the Port Market, a place for celebration that is well known for its excellent cultural and gastronomic offer.
Also known in Spanish as Mercado del Puerto, the Port Market in Montevideo is located in front of the city’s main harbor, right next to the Carnival Museum –Museo del Carnaval- in the Old/Historic District – Ciudad Vieja. The main entrance is through the pedestrian street Perez Castellanos, though you can access it also from the harbor, crossing the highway.
What to eat and what to drink
A great place to sample the fine Uruguayan cuisine, Mercado del Puerto is a paradise for all meat lovers, as a place where you can enjoy great “asados” –BBQs based on cow meat, but that can also include pork, lamb, chicken, vegetables and provolone cheese. Also seafood and pastas are well-served. Vegetarians will also find themselves at ease with the delicious vegetarian BBQs and salads offered.
Dishes are very big, sometimes big enough to be shared by two people. If you are stuffed after eating half of your dish and would like to save some for later, ask your waiter or waitress and he/she will prepare a to-go package for you to take home the rest of your meal.
As for the drinks, Uruguayan fine beers and wines are all over the place, with several options for you to choose from. If you really want to go Uruguayan during your trip to Uruguay and act like a local, make sure to stop by the Roldós restaurant area and order a “Medio y Medio”. This national drink is made of 50% regular wine and 50% sparkling wine, making it suitable for all celebrations. There are red, rose and white variations to cater all tastes.
Desserts are also offered. “Postre Chajá” and “Massini” are some of the local delicacies. If you want something lighter, Uruguayans fancy fruit salad, ice cream and a combination of both.
A little bit of history
There are several urban legends on the origin of the Port Market. It is said that the iron structure, which arrived in Montevideo in a ship coming from Liverpool, England, was originally thought to be a train station in Bolivia, or in a city in the Pacific Coast. According to these stories, either a shipwreck or legal issues regarding taxes caused the structure to be left in Uruguay in the early 1800′s, where it was later bought and turned into the Port Market.
Historians, on the other hand, say the area where the Port Market is currently located was bought in 1865 by a private enterprise that thought to build a market in Montevideo. An English engineer was in charge of the supervision of the construction of the metallic structure, which was state-of-the-art at the time, used in 1889 in the Eiffel Tower.
The Port Market was inaugurated in 1868 and planned to be a place where fruit, vegetables and meat would be sold to those arriving in the coast by ship, as well as for wealthy families that were building their houses in the surroundings at that time. At last, the market was not used for these purposes, and the sellers of the fruits, vegetables and meat soon turned their stands and shops in the market into restaurants.
A great atmosphere
The Port Market is diverse and heterogeneous. Its metallic structure gathers a mixture of colors, people and tasty smells. Both locals and those doing tourism in Uruguay go to the Port Market to enjoy a meal, to buy handcrafts or to walk around and suck up the atmosphere. A visit to Mercado del Puerto is a great way to enjoy your holidays in Uruguay.
The cultural atmosphere includes musicians, painters and artisans who work in the Port Market and then sell their work there too. On Saturdays, embedded in the program of the Cultural Tour on the Old District –Paseo Cultural de Ciudad Vieja-, musicians, singers and drawing artists make the place livelier.
A big crowd often gathers both inside of the Port Market and outside: in the Perez Castellanos pedestrian street and the square La Proa. A street market with handcrafts, souvenirs and antiques compliments the offer.
At times, Brazilian music bands, with accompanying vedette dancers also enter the Port Market and tour it to entertain the crowds.
Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve in the Port Market
The lively atmosphere is at its best during lunchtime and early afternoon in two very special dates: December 24th and December 31st. Actually, most days in December are very crowded at the Port Market, with those who work in offices in the Old District gathering with their colleagues and friends to celebrate the end of the year, graduating students celebrating with classmates, etc.
In the 24th and the 31st, the party goes wild, with lots and lots of Medio y Medio, wines and beers sold all over the place, people partying a lot, dancing to the sounds of music and enjoying the upcoming celebration of Christmas, saying goodbye to a calendar year and receiving the next one.
Outside the market, in the Perez Castellanos pedestrian street and the La Proa square, cold apple cider is sold in 1.5 liter plastic bottles for people to drink, but mostly to use them to spray cider all over the place, getting everyone wet and sticky. But don’t worry; a walk on the streets of the Old District will wash you up as locals celebrate by pouring water from the windows and balconies to those on the sidewalks.
The party is safe early in the day, soon after noon. As the hours go by, it can get a bit too wild. Watch out for pickpockets and don’t spend too much time in Perez Castellanos, but head to the Bartolomé Mitre street, a bit further, where security guards guarantee a safer celebration.
It is hard to escape the joy of Uruguayans, as well as of those doing tourism in Uruguay, as they dance and drink inside and outside the Port Market, enjoying life and holidays in Uruguay.
