Anthony Bourdain Thought This One Food City Was Extremely Underrated

Anthony Bourdain journeyed all over the world with his food and travel shows, exploring different cultures and food in both popular tourist destinations and places still largely undiscovered by visitors. Out of everywhere he went, he believed that Uruguay and its capital, Montevideo, were among the most underrated places.

Bourdain filmed two episodes in Uruguay, one for "No Reservations" and the other for "Parts Unknown," sampling a lot of the capital city's food scene. One of the meat-crazy country's most beloved dishes is asado, barbecue in which meat is cooked over wood coals on a grill called a parilla. Uruguay produces and consumes a lot of beef and it's usually the asado star, with sausage, chicken, and pork other popular choices. The meat is served with chimichurri, an olive oil sauce with chopped parsley, oregano, garlic, and vinegar (also one of the toppings that can upgrade your fish sandwich.) Bourdain had parrilla barbecue in Montevideo's Mercado del Puerto, an historic market at the port that now houses many restaurants serving the traditional barbecue and other food, and bustles with locals and tourists.

Bourdain enjoyed chivito, the unofficial national sandwich, at Bar Arocena, where it's the specialty. The sandwich is stuffed with steak, bacon, ham, mozzarella, hard-boiled egg, lettuce, tomato, red bell pepper, garlic, and mayo on a bun. He stopped at a street stall for choripán, grilled chorizo sausage in a baguette, which usually has toppings like onions, tomato, and chimichurri. Bourdain was also puzzled by the tradition of putting pieces of chickpea flatbread called fainá on top of pizza.

You can discover more traditional Uruguayan foods throughout Montevideo, where just over half of the small South American nation's 3.4 million people live. A dish that comes from Italian immigrants who arrived in the 19th century is gnocchi, which they spell "ñoqui." They would traditionally eat the dumplings on the 29th of each month, a simple meal for when food was running low before first-of-the-month payday. Uruguayans have continued it as tradition mixed with a bit of superstition. They have ñoquis de papa (potato gnocchi) every month on the 29th, which is called Dia de Ñoquis, or Gnocchi Day.

The chef didn't feature any desserts on his Uruguay episodes — it's one meal that Anthony Bourdain didn't really like. A traditional one he might have tried, though, is a vanilla sponge cake called chajá that's filled with meringue pieces, whipped cream, and peach slices. It's also sometimes layered or topped with dulce de leche, a dark caramel sauce that Uruguayans love and use in other desserts, too. It's also popular in neighboring Argentina, where it can be part of a traditional Argentinian breakfast.

Uruguayans like to drink siete y tres, "seven and three," a blend of seven parts red wine and three part cola that tastes like sangria. Finally, the national drink is yerba mate, a caffeinated, tea-like herbal beverage. Uruguayans drink the bitter mate through a metal straw with a strainer to filter the leaves.