El Asado es muy bien!

So we arrive at La Corona, and are greeted with the fact that we'll be guests at a company dinner. With 18 other guests. And most are corporate VIPs. Despite the fact that we're completely exhausted and slightly scuzzy from our awesome ~6 hour car ride, we're up to the task.

Sonia, the cook/housekeeper of the place was busy with preparations. Apparently she completely understood that this was a pretty important dinner. The table outside was set beautifully. Although she speaks no English and I speak pretty much no Spanish, she laughed when she caught me wandering around with my camera, repeating "es bonita!" over and over. At least she likes the compliment.

By the look of the patio, with cushioned adirondack chairs under the arbor, and this little side table, we were in for a good evening. During the progress of the evening, we discovered that Uruguayans are third in the world for Scotch consumption, literally falling right behind the actual Scotch and also the Irish (so suprise there).

We were greeted with a traditional Asado barbecue, where meat has been smoking and slow cooking all afternoon within the brick fire on the side of the estate. I was happy to see the table of salads, and ecstatic like any good food nerd to see a platter of brussel sprouts. The salads included brusses sprouts with a verde salsa (square platter), sliced beets and egg (round platters, odd combination but kind of tasty), fried plantains (in the middle, at least I think that's what it was - it was slightly sweet and a little salty from the fried, which meant it was very good), a platter of tomatoes, mild cheese and olives (oval platter on the left, my favorite salad of the night), a carrot salad (similar to the typical carrot and raisin salad in the US, in the oval platter just above the tomatoes), and a potato salad (in the left upper corner in the dark - very mild but also pretty good. In the middle were bowls of lettuces and tomaotes, and a small platter with carafes of olive oil and vinegar were provided just to the side.

And last but not least, the meat...this one's for you, John.

We had chorizo, fried cheese (can you say fantastic?), and sweetbreads (the odd thyroid glands I tried before but figured once was probably enough) as appetizers, and then Sonia continued to serve platters of beef and chicken throughout the night. The chicken were butterflied and cooked whole, and then cut into major pieces and served. The beef was cooked as a loin and also ribs, but were slightly different cuts than I was used to. There is something so simple and so completely delicious about salted, smoked meat, when there is a tiny layer of fat on it to help with the basting.

John, this was pretty much your dream dinner:

So, yeah, so far this adventure is pretty tough. We've already been made fun of for having such a "brutal" and "harsh" field experience. I'm sure we'll hit a lull at some point, but so far this has been incredible.