Camacho Watcho

The Chivito. Where to begin? It would probably help me to explain what this is. The chivito is a food specialty in Uruguay. This does not mean that it is a high class of food, rather it is a specialty in that it is a regional type of food. An example would be like our jucy lucy’s in Minnesota. If you are unfamiliar with the jucy lucy, you should try one…amazing.

The chivito is a sandwich…but not just any sandwich. Before coming to Uruguay, I spoke with a friend from Buenos Aires and he said that I must try a chivito. When I asked him what it was, he said that it was a sandwich with meat, vegetables, egg…anything and everything you could think of in a sandwich. To me, that sounded like an experience, but not something particularly good. I have tried two different chivitos since being here. The first was at a restaurant in la ciudad vieja on the Plaza Matriz. That experience was good, but I was not as impressed as I thought I should be given all the hype. Given this, I will not comment on that chivito much.

The second chivito that I tried was today at lunch on the Plaza Independencia at ‘jueves 5′ and this was definitely the experience for which I was searching. Now that my senses have experienced it, I will describe. As in any good sandwich, it starts with the bread. A good fresh bun, in this case it was similar to an egg bread. And the actual chivito? There are two kinds: common and Canadian. The common is the basic chivito, but by “common”, it is extraordinary….thinly sliced ribeye steak, hard boiled egg, red bell pepper, green olives, lettuce, tomato and mayo. That is the basic. The Canadian adds ham and cheese to that concoction. I have yet to discover why this is designated “Canadian” but I will continue to ask.

So here is the challenge - where in Montevideo should you go to get the best chivito? Stay tuned!

Posted on October 10th, 2007 by katiejocannon
Filed under: Food, Uruguay