yerba mate, recycled buildings and gluten free dining

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Hello all. Monday arrived and the Old City came alive. People showed up to work and shops and restaurants I did not even know existed opened up behind the closed metal bars of the weekend.

Breakfast is not an easy meal for someone on a gluten free diet. I usually eat something at the apartment and that's about it. We went out for coffee and I ordered cafe con crema (coffee with cream) only to find out the crema is whipped cream. Time revealed no problems with the whipped cream.

The national drink down here is an herbal tea called yerba mate (pronounced mah-tay). There is a whole culture that surrounds its consumption. Most people walk around with a thermos for hot water, the gourd in which the tea is made and a metal straw to drink the tea through. After coffee I went looking for some of these gadgets as I was determined to partake in the local custom.

One of the main drags in Montevideo is the avenue '18th of July'. There are stores of all sorts and I don't think I had ever seen so many stores selling sneakers. Among the vendors are those that sell kitchen and home gadgets. In one of these I got my mate fixings except the mate. I know there is at least one brand of mate that was marked gluten free. They do not use the expression gluten free here. It is either noted as a grain with the circle and slash or the expression 'sin tacc' or if the product came from Brazil 'nao contem gluten'. While it took some time I did find a bag of mate that was marked as being gluten free.

I get surprised at how with no agenda, time just passes by as we walk around the city walking into various stores to check out items for sale. Clothes can be a question mark as I don't understand the sizing. A pair of jeans is marked with just one size. I tried to explain to the sales clerk that we have two numbers - width and length - and she just said they had one number. I passed on the jeans although I did buy a locally made wool blend sweater.

Before we realized it, lunch time was upon us. We found a restaurant. I had trouble with the name of it since it was both written in script and it had an accent on a letter that did not look like a familiar Spanish word. The name of the place was "Lo de Mane" with an accent on the last E. Our waiter Enrique said it was a fusion of the owners first and middle names - Maria Inez - so it really was not a word.

I try to read menus out of necessity but after choosing a place, I have to do my usual piece about wheat/flour. After I used those words Enrique asked 'gluten'? which made me very happy to hear. I got a salad (no dressing or croutons) and some grilled whiting. Now the whiting looked pan seared and not grilled. However, since Enrique specifically knew about gluten I did not panic and just enjoyed the meal. Again time revealed no issues with lunch.

Later in the day I spoke to the landlady who I found out is a transplant from Brooklyn. She fell in love with the city and moved down here. I told her that I was happy the Old City came alive as I was worried that it was a ghost town. She said that many of the buildings were being 'recycled' which is an expression the locals use to describe a rehabilitation of a property. We did see some recycling going on not far from the apartment so maybe the old town is coming back. Speaking of ghost towns, if anyone has seen any of the real ghost towns of the American west, there is not that much difference between some of what I see here and a ghost town. Walking around there was a church that was closed due to safety concerns (I did not fully understand the sign) and a Sephardic Synagogue. There was no sign on the synagogue indicating whether it was open or closed. The presence of grafitti means nothing here so the fact there was some grafitti does not indicate anti-Semitism or whether the building is open or shut. Grafitti is common and usually makes a political statement, anti-globalization is a popular topic of grafitti 'artists'.

Back at the apartment I decided to make some mate. Now depending on what literature you read there is either no caffeine at all in mate or more caffeine than coffee. I made some and felt energized and happy. (who needs anti-depressants?) Looking ahead to dinner, I was interested in a light standby of sushi. We hopped a cab to a very nice residential area called Carrasco and ate at a place called Cafe Misterio. They sent us an English speaking waitress and I told her about the wheat/flour thing. I ordered an appetizer of an octopus salad no bread or dressing. Jack ordered a salad with fried goat cheese and for dinner he ordered braised rabbit with a cheesy polenta. For dinner I had sashimi and I had asked for a bowl of steamed rice. I got a small bowl of sushi rice which had been flavored with the sweet sushi vinegar. I did not panic and just ate the meal. Still being hungry after this light cuisine I had some fruit and ice cream for dessert. Dinner gave me no issues so I was happy.

Speaking of happy, I was still quite awake at 11:00 p.m. so I decided to walk over to the casino to play roulette. I finally called it a night after 1:00 a.m. as Tuesday we are renting a car and going to Colonia.

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