Buenos Aires, Argentina
Milanesa Napolitana
A milanesa topped with ham, tomato sauce, and melted mozzarella, invented in Buenos Aires in the 1940s when a chef covered a burned cutlet. A porteño classic, served with fries.
south-america
Uruguay
Explore 70 foods connected to Uruguay, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
70 foods12 leading categories1 Essentials guides
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Uruguay Essentials
12 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
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Traditional foods from Uruguay.
70 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
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Argentina
Mollejas
Beef sweetbreads soaked, parboiled, and grilled slowly until crisp and golden outside with a creamy, tender interior. A prized achura at any asado.
Uruguay
Mondongo
Tripe cut into strips and stewed with chickpeas, chorizo, tomato and paprika.
Dominican Republic
Niños Envueltos
Dominican 'wrapped children': cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef and rice, simmered in tomato sauce. Of Lebanese origin, a hearty home-cooked meal.
Uruguay
Pamplona
Chicken or pork breast butterflied, filled with ham, cheese, olives and pepper, rolled in a net and grilled over embers.
Uruguay
Pan de Chicharrones
Bread enriched with lard and studded through with crisp fried pork rind.
Argentina
Pancho
Pancho completo
The Argentine hot dog: a Vienna-style frankfurter in a soft bun, split and griddled, topped with mayo, mustard, ketchup, salsa golf, and sometimes crushed potato chips ('lluvia de papa').
Argentina
Pasta Frola
An Argentine tart of shortcrust pastry filled with dulce de membrillo (or batata or guayaba) and topped with a lattice crust. A classic of home baking and panaderías.
Argentina
Pastelitos Criollos
Fried puff-pastry parcels filled with dulce de membrillo or dulce de batata, dusted with sugar. A patriotic-holiday treat, especially for the 25 de Mayo and 9 de Julio celebrations.
Uruguay
Patricia
Pale lager brewed in Uruguay since 1949 and the beer most often drunk with an asado.
Argentina
Picada
An Argentine appetizer platter of cured meats, cheeses, olives, and breads, served with beer or wine before a meal or as a social snack. A staple of bars, bodegones, and gatherings.
Argentina
Pionono
An Argentine rolled sponge cake filled with dulce de leche, cream, or savory fillings like ham and cheese. A classic of panaderías and home baking, sliced into pinwheels.
Uruguay
Pizza a Caballo
A slice of thick-crust pizza with a wedge of fainá laid on top of it and eaten as one.
Argentina
Provoleta
Provoleta con orégano
A thick disc of provolone cheese grilled in a small skillet until crispy outside and gooey inside, seasoned with oregano and olive oil. The classic asado starter, invented in 1940.
Argentina
Puchero
Puchero magro
A boiled meat and vegetable stew of Spanish origin, made with beef, chorizo, bacon, potatoes, corn, squash, and chickpeas. Served in broth with the meats and vegetables arranged separately.
Colonia, Uruguay
Queso Colonia
Semi-hard cow's milk cheese with small irregular holes, made by Swiss settlers in the Colonia department since the 1860s.
Uruguay
Rabas
Battered squid rings, the universal beach starter of Uruguay's Atlantic coast, fried to order at summer parillas.
Uruguay
Refuerzo
A small filled bread roll — ham and cheese, salami, or mortadella — sold from bakery counters as a snack.
Argentina
Rice Pudding
Arroz con leche
Argentine rice pudding of rice, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes lemon zest or vanilla. A classic home dessert, served warm or chilled with a dusting of cinnamon.
Uruguay
Salsa Caruso
Cream reduced with onion, ham, mushroom and nutmeg into a thick beige pasta sauce, sold ready-made in every Uruguayan supermarket.
Argentina
Salsa Golf
An Argentine pink sauce of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and sometimes whiskey or lemon. Invented in the 1920s, it is the national condiment for salads, sandwiches, and panchos.
Argentina
Sweet Blood Sausage
Morcilla dulce
A sweet variation of Argentine blood sausage made with raisins, sugar, and sometimes pine nuts or apples. It is grilled and served as part of the asado's offal course.
Tucumán, Argentina
Sándwich de Milanesa
Milanesa al pan
Milanesa sandwich, especially the Tucumán "sánguche" variant with special bread and hot preparation; has its own national festival
Uruguay
Sándwich Olímpico
Olímpico
A three-layer sandwich of soft crustless bread with ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce, egg and olives.
Argentina
Torta Frita
A fried wheat-flour dough disc, eaten on rainy days with mate — dusted with sugar when sweet or split for cheese and ham when salted. A rustic Argentine and Uruguayan snack.
Uruguay
Torta Pascualina
Pascualina
Spinach or chard and ricotta baked between pastry layers with whole eggs set inside so slices show a yolk.
Argentina
Tuco
The Argentine tomato sauce of onions, bell peppers, garlic, and tomatoes, slow-cooked with beef or pork. The national pasta sauce, richer and sweeter than Italian ragù.
Uruguay
Uruguayan Alfajor
Alfajor
Two soft biscuits sandwiched with dulce de leche and coated in chocolate or dusted with icing sugar and coconut.
Uruguay
Uruguayan Asado
Asado
Beef ribs, sausages and offal cooked slowly over wood embers raked under a low grill, salted and nothing else.
Uruguay
Uruguayan Tannat
Tannat
Dark, tannic red wine from a grape brought from south-west France in the 1870s and now the country's signature.
Uruguay
Uvita
Sweet fortified red wine drunk as an aperitif or with dessert, closer to marsala than to port.
Argentina
Vigilante (Factura)
Vigilante
A simple factura of puff pastry twisted into a short stick, glazed with syrup. Named, like the dessert, after the police who frequented the cafés where it was invented.
Uruguay
Yemas Acarameladas
Egg yolks cooked with sugar into small balls and coated in hard caramel.
Argentina
Yerba Mate
The dried, ground leaves and twigs of Ilex paraguariensis, used to brew mate and tereré. Argentina is the world's largest producer, and yerba is a household staple.