New Imports

Yesterday, we had a visit from some new residents of Punta del Este- Shawn and Mari, from Nebraska. People come to Uruguay for many reasons, but one of their reasons was quite interesting. Mari has several serious food allergies and for years they have been "food activists" in the US.- apparently dissatisfied with the quality and content of food in America. Not unusual, in itself, since we had even noticed the amount of additives in meat products moving here.

We told then about our experience with meat products labeled "Always Tender", which our local market, Albertson's (in Seattle), had begun to offer. Supposedly, the additives to the meat were to make it easier to cook. However, we found that it just made the meat taste bad, so we had stopped buying it. Plus I objected to paying for something in my meat that I didn't want or need. As a small side-note, when we complained to Albertson's headquarter's about this, they told us it was a company wide decision made with Hormel and they would continue to offer the product, but they did provide us with some unadulterated meat, as a gift for our long time patronage.

So, Shawn and Mari are here to sample the more natural food of Uruguay, hoping to correct years of eating force fed animals and chemical and other additives.

They were nice enough to bring their dogs, and our puppies had a "play date" with their female malamute (in the doorway behind us). The little chihuahua was a little too fragile for that, and mostly stayed in their laps. The cat was amused with the little dog.

So this is just one more reason why Uruguay is an appealing destination, though I am not sure I would travel 6,904 miles for a good pork chop (Seattle to Uruguay).