What a great promo!!

You know, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't give me a call to help out with this momentous event! Sounds like half of the country was there cooking or eating! Can you imagine the aroma ... even twenty miles away?? I'll bet there was a spike in the temperature of the town. Probably changed the weather pattern for the area!

When your chief export is beef, what better way to promote your product than to have a barbecue! I had no idea that they exported so much beef to the United States. That steak I had last night may have been some of Uruguay's finest. Who knows. The grocery store sure doesn't advertise their suppliers.

Here's the story!

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - One of South America's smallest countries proved on Sunday it can hold the biggest barbecue in the world.

Some 1,250 Uruguayan grillmeisters sizzled up 26,400 pounds (12,000 kilograms) of beef Sunday, beating a 2006 record set in Mexico.

"It's all so beautiful. It's a record," Guinness World Records judge Danny Girton said after the chefs, in white hats and aprons, smoked and barbecued their way into the record book with help of 6 tons of charcoal and 1,500 metal barbecue stands.

The barbecue was so big that firefighters were called in to light the grills and make sure the flames did not get out of hand. It beat the previous record of 17,600 pounds (8,000 kilograms) of beef, Girton said.

Uruguay, a ranching and farming nation, last year exported more than US$1 billion (euro630 million) in beef — its chief export.

The load of meat cooked Sunday set off swirling clouds of aromatic smoke, as 20,000 spectators devoured the cuts quickly.