I’m getting sick of Thanksgiving leftovers, which are far from exhausted. I had errands today, and it was a brisk cold winter morning, and that put me in mind of a local treat.
So I went to a nearby restaurant and ordered a big heapin’ bowl of menudo. Which, for those uninitiated among you, is cow’s stomach chopped up and simmered in a red chile broth, served with sides of chile flakes, chopped onion, tangy Mexican oregano, and sliced lemon (which I put in my tea).
Warm, hearty peasant cooking, just right for a cold winter’s day. It really hit the spot.
Around here we have a saying, “Menudo pera los crudos,” menudo for the hangover. I haven’t tried menudo for that reason, since I don’t get hangovers since I stopped drinking cheap booze, but I know people who swear by it. Cow’s stomach just sops those toxins right up, apparently.
In my case, what was hanging over was Thanksgiving. And now I’m cured.
Cold Weather Cuisine
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I’ve tried it. Maybe because it was in a can, maybe because it wasn’t from scratch, who knows…but I was…unimpressed!
Menuda is one of those dishes that can go wrong real fast, assuming it was ever right in the first place.
There are worse things than a bowl of bad menudo. Needles (the town, not the hardware), waterboarding . . . maybe bad snails.
But when you’re in the mood for menudo, a personal restaurant recommendation is necessary. So let me say that if you’re ever in Albuquerque, get your menudo at Garcia’s. It’s the best.