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The soup menudo is a traditional Mexican dish; a frequently spicy soup made with tripe. It is often thought of as a cure for a hangover since it tends to instigate sweating, causing the body to release toxins. Is traditionally served on special occasions or with family. Usually, lime, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro are added and some also add crushed oregano and extra crushed red chili peppers for a spicier taste.
Menudo is usually eaten with tortillas.
Menudo is time intensive, taking some seven hours to make. The meat should be rinsed clean first. Menudo usually has tripe, honeycomb and "librillo" stomach beef meat along with the beef feet and tendons. The feet and tendons are boiled first at low to medium heat for about three hours. Skimming off the top layer of floating foam about every 15 minutes for the first hour helps the flavor. After the first three hours, the stomach meat should be added along with salt, an onion cut in half, and one or two heads of garlic. A very important part of the menudo is the chili paste that is added at this time as well. The menudo is allowed to continue boiling for an additional three hours while covered to avoid evaporation. Once it is almost done, add the hominy.
Menudo is said to taste even better after re-heating since the flavor will have concentrated more.
The popularity of menudo in Mexico is such that Mexico is a major export market for stomach tripe from US and Canadian beef producers. Large frozen blocks of imported menudo meat can frequently be seen in Mexican meat markets.
Menudo (from Latin minūtus) can mean "small, thin, worthless, vulgar, (money) change, tripe, and tithe from small orchards."[1] It is unknown if the soup came to be known as menudo since it was made up of tripe or if any of the other meanings, which are many, have something to do with it.
The word "menudo" in Mexico can mean the raw stomach meat as well as the stew. The word tripas (tripe) normally refers to the small intestines rather than the stomach. Tripas are also eaten but normally in tacos rather than stews.
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Regional variations
There are a number of regional variations on menudo. In northern Mexico, typically hominy (creation of hominy is one step in the production of tortilla dough) is added. In northwest states such as Sinaloa and Sonora usually only the blanco, or white, variation is seen. Adding patas (beef or pigs feet) to the stew is popular in the U.S. but not universal. In some areas of central Mexico, "menudo" refers to stew of sheep stomach, "pancitas" stew of beef stomach. The red variation is usually seen in Chihuahua, the northern state adjoining Texas. A similar stew made with more easily cooked meat is pozole.
Menudo in the U.S.
In the last season of the 1970s television series Sanford and Son, Fred Sanford made a reference to menudo in almost every episode. It was thought to be his favorite dish.
Menudo is eaten for breakfast and is known as the "Breakfast of Champions" in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.[2]
An annual Menudo Festival is held in Santa Maria, California. In 2009, more than 2,000 people attended and 13 restaurants competed for prizes in three categories. The festival is organized by the National Latino Peace Officers Association of Northern Santa Barbara County and the money raised goes toward the Robert Ramos Scholarship Fund.
Menudo also refers to an entirely different stew-like dish made in the Philippines. This dish is made of garlic, onions, diced pork chops, pork liver, diced potato, diced carrots, green bell peppers, soy sauce and tomato sauce, and seasoned with salt and pepper while it is cooked. Filipino menudo will usually contain tripe though common variants will include chickpeas, red peppers and raisins.
References
- ^ http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=menudo
- ^ http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/breakfast_of_champions_menudo
See also
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