I was dining last night at the local Mexican joint, and was reminded that this place serves menudo on Fridays and Saturdays. I’ve noticed that there are several places around town that advertise menudo. More often than not, they only make it 1-2 days a week, mostly on weekends.
Why is this so? What does a person who gets a hankerin’ for menudo do on a Tuesday? I have a few ideas on why this is so:
[list=1]
[li]It’s a cooking issue (hard to make or keep?)[/li][li]It’s a religious/cultural thing from way back[/li][li]Hi, Opal![/li][/list=1]
When I was growing up around Los Angeles, I heard it was only served on the weekends because it is a traditional Mexican hangover remedy. On Sunday mornings, I would see Mexican women with pot in hand waiting in line at mexican restaurants to get some menudo for after Mass. This is what I heard and saw, others may have a different theory.
I believe the correct answer is #1 (a cooking issue).
I say this because Pozole is the same way in many places, if they serve it, it’s only on the weekend. I asked why this was, and they said it’d be too hard to serve it during weekday lunches.
The El Paso Cafe on El Camino Real here in the Bay Area (Mountain View, or that general vicinity) is a well-regarded local Tex-Mex joint. They also make menudo in this pattern, and the owner said he made it on the weekends for customers wanting hangover remedies. It’s probably this bit of folklore which drives the demand for it, coupled with the fact that it’s time-consuming to make.
Hmm. So in other words, it’s a real b*tch to make, so we only make it when lots of people want it. So not enough people crave the tripe on a daily basis to warrant the hassle.
I don’t know about you all, but that sounds like the last thing I’d be craving if I was hanging.
You guys are lucky. Last Saturday the wife (she’s finally here!) and I went to the local Mexicantown part of the city looking for menudo, and they said they didn’t have any And it was Saturday!
I’ve always heard it was both time consuming, and a great cure for a hangover. I’ve had it once. Well, being a lost and hungover gringo in a somewhat seedy mexican neighborhood in the LA area at the time, god knows what they really gave me to eat, but I know there was tripe in it. All I can say is that I have been awfully drunk many times… but I have NEVER drank enough to ever again make me think that Menudo would really hit the spot, much less when I’m already sick. Maybe that’s the point of it though… I’ll stick to a bloody mary and a couple eggs for my cure:)
Speaking as one who, up to this point, thought menudo was a pack of pre-pubescent singers from Puerto Rico, may I ask just what the menudo you’re talking about is?
JayJay, trust me, you don’t want to know. Let it suffice that it is a delightful dish which my dear old aunt claimed could cure any ills of psyche or body. It has a heady bouquet and I for one find that it does sooth the morning after the night before. The loving care that is put into its preperation makes the week’s wait for it well worth it.
But honestly, you have to have the stomach for it to truly enjoy it. I’m not talking any tripe here. Listen tummy, you don’t want to know what’s in it. You really have to have guts to take it. But you’ve probably had a belly full of this advice so I’ll say bye.
Thank you all for answering. The only Mexican food I’m familiar with (other than Taco Bell-mass market/Americanized stuff) is a dessert that I had when I was in San Diego visiting almost 10 years ago. Churro or chirro or something like that. Like a sweet, crunchy manicotti with some sort of sweet filling.
And it was Saturday!