This article explores the reasons why people enjoy menudo, a Mexican stew known for its strong aroma. It discusses the taste, comfort factor, and hangover-relieving properties of menudo, highlighting its cultural significance and featuring recommendations for the best bowls in San Antonio.
To understand menudo is to appreciate the way it smells. The Mexican stew made with cow’s stomach, hominy, chiles and beef broth smells like a full day’s work in a denim shirt. It smells like a stockyard driveway. And in the words of an old friend from San Antonio , it smells like an elevator full of shoes. Here’s why we eat it anyway.
First, menudo falls into that category of foods that smell bad but taste great, things like blue cheese, kimchi, papaya, anchovies in a Caesar salad and red wine with a barnyard whiff from renegade yeast. Second, it’s comfort food, something that calls up big memories from small kitchens. Jose Cazares, who owns J & I Cafe on the East Side with his wife Alma Cazares, caters to that comfort, serving menudo every day and not just on the weekends like so many places. “I eat it on Wednesday, on Saturday, all the time,” he said as he snapped the lids on salsa cups getting ready for the morning rush. “Menudo’s always been around, especially in cold weather. It has deep roots.” Third, there’s the hangover thing. Full of broth, salt and protein, menudo restores what alcohol stole away the night before. From Blanco Cafe and Mittman Fine Foods to Tia’s Taco Hut and Tommy’s, these are the 10 best bowls of menudo I’ve had in San Antonio, in alphabetical order. Blanco Cafe Blanco Cafe is famous for cheese enchiladas in chili gravy, and rightly so. Their menudo’s in the same class, a bowl that’s meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, a celebration of loosely trimmed tripe in a friendly orange broth, served with handmade corn tortillas to soak it up. 1720 Blanco Road, 210-732-6480, blancocafesa.com Carmelita’s Mexican Restaurant Whenever you get a shot at “menudo con pata,” take it. Carmelita’s takes an already robust menudo with hominy and herbs in an iridescent mahogany broth and spikes it with a pig’s foot, adding another dimension of flavor and textur
Food Menudo Mexican Cuisine San Antonio Comfort Food Hangover Remedy
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