"Mas menudo. Andale. Y... por favor, una helado Dos Equis..."Our garcon darts to the kitchen and brings out a steaming bowl of that most tasty Mexican dish - the Menudo. I can see the jalapeno peppers, the bloated hominy of white corn kernels just bursting with flavor, the cilantro sprigs and the most important ingredient - the beef tripes. The scent of cumin fills the air and such savory smells and aromas only experienced in a rancho cucina!
Don Juan Diego emerges from his seat behind the cash register. He was counting some of the receipts from the previous morning. "Buenos dias Caballeros... como esta... how you like the food, eh?"
We managed to nod our heads. Our mouths were full of food so we couldn't even talk. "Senor Diego! Mucho gusto!"
Okay, well... what are tripes and trilibags exactly? They are the cow's stomach. There are four chambers in a cow's stomach.
Here are some pictures so you'll be able to shop for some just in case you would like to spice up your football viewing parties with a bowl of menudo!
Top is the "Toweltripe". The least expensive of the three types of tripe, it is also the toughest and the more abundant.
The middle picture is the "Book tripe". Named so because it has "pages"... by far the most expensive kind of tripe. It is sliced super thin when used in Vietnamese soups.
The last one and the bottom is the famous "Honeycomb tripe" and if you look at it closely you'll know why it is called so. It is expensive, tasty and lends to good presentation of the cooked food product.
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