Mondongo ... is it SUPPOSED to taste like THAT???
Well, maybe "taste" isn't the right word ~ I'm not sure what the right word is. I ordered a bowl of mondongo at El Rey Pakal a few weekends ago. Large slippery slices of smooth tripe, chunks of chewy honeycomb tripe and some bones were swimming in the bowl. No veggies, chili, beans, a general lack of flavor, but it had an aroma that I am at a loss of words to describe. I couldn't detect any aromatics in the broth.
It came with some great handmade corn tortillas, diced white onions, oregano, two lime quarters. I had to load up the tortillas with their wonderful salsa in order to eat what was in the bowl.
I don't want to diss the restaurant ~ they have some wonderful dishes that I will order again and again ~ but their mondongo is not one of them. If I were trying to get over a hangover, this would not be my choice of cures.
Am I missing something here? I expected this dish to be more like menudo. Maybe I was expecting too much?
By AntarcticWidow
on Oct 29, 2007 06:53 PM
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Mondongo isn't menudo. Haven't been to El Rey Pakal, but try the version at Balompie for a good example (should have veggies and I think tendons).
Here's a picture (not mine)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14506668...
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I believe the words you're looking for is "heady aroma".
Mondongo isn't for the faint of heart. It is however, an amazing cure for hangovers. I've had it with everything you've listed but with tendon and pig's foot also added.
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The version I had in Motul, Yucatan contained achiote paste, epazote, sour orange juice & mint...
FWIW... the Rey Pakal people are from Peto which is in a completely different ecosystem than its "epicenter" in the Afro-Mexican towns of Veracruz & Campeche... so I am not surprised if they don't do it well.
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Windy, thanks for sharing. The mondongo I had was a grayish colored of broth and had nothing in it but slippery tripe, honeycomb tripe and bones. Your picture looks delicious and I would definitely eat THAT.
Porthos, somehow Ray Pakal's version of mondongo would not cure a hangover for me. If memory serves me correctly, I don't believe there was salt in the broth. (And no, I will not order it again to be sure.) I had a hard time keeping it down, the gag reflexes constantly kicked in. Maybe if I were suffering from a hangover I could have eaten it??? Nyahh ... I don't think so.
I like to believe I am not terribly squeamish about offal. I was raised on dinuguan, love pho with tripe, tendons and all the other little goodies that get tucked in between rice noodles. It's a treasure hunt for me to find all the yummy bits.
Back in college, what cured a hangover for me was a couple of Taco Bell tacos with four containers of their hot sauce emptied into each taco. Nowadays, I would probably opt for a spicy bloody mary ~ and a couple of B complex vitamins.
Eat Nopal, your list of ingredients is making me reconsider what I am going to fix for dinner tonight. I am salivating thinking about it. Thank you for the insight about the people from Rey Pakal. Just as there are dozens of versions of paella, I should have realized the same would be true of mondongo. I just didn't expect my first experience to be so disappointing.
To close, El Rey Pakal has many delicious selections to choose from that I will not hesitate to go back. However, their mondongo is definitely one that I won't order seconds on.
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I had a similarly bad experience with the Venison in Pipian.... but have no problem recommending El Rey Pakal on the masa based products. They might just not do soups well there... Peto is smack in the middle of the Yucatecan lowland jungle... if there was ever a place in Mexico I couldn't imagine people warming up to bowls of steaming stews & soups... it would be that part of the country.
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In the Yucatan we eat hot soup type dishes every day. We have dishes that are hundreds of years old and the customs are crazy... we only eat fish or seafood in the morning. My wife believes that if you eat seafood in the evening you will probably get a fever and die. We eat Frijol con Puerco on Monday. Very hot with habanero peppers whole, we bite them, and put a red salsa in the dish when served. With large pork pieces in the dish and tortillas in hand 90% of the Yucatan eat this every Monday. And our dishes are mostly soups, hot ones. Chocolomo, Pollo en Escabeche, Potaje, Relleno Negro, Chile Relleno, Mondongo Kabic, and many others.
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No doubt you are breaking Eat_Nopal's heart as he now lives in Hawaii and such wonderful dishes are few and far between.
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Yeah... its starting to hit... particularly because I am not cooking much these days.
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There are two kinds of Yucatecan Mondongo the one (almost) that you tried is called Kabic ka-beek, in Valladolid it is served with just the smooth tripa and maybe a bone or two of the pigs feet that are used in the cooking pot. This dish comes with the white onion and cilantro on the side and habanero peppers picado in lime juice in a little seperate bowl. My wife rolls up her tortilla while I quarter mine and eat the tripe with it. The dish is served so hot that the onions (raw) cook a little when placed in it. It is full of calories and the flavor comes from a seasoning ball called 'ricado rojo'. We eat this dish for hangovers, or cold days.... there is nothing like it. In Merida they put a few more things in it. The other is full of things and called Mondongo Andalusia. It is the Spanish version of the simple and wonderful Mondongo Kabic and has onion cooked and longaniza, ham pieces.... even a few garbanzos..... so try again... and this time ask if they are serving VERDADERO.... En Maya - La hach Mondongo Kabic?
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