Menudo and Tamales

I guess it's pretty obvious that it's been quite the Mexican culinary weekend around here.

J wanted menudo, I wanted tamales, so we took a walk in the Mission and loaded up on ingredients for both. We ended up making fresh tomato salsa and a red tamale sauce as well, but I think the most creative thing we did was pour menudo over hot tamales for what I guess would be called tamales suizo ("wet" tamales) in a restaurant.


A closeup of the inside, along with the tripe and hominy in the menudo. I won't say our attempts are as good as the best Mexican restaurants because there's definitely room for improvement, but I think in a blind taste test they'd hold their own against most middle of the road mom and pops. Proving, as always, that good eats transcend cultural boundaries.


And yes, more reading. I'm really on a roll lately. I think reading 200 page books with reasonably sized print is really good for my ego. Ian McEwan (author of Atonement) is one of the darkest writers I've read. And, because I'm ornery, I like depressing novels. McEwan has a way of describing unexpected social situations in a way that makes me cringe while being entirely unable to tear my eyes away from the page, and somehow understanding exactly where the characters are coming from. On Chesil Beach is bitter-but-sweetly-told story about the follies of impatient youths and the effects of a repressive society, but foremost it's a cautionary tale about how a moment of silence and miscommunication can shatter a lifetime.