Our favorite meal in Mexico, at El Huequito ("The Little Hole") in the historic central district of Mexico City, was tacos al pastor, those incredible little spicy pork tacos straight from the spit. However, the meal started with a little surprise. We chose El Huequito having seen my boyfriend, Tony Bourdain, eat there on his Travel Channel program "No Reservations." We ordered cocktails and perused the menu, completely in Spanish. I do fine in this foreign tongue, but I'm not fluent and there are many words that still mean nothing to me. So when we ordered a couple of appetizers, I just hoped for the best.
Imagine our surprise when the plate, pictured above, arrived at our table. It looked like beefy squid tentacles and onions with green beans. Once in our mouths, we found that the curly meat pieces had a certain chewiness that could really only mean we were chomping on organs. The flavor was great, but each curlicue had a small circle of fat attached that was pretty unappealing. As much as I know that fat brings the flavor to food, and I appreciate that, I still don't want to bite into a hunk of rubbery white blubber. When our waiter came by, I asked him in Spanish what cut of meat we were chewing on and he replied, tripa. Ah, yes, tripa. Tripe. Offal. The stomach of the cow. Yowza. I can't deny that I enjoyed the flavor, but I'm American through and through so I struggle with the idea of consuming the innards of the animal. But, except for the green beans which turned out to be hot chilies, we finished the stomach appetizer and, along with it, a plate of the most awesome cochinita pibil (Yucatecan shredded pork marinated in sour oranges and spices) I could imagine. But I'm off the offal for awhile.
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