San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
WE WANT THE FUNK
Here’s where to find the top 10 tastiest bowls of menudo 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 texture. The barnyard presence is strong in this one, something you’ll appreciate at 6 a.m. on the morning after. 2218 Broadway, 210-224-5540, carmelitassa.com
Fidelo’s Mexican Restaurant
If you like the big corn taste of hominy in pozole, you’ll love menudo at Fidelo’s on the Northeast Side. The least funky, most
user-friendly menudo on this list, it doubles down on the earthy sweetness of corn with tortillas like a leather-bound cookbook on how to make corn tortillas. 10929 Nacogdoches Road, 210-6558737, no web presence
J&ICafe
With mom Alma Cazares in the kitchen and pop Jose Cazares running the register, J & I is a true mom-and-pop operation. Their menudo radiates a homekitchen vibe, with tripe cut in clean velveteen ribbons in a stock with fat just starting to bubble to the surface, a bowl that incorporates spice, hominy and texture in perfect balance. 1431 E. Houston St., 210-271-0557, no web presence
Mittman Fine Foods
Without a doubt, this low-key cafe on the East Side makes the shiniest, reddest, angriest menudo of the bunch, spiked with a pig’s foot for maximum impact. The fat’s in suspended animation, ready to congeal the minute you look away, an argument for attacking the bowl with a sense
of urgency. 1125 S. Mittman St., 210-532-3318, no web presence
Pete’s Tako House
Honeycomb tripe is a lyrical name for cow’s stomach. And it’s completely accurate, with neat geometric pockets stacked in accordion blocks. It’s on full display here in a bowl with a clarified, restorative tonic of a broth with a full bloom blitz of oregano. The weekend wait at Pete’s stretched to 45 minutes, not just because it’s one of the few restaurants in the part of town off Brooklyn and Broadway, but because it’s good food at a good value. 502 Brooklyn Ave., 210-224-2911, petestakohouse.com
Piedras Negras de Noche
This family-run Southtown spot has been in the news lately for its fight with SAWS over the water utility’s plans to put a pumping station in their parking lot. A better reason to see Piedras Negras in print is menudo that balances long, short, shaggy and sleek ribbons of tripe with just the right doses of salt and hominy. It’s also the best place
for a cup of diner coffee on this list. 1312 S. Laredo St., 210-2277779, Facebook: Piedras Negras De Noche
Tacos Lira San Antonio
I’ve met the Lira family before, during my 365 Days of Tacos series for their barbacoa truck. Great tacos, nice people. Their other specialty is menudo, and the brother-sister team of Nahum Lira and Abigail Lira hold down the family’s brick-and-mortar location on the West Side with menudo where the broth is the secret, and they’re not giving away an secrets. It’s a calming red-gold tonic that turns down the funk. It’s one of the few places you can get bread with your bowl, the way they do in parts of Mexico where they understand the power of the dunk. 422 N. General McMullen Drive, 210-253-9155, Facebook: @tacoslirasarestaurant
Tia’s Taco Hut
Locally owned Tia’s Taco Hut opened its sixth location this fall near Providence Catholic School north of downtown. “Local”
means Tia’s understands menudo, and here it’s an elegant crimson bowl spiced like a Sunday stew, fortified with a pig’s foot that intermingles with neatly cut tripe. With a full Tex-Mex menu, the Tia’s formula is working so well the family’s opening a seventh location on Texas 151 on the Far West Side any day now. 1201 N. St Mary’s St., 210-248-9533, more locations at tiastacohuttx.com
Tommy’s Restaurant
The Tommy’s chain of local restaurants made its name with Big Red and barbacoa, but the menudo deserves its moment, too. The broth throws a mahogany overcoat across the bowl in 50 shades of brown, with a big neutral beef flavor working in perfect hominy with earthy corn flavors and tripe’s undeniable pastoral whiff, served with some of the best corn tortillas on this list.
1205 Nogalitos St., 210-223-9841,
more locations at mytommys.com