The other day my
girlfriend asked me what
menudo was. When I explained to her that it was a latin boy band from the eighties she seemed unsatisfied.
"I know that
dumbass, I mean the other menudo."
I immediately realized that in her own sweet way she was inquiring about the
soup not the
band. I explained to her that menudo was a sort of nasty mexican soup made from all sort of things like
tripe,
intestines and other edible/inedible parts. I also explained that some times a really nice menudo is made but usually without all the nasty stuff.
She seemed perplexed.
"You don't like it because it has intestines in it? Isn't sausage stuffed in intestine.
You like sausage don't you?"
I realized she had a point. Now I don't know if sausage is still stuffed in intestines, but I do know that it used to be and that I had no qualms about eating it if it were still true. I also realized that my
distaste of menudo was largely assumed. I have never eaten any. I'm not usually the type of person that denounces something so emphatically without first trying it.
Was my distaste of menudo purely
ethnocentric? In all my life I can only recall one incident were I came into contact with
menudo. A friend once made menudo in the
barracks and then stored it in my
refrigerator. He never retrieved it. It sat in my refrigerator for over six months. It went through several interesting changes eventually becoming
completely odorless, but it always looked
nasty. Even when he first brought it over it appeared
ugly. Based on that single occurrence I have obtained a revulsion for menudo. I don't think I could eat any if I wanted to. Fortunately, I still like sausage a lot.