Restaurant owners share their traditions

For Samantha Flores, trying to extoll the virtues of menudo to the uninitiated can be a tough sell. 

“It can sound kind of unappetizing, right? It doesn’t sound like something you’d want to eat,” said Flores, manager at Taqueria Allende on Broadway. 

In simple terms, menudo is beef tripe soup, and more precisely, pieces and chunks of a cow’s stomach lining immersed in a chili-based reddish-brownish broth, often embellished with hominy and a few seasonings.

“I usually tell people, first try the broth because it can be an acquired taste and you’re going to have to be open-minded,” said Roberto Padilla, owner of Puebla’s Mexican Kitchen in the Heights. 

The Mexican staple is so popular at restaurants or taquerias that pride themselves on serving authentic, traditional Mexican fare that it’s usually gone by mid-morning. Padilla, 40, said his restaurant usually prepares about 50 pounds of tripe in one day. 

And it’s such a slow cooking process that most restaurants only serve it on weekends, so it’s first come, first serve. 

“We’ve been serving for as long as I can remember,” said Flores, 32, who was introduced to menudo by her parents and grandparents. 

The origin of menudo is frequently a matter of debate, with some culinary historians tracing its beginnings to either Central or Northern Mexico. It is widely believed to have begun with campesinos, or peasants, who couldn’t afford to let any part of an animal go to waste. 

“The dish is popular because of its traditional roots, especially in a Latino populated area like the East End,” said Gina Kuper, manager at El Jardin on Navigation. “Many patrons say it reminds them of their family recipes.”  

Its popularity has also become increasingly cross-cultural, according to Eduardo Trevino, owner of La Mexicana in the Montrose area. 

A significant percentage of his customers who order menudo, he said, are Anglo and Asian Americans.

Menudo can vary according to the type of meat used, the consistency of it, and different regional preferences.

At Don Carlos near Hobby Airport, the menudo is simple, according to manager Patricia Santana, 67. 

“A lot of restaurants want to put this or that, but no, we have real Mexican menudo,” Santana said.

Red chili for the broth, beef tripe, hominy, and not much else, according to Santana.

Some customers, Flores said, customize their menudo, like requesting a pig’s foot to be added to the broth. 

What you eat with menudo is another matter of preference: corn or flour tortilla is the more common choice at restaurants in the U.S., but in certain regions of Mexico, bread, or bolillos are just as traditional. 

“They dip the bread into the broth, and it adds another layer of flavor,” Padilla said. 

At Puebla’s Mexican Kitchen and other restaurants, honeycomb tripe, known for having a firm yet more tender consistency, and a milder flavor, is a difference-maker, Padilla said, because not all menudo is created equal.   

“If it’s not cleaned properly, it can have a really pungent smell, and that can be off-putting to people,” he said. “We wash it, clean it, scrape up a lot of the fat before we cook it, and then let it simmer.”

When done right, the result can have a powerful effect on those who seek it out.

The occasional drive to the Mi Tienda food market in Pasadena is a special trip for Elma Pena, a Clear Lake area resident who prefers to shop for her own ingredients and cook her own menudo. 

Pena, 82, always makes sure to cook enough to store extra bowls in the freezer to take out when she’s craving the flavors that recall her childhood growing up in Laredo.   

“When we were little, my mom would make it for us, and I watched her doing it, and now I make it,” she said. “I just love it, and I love everything in. It’s just the best.”  

Even with all the regional, cultural, and personal alterations, the common denominator among many who love eating and preparing menudo is the lineage to mothers, fathers, and grandmothers and grandfathers. 

“It’s like something for the soul, it brings something back to you from your childhood and family history,” Flores said. “Cooking it comes from the soul too, and when you do it with a lot of love, that’s the perfect recipe.”  

Here are eight restaurants and taquerias in the Houston area serving menudo daily or weekends:

Address: 1018 Fairview St., Houston

La Mexicana on Montrose serves menudo every day of the week, and that was a response to demand.

“We used to have it on weekends when we started, but there was too much demand especially when weather is cold,” said owner Eduardo Trevino.

What makes the menudo at La Mexicana such a staple? It’s about attention to detail, Trevino said.

“I notice that at a lot of places, menudo is greasy,” he said. “We try to remove all the grease from the tripe and cook with less fat.”

The menudo comes from Trevino’s mother’s recipe.

Trevino and his wife, America, took over the restaurant in 1982 when it was primarily a Hispanic food market, and it has become a local favorite. 

Address: 7849 Harrisburg Blvd., Houston

The menudo recipe at El Jardin was passed down from Gina Kuper’s grandmother, Maria Jasso. 

“It was once a common dish during cold or festive occasions, but menudo has since evolved into a dish that has become a permanent staple on our menu,” said Kuper, who is a member of the Rodriguez and Gonzalez families who founded the restaurant in 1975.

Menudo is also served at the Gonzales-Rodriguez-owned Mamacitas chains in Houston. 

Address: 6702 Canal St., Houston

Sunday morning menudo was a tradition in Ana Araujo’s family, and that tradition has been passed down at El Mirador, where weekends mean bowls and bowls of menudo. 

“I have a memory of my grandma making it on the weekend, it was a feast, and it brought the family together,” said Araujo, 50. 

The restaurant also has menudo-to-go. 

Address: 903 Broadway St., Houston

Since 2005, Taqueria Allende has been serving the same menudo from a recipe that manager Samantha Flores’ grandparents brought with them from Mexico. 

The restaurant is generational, with Flores and her siblings spending their weekends in the restaurant kitchen and dining room, where mornings were busy with menudo orders. 

The best time to get menudo, said Flores, 34, is in the mornings, because by mid-morning, it’s all gone.  

There is a method to preparing good menudo, she said. 

“You don’t want to under or over cook it,” she said. “One of the reasons a lot of places only serve it on the weekends is because it takes so long. It takes dedication and love.”

Address: 8385 Broadway St., Houston

There’s nothing fancy about the menudo at Don Carlos, according to manager Patricia Santana. 

The recipe is simple, but flavorful, she said.

“We have all Mexican flavors, and we make our menudo the traditional way,” said Santana, 67, who is originally from Monterey, Mexico. 

Accompanied by flour or corn tortillas or bolillos, the soup is only served on the weekends. 

Address: 6320 N Main St., Houston

Named after the town of Puebla, Mexico, this Mexican restaurant takes its menudo to heart, said Owner and Manager Roberto Padilla, 40. 
“My dad came up with recipe, evolved, and shared it,” he said.

The attention to detail in the preparation makes Puebla’s menudo feel like fine dining, he said.
“We only cook with honeycomb trite because it has a better consistency, and we clean and scrape off a lot of the fat before we cook it,” Padilla said. 

Served only on Saturdays, the restaurant has increased the amount of menudo it prepares, and it always sells out, Padilla said. 

Address: 2109 Dunlavy St. in Houston and 4690 Burke Rd. Suite 160 in Pasadena

The orders for menudo come in early at La Gaudalupana. The Mexican bakery and restaurant serves the soup daily at its Pasadena and Montrose locations.

Chef and owner Trancito Díaz keeps his family recipe for menudo faithful to the source, his parents. 

Diaz said the best way to appreciate the unique flavor of menudo is to keep it simple.

If it’s made the right way, he said, the menudo speaks for itself. 

Address: 7222 Spencer Hwy. in Pasadena; 1112 76th St. near Navigation and Harrisburg; and 3738 Broadway St., Houston

The name Dona Chela refers to the nickname of owner Teresa Ramon’s mother, and the menudo is a tribute to her childhood.

“My mother used to make menudo every week and she would cook all night, very slowly,” Ramon said. 

By Sunday morning it was ready for the seasonings. 

That method has proven to be one of the more popular menu items since the first Dona Chela restaurant opened at Broadway more than 20 years ago. 

“One customer, an older man, asked me to marry him because he said it was the best menudo he had ever tasted,” she said. “I told him he had to marry my husband because he was the cook.”