So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Bamaboots]

Menudo is great stuff.

Hangover food.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
My folks must’ve had an weird sense of humor.
We ate that all the time when we were kids. hic!

 

[tonyb]

I hear that in some households it's a tradition to make a pot of menudo on Saturday night so that the young fellows get the benefit of its hangover-curative effects before church Sunday morning.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^

Another tradition around Christmas or the new Year was homemade tamales.
All my aunts would gather around my grandmother’s house in the kitchen
& prepare some good eating food. Better than any restaurant I have ever
eaten.
Tamales were filled with either beef, deer, pork, or pinto beans.
Pinto bean soup was prepared in a Mexican clay pot.
Adding bacon,ham,pork or whatever your preferences.

All this was eaten with home-made flour or corn tortillas made
from scratch. Nothing was ready-mix packaging.


Once in a while, when I’m in the mood.
I’ll prepare a pot of “caldo”.
It’s either chicken or beef with plenty of vegetables.
I enjoy this with French bread.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^

I take it you are of Mexican descent, then?

 

[2jakes]

I take it you are of Mexican descent, then?

Heinz 57...

1/3 fish & chips, 1/3 sauerkraut
and 1/3 pico de gallo.

 

[Fading Fast]

New York City streets and sidewalk are, for the most part, very, very crowded and busy. It doesn't take a lot of common sense to step off "to the side" (against a building, into a nook, next to a mail box, etc.) if you want to stop and talk with a friend, get something out of your bag, adjust the something on the baby carriage, etc., but time and again - like yesterday - people just stop wherever they are and do whatever they want blocking up traffic without a thought.

Yesterday, on a very busy part of 2nd Avenue, two moms with kids in strollers, met, stopped and started chatting, all but blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic. People were forced into the street, in single file to get by. It was so self-centered and unaware that I (and I never do) really wanted to say something (but didn't). I see this happen all the time. And while the behavior is rude and New Yorkers have a reputation for rudeness, in most cases, nobody says anything to the people blocking the sidewalks and people just adjust and move on.

One, my experience is that most New Yorkers (most people) aren't rude and aren't looking to fight even when they are right and, two, forward motion is so important in the city, that most people would rather continue moving, inconvenienced or not, than lose the time necessary to confront the offenders.

Well, now, at least I feel a bit better getting that off my chest.

 

[tonyb]

I've found New Yorkers no more rude, and generally less so, than residents of many other cities I've visited or resided in myself. Perhaps they are a bit more direct, which might be attributed to what FF cited: It's crowded and busy, which may prompt people to avoid chit-chat and get to the point. "C'mon lady, what'll it be? I got 17 customers waiting behind you."

Have you ever walked into a bar, say, and sensed that the proprietor and patrons would rather you not be there? I don't often experience that, but I have experienced it. People might not be overtly hostile. Indeed, they might be superficially polite. But the thought bubble reads "we don't like your kind."

In fairness, it should be noted that people are by nature cautious around the unfamiliar, and discomforted by it. It's fortunate that most find people of other "kinds" (racial, religious, etc.) not so unlike themselves, once they get accustomed to their presence. Alas, "most people" isn't everybody.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have the same kind of people up here, but our sidewalks are far more narrow than those in New York -- a Manhattan sidewalk is about as wide as our Main Street. So when the "hey let's window shop at all the art galleries" crowd is standing there gaping and gawkiing at 900 different seascapes, those of us who have to be somewhere end up pushed into the gutter, or sidling around parked cars. Really fun when you're carrying an armload of stuff.

 

[Trenchfriend]

^^^^^

Menudo is great stuff.

Thanks. Never heared of it.
Is the beef-stomach good to chew?

 

[tonyb]

Thanks. Never heared of it.
Is the beef-stomach good to chew?

It has a mild flavor and picks up the flavors of whatever else it shares a pot.

The texture is soft, easy to chew. Some people are put off by its appearance. It's gray and smooth on one side and has a honeycomb-like texture on the other. It won't win any awards for looks, I suppose.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We call that "tripe" here. It's an old standby among the New England working class. My father, so called, once got so sick of it he threw a plate of it at the wall and it banged off the drainboard behind the kitchen sink. The plate shattered and the slab of tripe slid slowly down the tiles leaving a wet trail behind. I didn't care much for tripe after that.

 

[Fading Fast]

...Have you ever walked into a bar, say, and sensed that the proprietor and patrons would rather you not be there? I don't often experience that, but I have experienced it. People might not be overtly hostile. Indeed, they might be superficially polite. But the thought bubble reads "we don't like your kind."...

Yes, being a shy person, I probably exaggerate this feeling, but have definitely felt it. But my experience has also been - if I've stayed, or come back few times - it turns out to be nothing more than the regulars needed to get comfortable with me / to learn that I am a regular person / that I will fit in with the the "feel" of the place. That said, I have been in a few bars where I have felt, yup, they really don't want me here probably because they've formed an opinion of me on how I look / how I'm dressed / or something. If it feels hostile enough, I just quickly get out.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is the old-fashioned eastern Solyanka common in the US?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Never heard of it.

 

[Bamaboots]

Solyanka

Had to google it, Trenchie. I imagine it is uncommon.

 

[Fading Fast]

I had to Google it too and, at least in the Northeast USA, I'd say it is not common, but possibly exists within some of the small Russian immigrant communities.

Some cultures and their foods - Italian, French, Mexican, Asian (and I know all of those are broad categories not reflecting the nuanced sub-cultures that exist within each group, but this is a post not a dissertation) - have had a major impact in the US and, overtime, have moved the culture of the US / become a meaningful part of the culture of the US.

Russia seems not to have been one of those as, again, while I know there are some Russian communities in the US, their food and other customs have not, at least in my experience, seem to have impacted the broader US culture that much.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most Russian food that's been assimilated in the US seems to be Russian-Jewish -- for example, borscht is well-known thruout the Northeast, and you'll even find people up here in Maine who know what a blintz is. The Jewish community in the town where I live grew mostly from a Russian foundation.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Good classic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauernfrühstück

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bauernfrühstück&FORM=HDRSC2

 

[Fading Fast]

Most Russian food that's been assimilated in the US seems to be Russian-Jewish -- for example, borscht is well-known thruout the Northeast, and you'll even find people up here in Maine who know what a blintz is. The Jewish community in the town where I live grew mostly from a Russian foundation.

And even those are marginally main-stream versus pizza, tacos, sesame noodles, etc. And while blintzes seem to have some hold, borscht, IMHO, seems to be fading with the generation older than I.