We chose the restaurant Monumental for our next beef adventure. We chose it for several reasons: it’s near our apartment, has outdoor seating, looks like a castle.
I had planned to eat mollejas (sweat breads also known as glands) but the waiter was completely freaked out that I was ordering only sweatbreads for dinner. He didn’t think this was an appropriate dinner. I didn’t either, but assumed they’d be inedible and I’d be going out for dinner #2 at McDonalds afterward.
He suggested corazon which is beef heart. I was little apprehensive so we also ordered lots of wine, a “ensalada Americana,” a backup pork chop and I made sure Jeff was ordering a big enough steak that I could mooch off him if needed.
The heart really wasn’t that bad. It sort of tasted like a weird cut of steak. Now the salad, on the other hand, was totally weird. Lots of corn and white stuff which was either the worst cheese in the world, or a strange vegetable.
My favorite part of dinner was observing the family next to us. It was past 11:30pm and an entire family including a baby, toddler, and nanny were enjoying dinner. At around 12:30am we had to go home, we were yawning, but the family was still on dessert.
Beef heart (at least at our favorite Peruvian restaurant) tasted a lot like beef liver, and it’s surely a much healthier organ. I had sweetbreads at a French restaurant on my first visit to SF (like 1950s!) without knowing what I was ordering. Haven’t eaten it since. Maybe one does get smarter with age?
G
Sweetbreads are on my to eat list, still working up the courage. 🙂 I am hoping they are easier to get down than tripe will be.