New Year’s Day Menudo

Like the silent smoke that finds an entrance in a forest, touches trees and spreads, the spirit of the season finds an entrance to our valley, too; tagging people, streets and homes.  With it, it brings a variety of colors, smells and sounds.  It brings us peace. The new colors give us joy.  Christmas makes us sing and dance but also, it makes us hungry.  When the colors, sounds and smells combine, the wolves wake up inside. Yes, for months and months the wolves slept and now they’re hungry, they’re possessed.  On a recent cold December day, my frisky Liberian friend, Foday, my American-Irish compadre, Peter, and I set out, in search for those smells that can help tame the hungry wolves within.  Sniffing down the road we go, on Nob hill and Fair Avenue in Yakima, right across from the fairgrounds at Salsita Antojitos Mexicanos we end up.

I was baptized with these flavors by my grandmother when I was a child.  Peter soaked in it later on, while studying in Morelia, Michoacan.  On a recent cold December day Foday is in diapers and needs to get baptized.

Salsitas is one of the best restaurants in the Yakima Valley that serves some of the most authentic Mexican traditional meals.  They’re a three generation family restaurant who has been offering their delicioso meals to valley residents since 1992.  Whatever the needs for your wolf are, Don Patricio Rodriguez discerns them and offers you his cure in the form of tamales, pozole, caldo, or menudo.  At the right time when you enter the restaurant, you may hear a special sound of clapping coming from the tortillera that welcomes you as she humbly prepares the warm corn tortillas. Behind the counter you can see the elaborate process for their foods.

Don Patricio knows how good a customer feels when the food is right and takes pride in what he offers.  In particular his menudo, a sacred meal that comes from Aztec and Maya ancestors. Although menudo crossed the border long time ago, there is no specific date for its official arrival to the Yakima Valley.  Don Patricio brought his version of menudo rojo from Michoacan, Mexico and takes great pleasure in feeding generations of families in the valley. Menudo, an invigorating soup, is often served on weekends; it is recognized as a cure-all for hangovers and requires many hours for preparation. Don Patricio anticipates serving many bowls of menudo on Sunday, following New Year’s Eve.

Thank you, Juan, Foday and Peter for sharing your Salsita experience with rooted!