Sopa de Mondongo...que rico...

...or not at all.

´Sopa de Mondongo´ sounded a little strange the first time it introduced to us. Upon learning what it is, it was no longer strange or weird, but downright absurd. Sopa de Mondongo means ¨cow guts soup.¨

It´s been almost 10 months since arriving to Honduras. It's begun to feel like home for us, and is becoming comfortable. Still, throughout this time, Sopa de mondongo has been one of those culturally Honduran foods that makes us uncomfortable, and the Hondurans think this is hilarious. Here are some excuses I've used around town to avoid having to eat these yucky cow guts in vegetable broth:

1. Sorry, I´m allergic to mondongo soup.

2. I´m a vegetarian (which doesn´t always work here because if somebody poor offers you something to eat, it means they´ve spent their money on you and it would be rude to turn it down, but sometimes they just laugh and it does work because they are not poor, so depending on the situation, this line can be used successfully. Use with discretion.)

3. Oh, I already ate.

4. Sorry- I would but it´s against my religion.

5. I already made and ate 3 bowls in my house.

Most of these work well. However, yesterday the fates were against us. I walked home to find our duena (land lady), Dona Clementina, cutting up cow legs and stomachs and boiling them in our back yard. We ignored what was going on- pretending it was a normal occurence. Then she asked Simon to help her chop the legs apart with her machete. I took pictures and will try to post some later.

In the evening, she suprized us with a big bowl of the said soup. Rico (meaning rich, delicious, wonderful...everything good here) was not what this soup was. I asked her if we could eat it in our house and she said ´sure.´ I ran with the bowl to our kitchen and we stared at it for awhile on the table.

¨It doesn´t smell very rico,¨said Simon. After finding 2 pieces of cow stomach and a knee with all ligaments attached, we fed it to the dog. She loved it.

Now, please understand that our land lady/neighbor is a great cook and I´m sure the soup was, indeed, rico. On Sundays she sits outside her house with a giant vat of the popular gut broth, selling it for 10 lempiras a bowl. Families will send the little ones to buy 10 bowls for lunch (one for everyone in the family). This is a special treat for Sunday lunch here, and Dona Clementina makes bank in the process. So--I know it has to be some of the best in town.

We just couldn´t do it. There's not a lot more I can say about it, but, well, oh well....we´re not eating it.

C