Plenty of community flavor at menudo festival

GRANGER -- R.J. Aparicio, 2, and his 6-year-old sister, Alyna Ramirez, quietly sat at a picnic table at Hisey Park on Sunday, tipping bowls of menudo into their mouths.

"They love it," said their mother, Mary Ramirez. "This one -- she'll eat all day."

Mary Ramirez, her children and her parents, Manuel and Viviana Ramirez, waited in line for 25 minutes just to get a bowl each of menudo at the town's seventh annual menudo cook-off.

They drove from their Mabton home just to attend the event packed with food and craft vendors, a dunking booth, a car show, live music and a menudo contest. It attracted hundreds of people.

A line of people wanting menudo stretched the entire length of the park's Dino Store while the Ramirez family finished eating.

"We're waiting for another pot," said Viviana Ramirez. "They're sold out already -- they're making another pot."

Graciela Cardenas stood over a 5-gallon pot of menudo on a stove at the store after already going through eight such pots totaling 40 gallons of the dish.

"We estimated about 200 servings by 2 (p.m.)," she said stirring the pot. "It's not even 1 (p.m.)," she said.

Meanwhile, people were taking in the food, and sights the event had to offer.

Main Street, which borders the park, was closed to traffic and lined with 1960s Chevrolet Impala lowriders, an old Pontiac GTO, a 1940s Chevrolet pickup and other custom cars.

People peered into windows of the shiny vehicles as judges passed by with clipboards in their hands.

A table of trophies sat nearby.Music blared from an amphitheater at the edge of the park's pond. People filled the center of the park, crowding into several picnic tables.

A table under an awning behind the store was lined with pots of menudo waiting to be judged in the contest.

When it comes to actually cooking the concoction -- a spicy Mexican soup made with tripe, calf's feet, chiles and seasonings -- some people use hominy in their menudo, some don't.

Manuel Ramirez said he doesn't care for hominy.

"Menudo is menudo with or without," he said.

But his wife does, although she didn't enter any in this year's contest. She plans to enter her spicy salsa in the Yakima Valley Salsa Festival at Performance Park in Yakima on Sept. 18.

"See what happens," Viviana Ramirez said. "See if they like it."

Contestant Ramona Cortez doesn't use hominy either, and said it's not used in the traditional dish.

"It's Mexican dish that I prepare -- by a real Mexican," she explained as her son, Julio Cortez, interpreted her Spanish.

This is the first year she has competed, her son said.

"This has been going on for a couple of years and we always told her, 'come on,' and finally she did."

One pot on the judging table belonged to Wapato Police Chief Richard Sanchez.

He stood under a patio cover at the rear of the store giving his friend, Marcos Barreiro, a hard time.

"Last time I beat him," Sanchez said with a laugh.

"Yeah, it's personal," Barreiro quipped back.

Three years ago, Barreiro was the first male to win in the contest that this year awarded $300 to first place, $200 to second and $100 to third.

Sanchez beat Barreiro out of second place two years ago.

"I broke the male barrier, then he came along," he said, nodding to Sanchez with a laugh.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 pferolito@yakimaherald.com.