All out war this past weekend in Monterrey Mexico with the crew I grew up with. Us drunkards versus more stunningly beautiful super-ultra-conservative Mexican oligarch daughters than we knew what to do with, unfortunately, I don't think we won a single battle.
Thankfully, there was the food, and even though Monterrey is a fairly new inland industrial town, they do have one specialty - cabrito, baby roasted goat. We had our first chance to explore its wonders at El Rey del Cabrito, a block-long, mounted endangered species displaying, Monterrey baby-goat themed restaurant. We knew it was a bit gaijin-oriented when they kept offering us tequila, but we stayed positive and determined. The menu offered cabrito, every cut possible, but since we had a group of 12 and I was ordering, we ordered a whole goat and a half, and a head for me (there was no way I was going to let that one go). Cooked in a style similar to our Japanese ayu (see komida post photo 5/19/2005), split and ?grilled for a long period of time surrounding a steady fire, it was good. Not spectacular, but that was because it could have been better. The cabrito chicharron was not nearly as respected as it could have been (this was not the case in the rest of Monterrey, as I saw a 4 foot by 4 foot piece of chicharron at a supermarket = heaven), and was a disappointment coming from my "that is the only important part of the pig" tradition. What made it worse was that it looked like pork. Tender and clean tasting (expected), I had forgotten that baby animals don't have that much meat (lots of bones), so don't forget that the next time you push yourself through a third world hangover with fantasies of huge chunks of meat. Baby goat is definitely worth eating, even a delicacy, but next time, I will cook it myself.