Chickpea to Cook

Ever wonder what the stomach of a Grouper fish tastes like?

Me neither, but that didn’t stop me from trying it when I was in Mexico last week. It was my last day there and our driver, Avelino, offered to take me to this little-known local seafood restaurant in downtown Cancun while I waited for my flight.

Avelino knew the owner of the place and was a regular. He didn’t even glance at the menu when we sat down. A football match blared on the TV in the unassuming restaurant. Not a tourist in site–I was excited.

Avelino doesn’t drink, so I wasn’t going to order alcohol but when he heard me ask for a juice he spoke up.

“What?? No beer?” he said incredulously. “Seafood always tastes better with a beer.”

That was all I needed to hear.

One cerveza coming up.

The beer was served to me along with a steaming bowl of fish head soup. And that was when I knew I was in for an interesting lunch.

“This is how we eat it,” Avelinon said, scooping a handful of crispy tortilla chips and crushing them with his palms over the soup. He took a lime slice and squeezed it into the thin tomato broth, and also mixed in green chile sauce and onion and cilantro. I did the same.

“Watch out for bones,” he warned me.

I followed his lead and took a sip. Delicious. The meat was thick and tender, the soup spicy and sour.

And any doubt that I may have had that this was fish head soup was erased when I spooned out a large jaw bone.

Next came a platter of four small bowls: ceviche; octopus in red chile; conch in a lime, cilantro, tomato sauce; and baby shark. Each one had a completely unique taste, but my favorite was the ceviche: fresh, citrusy, and flavorful. I could have eaten the whole plate myself.

The shark was my least favorite–it was a bit dry and uninteresting.

I thought this would be all, but the waiter brought out more. Two dishes this time: a white meat and a brownish gray meat.

“What’s this?” I asked out loud.

“That one is squid in garlic–calamari,” Avelino replied, pointing to the white.”This other one…try it first and then I’ll tell you.”

I gave him a wary look, then stabbed a piece with my fork. Hakuna Matata.

It was chewy, and fishy despite being drenched in lime. I can’t say I liked it, but it wasn’t horrible. He watched me eat it with a smile on his face.

“OK, what is it?” I asked.

“Stomach of Grouper fish,” he said.

I shrugged my shoulders and took another bite.

“You like it?” he asked. “It’s my favorite.”

“Um, well, I probably wouldn’t order it again,” I confessed. “But I’ll try anything once.”