Breakfast of Champions (menudo)
“Breakfast of Champions” has been the slogan of Wheaties cereal from 1933.
Menudo is tripe stew. For many people in Texas and New Mexico (with tough stomachs), menudo has also been called the “breakfast of champions.”
“A breakfast of champions means something entirely different to a cannibal” is a related joke.
Mexican Recipes—Menudo
Menudo has been called “Breakfast of Champions”, and there is no better cure for a hangover.
Tucson Food
Mexican Food in Tucson
by Dr. James S. Gifffith
April 14, 1997
Reprinted and revised with permission from the Introduction to Tucson’s Mexican Restaurants by Suzanne Myal. Tucson: Fiesta Publications, 1997.
(...)
There are no halfway measures about menudo—folks either like it or they don’t. Menudo is typically served for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday, and many restaurants will only prepare it on those days. It is a wonderful, hearty dish, especially after you add cilantro, bits of chile, and perhaps some lemon juice to it, and accompany it with a toasted and buttered split Mexican roll. Although menudo in Arizona and Sonora is traditionally a whiteish color, Texans prefer to cook it with some red chile, chang ing the color to a deep red. Many restaurants serve both kinds.
Menudo has considerable reputation as a sovereign hangover cure, and is sometimes jokingly referred to as the “breakfast of champions.” In fact, menudo seems to be one of those foods that just naturally attracts jokes—a Chicano friend once explained to an inquiring tourist that it was really nothing but “cow guts and popcorn.”
Google Groups: rec.food.cooking
From: Steve Loring
Date: Sat, Dec 3 1994 8:03 am
>> TRIPE.
>Actually, it is a wonderful spicey tripe SOUP. Mmmmmmmmmm.
>It can tend to smell up the house a bit, though.
>Thomas Fenske
In New Mexico it’s sometimes (humorously) referred to as the breakfast of champions. It’s also touted as a hangover remedy (no personal experience with it on that account); some folks swear by it (some folks swear at it). It can have chiles or not; in fact, it’s basically a posole recipe with tripe substituted for the hominy (need to cook the tripe longer, though). Here in Las Cruces, there’s a small restaurant named “Casa de Menudo”—their specialty is. . . (you guessed it).
24 September 1933, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, pg. W15 ad:
“The Breakfast of Champions.” And if you are the kind of boy or girl who wants to be a star athlete—like Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Lefty Grove, Jack Armstrong—you’ll love Wheaties! These famous stars say—“Wheaties with milk or cream and sugar give you the muscles, the energy, the speed it takes to win.”
28 July 1973, Odessa (TX) American, pg. 6B:
Chili Cookoff
Ballyhoo Stirs
Menudo Event
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. (AP)—A newspaper columnist who says there has been “all this ballyhoo about chili cookoffs” launched the first annual World’s Championship Menudo Cookoff Friday at a local park.
Menudo, a spicy soupy substance whose meat ingredient is beef tripe, will be available free of charge to all those attending before the round-the-clock cookoff ends Saturday night.
Sam Kindrick, who writes the “Offbeat” column for the San Antonio Express, says his cookoff will celebrate what long has been known in Texas and Mexico as the “Breakfast of Champions.”
He claims Menudo is as popular as chili con carne in this South Texas city.
Menudo allegedly does wonders in the late evening or early morning for participants in drinking bouts.
2 December 1977, The Argus (Fremont-Newark, CA), pg. 13:
Though Wheaties and Bruce Jenner may claim otherwise, the true breakfast of champions is menudo, a tasty Mexican dish. Menudo and pancakes will be served Sunday at the boutique of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, Union City.
1 May 1981, Los Angeles Times, “Cisneros of San Antonio: Mayor Who Broke Barrier Takes Over” by J. Michael Kennedy, pg. B6:
He (Henry Cisneros, mayor of San Antonio—ed.) ate a bowl of menudo with victory champagne, a combination he dubbed his “breakfast of champions.”
18 March 1982, Los Angeles Times, pg. SB2:
Menudo is a Mexican soup made with hominy and tripe. For purely cultural reasons, tripe, which is the lining of the stomachs of cattle, has a poor reputation in some quarters. And there are those who seldom drink beer for breakfast.
(...)
Menudo even once, particularly in the morning, is difficult for some people to swallow. The spicy soup often includes diced onions, oregano, lemon juice and chili piquin, which is dry, crushed chili. It is eaten with rolled corn tortillas and is jokingly referred to by Latinos as the breakfast of champions. For generations, here and in Mexico, menudo has also been widely considered a remedy for hangover.
5 August 1990, New York (NY) Times, pg. EDUC42:
“You’ve heard of Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions?” asked Rene Peña, a specialist in community education service for Children’s Television in Dallas. “In Texas, it’s menudo,” a spicy soup made of cow innards. “Texans eat it a lot,” Mr. Peña said, “normally in the morning, after they’ve been partying all weekend.”
(Trademark)
Word Mark THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: CEREAL FOOD PRODUCTS PARTICULARLY BREAKFAST CEREAL. FIRST USE: 19331014. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19331014
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Design Search Code
Serial Number 71379928
Filing Date June 19, 1936
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED
Registration Number 0342440
Registration Date January 19, 1937
Owner (REGISTRANT) GENERAL MILLS, INC. CORPORATION DELAWARE NUMBER ONE GENERAL MILLS BOULEVARD MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA 55426
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record RICHARD M. BERMAN
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 12C. SECT 15.
Renewal 3RD RENEWAL 19961029
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE