Menudo

Fireworks and fiery food will highlight the U.S. Western Menudo Championship this weekend at Centennial Park. The championship, which is the culmination of dozens of regional cook-offs to determine the West's top menudo maker, will begin Friday at 4 p.m. and will feature food booths and arts and crafts booths as well as musical performances. The festivities will continue Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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A recent weekend at Banning Park: The annual Wilmington Fiesta hits its stride in a swirl of music, dancing, carnival rides. Amid the festivities, a solemn ritual is getting under way. The judges take their places at a table under a white canopy: six men in baseball caps, big men, men who know what they like and what they're looking for. " Menudo eaters from way back," says John Mendez, co-chairman of the three-day fiesta, which is being held for the sixth year.

GUILLERMO ARRIAGA was a just a kid in Mexico when he was swept up in one of the biggest pop music crazes of all time: Menudo mania. Menudo was the boy band, an early '80s Latino precursor to groups like 'NSync and Back Street Boys, and served as the farm team for Puerto Rican superstar Ricky Martin, an original member of the teen-pop sensation. The group sparked dreams of romance in girls and dreams of stardom in boys like Arriaga, now 39.

Saturday afternoon at Banning Park: The annual Wilmington Fiesta hits its stride in a swirl of music, dancing, carnival rides. Amid the festivities, a solemn ritual is getting under way. The judges take their places at a table under a white canopy: six men in baseball caps, big men, men who know what they like and what they're looking for. " Menudo eaters from way back," says John Mendez, co-chairman of the three-day fiesta, which is being held for the sixth year.

He's only 23, but Ricky Martin titled his latest album "A medio vivir," which translates as "Halfway Through Life." Looking at his life up to now it's hard to blame him. A Latin American superstar at the age of 12 as a member of the teen-sensation bubblegum group Menudo, he's packed enough experiences into his young existence--good and bad--for someone twice his age. In the years since he left Menudo at 17, he's struggled to gain artistic credibility...

No, Kristen, the New Kids are not the modern Beatles. The modern Osmonds or the modern Monkees, maybe. More likely the modern Menudo. STEVEN KEOWN Lawndale

Considering the fact that Salgado feels that "it is natural for children to be curious about their world, to wonder about the sky above and the earth below," we feel it ironic that he chose to participate in a Department of Energy fellowship program that included work with a laboratory (Los Alamos) whose primary purpose is creating the means by which humanity can potentially bring about the demise of this wondrous environment. As Salgado suggests, to eat menudo in space may be an interesting experience, but the problem of feeding people here on Earth is more pressing; Salgado should reconsider the application of his interest in the sciences to this and other more pressing issues.

The mayor of Porrino, a small town in northwest Spain, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fattest mayor, the Spanish daily El Pais reports. "I did nothing to deserve this except eat nonstop," said Jose Manuel Barros, who weighed in at 179 kilograms (394 pounds) and has a particular penchant for tripe.

Most people in Orange County know Frank Garcia best for his incredible Thanksgiving generosity: Each year, he closes his Casa Garcia restaurant in Anaheim and turns it over to the needy, providing upward of 11,000 free meals. But to the regular customers of the Chapman Avenue establishment, it's the authentic Mexican fare that comes out of Garcia's kitchen. One of the most popular items is menudo, the fabled south-of-the-border hangover cure.

Menudo, the popular Puerto Rican teen pop band of the '70s and '80s, is being revived. Menudo Entertainment bought all the merchandising and property rights about a month ago from Latin record executive Oscar Lloyd and is working with talent agencies and radio stations in its search for band members, company spokeswoman Cathy Callegari said. Menudo was formed in 1977. The boys were booted when they turned 16, and the group had about 30 members, including Ricky Martin.

The mayor of Porrino, a small town in northwest Spain, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fattest mayor, the Spanish daily El Pais reports. "I did nothing to deserve this except eat nonstop," said Jose Manuel Barros, who weighed in at 179 kilograms (394 pounds) and has a particular penchant for tripe.

All across town, in kitchens where pigs' feet hang from clothespins and caldrons bubble with murky soup, families are gearing up for a historic event that may put this city on the culinary map: a menudo cook-off. The soup made from cow's stomach, hominy and pigs' feet is quintessentially Mexican, and this Sunday, San Fernando will sponsor its first menudo festival to celebrate its Mexican-American heritage.

Across the town of San Fernando, in kitchens where pigs' feet hang from clothespins and caldrons bubble with murky soup, families are gearing up for a historic event that may put this city on the culinary map: a menudo cook-off. The soup made from cow's stomach, pigs' feet and hominy is quintessentially Mexican, and this Sunday San Fernando will sponsor its first menudo festival to celebrate its Mexican American heritage.

City officials here are planning a menudo festival they hope will one day rival the famed Gilroy Garlic Festival. The festival, scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 21, will feature the mayor's menudo cook-off in which Mayor Jose Hernandez and four other judges will pick a winner. The first-place contestant will get $250, second will get $100 and the third-place finisher will get a gift basket. "We want to make the menudo festival as well-known and popular as the garlic festival," Hernandez said.

Speak of Robi "Draco" Rosa, and you're speaking of the anti-Ricky Martin. For in the beginning, businessman Edgardo Diaz created Menudo. And Menudo was without form, and void. And Diaz said, Let there be Ricky. And there was Ricky. And Diaz said, Let there be Robi. And there was Robi. And Ricky rejoiced and was good and went on to appear on Broadway and in soap operas and broke forth in singing and conquered the Earth.

It's not often that you get to see a stunning show by a terrible act, which is exactly why El Reencuentro's extravagant concert Friday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim was memorable in a twisted sort of way. A 15-years-later revival of the teeny-bopper sensation Menudo, El Reencuentro plays bland Latin pop. Though an attempt to funkify the old hits was clear Friday, there's still only so much you can do when the material lacks inspiration to begin with.

Menudo, the popular Puerto Rican teen pop band of the '70s and '80s, is being revived. Menudo Entertainment bought all the merchandising and property rights about a month ago from Latin record executive Oscar Lloyd and is working with talent agencies and radio stations in its search for band members, company spokeswoman Cathy Callegari said. Menudo was formed in 1977. The boys were booted when they turned 16, and the group had about 30 members, including Ricky Martin.

For a man who has sold 15 million albums all over the world at the age of 26, Ricky Martin is a pretty level-headed guy. The Puerto Rican singer, who headlines the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim on Saturday, is happy to be at the top of the Latin music world, but if you ask him about the privileged life of a pop star, he'll tell how many times he's considered quitting show business altogether.

Good news on the pozole front. Restaurateurs Iris and George Van Hemert have begun serving the pork stew dish Saturdays at their Ventura Tortilla Factory. George Van Hemert described the hominy fare as being in the same class as menudo, "but much better tasting." An order of pozole is $4.25. Other items added recently to the Tortilla Factory menu include large-size tamales, also available on Saturdays. The chicken tamale is $1.95 and the sweet tamale (with raisins and pineapple) is $1.85.