For lunch the other day I went to a restaurant that is called Caldo de Piedra (Stone Soup). There are three dishes on the menu: fish/seafood soup, quesadillas, and memelitas. They also offer aguas frescas such as jamaica, horchata, or melon.
We learned that the name of the place is because the soup is cooked when the “chef” places a hot rock into the fish broth, raw fish/shrimp, and vegetables.
The broth boils for five minutes (some f that time, it is on the table in front of you). Therefore, I had a bowl of fish/seafood soup with a hot rock (and some gravel) in it. I do not eat fish, shrimp, or rocks. But I did, and the shrimp, though I had to remove their eyes and whiskers and other parts, were surprisingly delicious. I mean, this is not something I’d want every day — maybe just the vegetables and a non-fish broth — and a rock would be more appealing. However, it was actually quite good.
According to the man putting the rocks into the soup, this tradition started when the women had the day off and the men needed to do the cooking. And, to this day, this food is prepared by men.
I highly recommend a visit (www.caldodepiedra.com), and my mind has been racing about what else can/should be cooked like this! We could start a chain in Sacramento.
