The Cranky Professor sings the joys of
tripe. I don't have anything against tripe, per se; it's no more disgusting than eating any other part of the cow. But there's nothing really for it, either. It has an unpleasant texture, and no flavor that I've ever been able to discern; it's just a vehicle for whatever you cook with it. It is, to be sure, cheap. But so are lentils, and they taste like something.
A lot of us Italians eat it shredded up with a sauce. The end result is similar in form to a Pasta of sorts - Marinara, what have you ... I suppose the upside to that is it's like eating pasta, only without all those carbs - all protein!
Have you had it Chinese style -- as in dim sum? My Chinese (Sichuan) girlfriend has made me an addict. I suspect it's pretty good for you, too.
I thought this was another post about Krugman.
Yeah lentils taste like something... shredded foam peanuts in bean broth with a hint of grain for those who think healthful is a flavor.
It's true that lentils taste like something. The problem is that what they taste like, is lentils.
This from the blogger who wants us to try tofu?
In my experience tripe DOES have a flavor when you're not busy disguising it with something else: It tastes like a rubbery compression of partially-digested grass. At least, that's how it came across when I tried menudo at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant.
On the other hand, the east Asians determined that squid was edible, and the Swedes came up with lutefisk (although they also came up with acquavit, which is revelatory). In parts of Africa they deep-fry locusts by the hundreds and eat them like french fries, and the Chinese are famous for cooking anything that moves.
As such, tripe is pretty far down on the "when did someone get hungry enough to try that?!" list.
it's no more disgusting than eating any other part of the cow.
This is a rather vegan-centric viewpoint. As an omnivore whose eaten plenty of cow parts, I'd say you're just wrong.
amouse,
A friend just got back from China - the norther chinese make fun of the southern chinese.
A joke example:
Q. What is the only thing with legs that a southerner won't eat?
A. A table.
ba dump dump ching!
I don't think you can really rag on the consistency of tripe...it's rubbery, not unlike calamari
the Swedes came up with lutefisk (although they also came up with acquavit, which is revelatory).
That's one part of my heritage I wish I hadn't partaken in. I even had the aquavit which had traveled across the equator and back before being bottled. I've also had menudo, and the tripe tasted like digested grass. It really wasn't all that pleasant.
it's no more disgusting than eating any other part of the cow
This is a rather vegan-centric viewpoint. As an omnivore whose eaten plenty of cow parts, I'd say you're just wrong.
Vegan or not, Megan is right. Tripe is not as icky as one might imagine. The inner lining of the cow's stomach, the slimy part that acutally touches food during digestion, is removed from the tripe that is sold for human consumption (it sometimes is used in dog food). What we buy as tripe is essentially muscular tissue that never contacted the stomach contents.
I eat LOTS of things for consistency, not just tripe! Mmmm, crunchy potato chips (not just a vehicle for grease!). Popcorn (which is kind of a vehicle for salt and butter)! I have nothing against lentils in their place, which if not on a plate surrounded by other bits of Indian food is in a soup with barley. Yum!
Decent tripe, like good chitterlings, needs effective washing.
I find it more disgusting in texture, but I don't find the idea of tripe any more disgusting than the idea of a chuck roast.
October 27 2008, about tripe:
August 28 2008, about tofu:
It's all a matter of perspective...
:)
See, I like lentils pretty well... when you make them into spicy, delicious dal masala or some equivalent.
But I prefer tripe, by far. As Jasper said, dim sum style, it's absolutely delicious. Good in pho, too.
Mouse: I'm wondering how hungry the first guy to eat shellfish was. I mean, I like them, and even raw oysters. But that first guy, he musta been pretty damn hungry.
"But there's nothing really for it, either. It has an unpleasant texture,"
Over-cooked tripe has an unpleasant texture. Whe you stew it in a lu stew base (soy sauce, sherry, ginger, cinnamon and star anise, several years of stewing chicken and pork in it) it comes out with a texture that snaps as you bite in. You stew it, cut it into bite-chunks and stir fry mustard greens with some of the lu base. Luscious.
Can one retroactively lay claim to an early childhood trauma? My parents, both southerners loved tripe and chitterlings (chitlins) and it was only after I reached my teens and stopped eating them that I found out where they came from.
It least pig's feet leave no doubt as to their origins (though how they got pickled I never understood).
My favorite taqueria (Caminos De Michuacan in Chicago) does excellent tripe in tacos or a burrito. Small chunks, lightly fried up with only a small amount of seasoning. Done properly, tripe tastes just fine.
Mouse: I'm wondering how hungry the first guy to eat shellfish was. I mean, I like them, and even raw oysters. But that first guy, he musta been pretty damn hungry.
I would say that the default state of humans, or almost any animal for that matter is that they are hungry. It would probably only take a day or two of not eating before just about anything would start to look good.
Never thought I would be touchy about food. But criticizing tripe is just going too far. I've spent half my life in a Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx and the other half in Italy. My grandmother made tripe at least once a week; tripe day was ritual, special, our soul food. Of course it was peasant food, a poor man's dish, but it was my grandmother's ability to raise this food to a higher level that made being poor and Italian more a blessing than a curse. Throw us those innards and we will make art. Take that you roast beef eaters! Now I'm old, live in Rome, miss the Yankees, but my wife makes tripe once a week. Some things should never change. And to anyone named McArdle, some things passeth all understanding. Con affetto.
Best menudo I ever had was in a restaurant, housed in a trailer, on S. Wabash Avenue, behind the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, called El Taco Loco. Then again, I tend to rather ravenous when hungover, so maybe it was just case of me being non-discrimantory on the particular mid-morning.
Davido's post reminds me that one of the unusual aspects about El Taco Loco's version, at least for restaurant tripe, was that there was no attempt to disguise what body part was being served. As someone up above wrote, the difference between what is too disgusting to eat today, versus what what is too disgusting to eat tomorrow, is how much variety in food is available tomorrow, in comparison to today, and to what degree one's hunger has increased. I've never found anything too disgusting to eat yet, so it was never an issue. I'd like to think I'd draw the line somewhere in the Donner Pass, but then I suppose there were a few unfortunate members of that party, or Ukrainian Kulaks, to mention just two unfortunate groups, who learned some surprising things about themselves. Nothing will change ye olde attitude more certainly than not having any calories for a long time.
Actually, the FLANK of the cow, when grilled on a cedar plank and served on a 4-top at Mortons, is quite preferable to tripe -- which is the intestines -- rubbery tubes the function of which is to dessicate and formulate...waste.
The inner lining of the cow's stomach, the slimy part that acutally touches food during digestion, is removed from the tripe that is sold for human consumption (it sometimes is used in dog food). What we buy as tripe is essentially muscular tissue that never contacted the stomach contents.
This is just wrong as anyone whose ever actually worked in a food store or Butchers will tell you. Or, you can go down to the local store and use your ball point pen to poke a hole in the package labelled "tripe."
Take whiff.
That ain't no isolated stomach muscle.
Have you had it Chinese style -- as in dim sum? My Chinese (Sichuan) girlfriend has made me an addict. I suspect it's pretty good for you, too.
What--in God's name -- forms the basis of your speculation?
I mean, if I had to speculate, I might go for the hypothesis that the food macerators, dessicators, and eliminators of the human organism would have the least nutritious value.