To wonder how many of you have tried tripe?

[Salmotrutta]

I haven't.

Have you?

Was it as vile as it looks?

I live in China and have seen / eaten some very weird things, but I will never, ever eat tripe.

Yes we eat it all the time and its delicious! But we dont cook it in the way a lot of people have described here. We have it with tomatoes, onions and chillies with oil and seasoning all cooked together, its really delicious.

Spanish version is delicious.

yes

shudder

on my first ever french exchange, I was given fuck off plate of trpe for my first meal. I am still traumatised, they were just lovely , but tripe for a little English girl!!!!

LaVita - is she a fan of Bollito Misto with a whole tongue chucked in as well? Gnnn.

Bearcrumble

In my late teens I did a ski season on the French Italian border with an old boyfriend, we only earnt £40 a week but decided to treat ourselves on Valentines Day and have lunch in a rustic looking Italian restaurant. Exboyf decided to order randomly off the menu and picked "Bollito misto" it was horrendous, heart, and other random items of offal, boiled. It didn't make for the most romantic meal and it gave him hideous indigestion

Yes - I have tried it in English, Scottish, French and Spanish modes.

It is every bit as revolting as it looks, however it is cooked. I eat most things, other offal included, so it's not an objection based on what it is, but tripe in any form at all is a step too far and I am done trying it different ways now.

Porcamiseria I went on an Italian exchange at College, the food was just gorgeous, but I did get upset after lunch one day when I realised I'd just eaten one of the rabbits I'd been petting at Nonna's a few days previously

I love eating rabbit now, but at the time I found it pretty traumatising

Yes I have since I live in Africa and its is vile. When it is cooking - it smells even worse than it tastes (if that is possible). Everyone has their own way of cooking it that "I must try because its not like everyone elses". It is still vile no matter how you dress it up.

LaVita - my DB2 did an exchange aged 9, and took for granted the whole "go to Grandmas, play with the rabbits in the morning, eat rabbit stew for lunch...." thing

My dh used to rave about how his mother made tripe and onions - she died before we married - and so I decided to try and cook tripe. I followed the instructions and when it was cooked informed him I was having scrambled eggs for dinner. He had one taste and joined me!

I worked for a very poor law firm in South Africa a long time ago and some of the staff lived in a shack at the back of the offices. One Saturday I had to go in to the office and they were cooking tripe in the kitchen. It was green and it fucking stank to high heaven.

I never have and I never will eat tripe.

Had it in a tomatoey stew in Rome. Didn't like the texture, didn't taste of much. People rave about the different textures which come from different stomachs. Weirdos.

LaVita do you know the name of the Italian thing which is milk-fed veal intestines in a kind of tomatoey sauce? It came with macaroni or some other pasta tube so you can't tell what's pasta and what's intestine before you eat it. It was really nice but I can see how some people would find the lucky-dip aspect offputting.

Like all other offal except chitterlings which are fried pig intestines. A plate of greasy, crunchy vileness I stupidly ordered in that tediously macho offal restaurant St John.

I love calf brains in butter and capers. Laughs in the face of troisgarcons' hydratids, BSE and zombies.

My dad used to go on about how much he loved tripe, so my mum would get my mum to cook him some while she was out (it really does smell vile while it's cooking). Then he'd feed it to me as a baby. I haven't eaten it since I was a toddler though (at which point I realised that I didn't have to eat everything offered to me). But I still remember the smell. Yuck.

Pajata. I looked it up. Lovely.

From Wikipedia:

Pajata is the term for the intestines of an "un-weaned" calf, i.e., only fed on its mother's milk. The intestines are cleaned and skinned, but the Chyme is left inside. Then the intestine is cut in pieces 20 - 25 cm long, which are bond together with white thread, forming rings. When cooked, the combination of heat and the enzyme rennet in the intestines coagulates the chyme and creates a sort of thick, creamy, cheese-like sauce.

Boak.

I grew up next door to an abbatoir eating tripe, pigs' feet and sheeps' heads.

I have been a vegetarian for the last twenty years.

I've had Drstkova polevka, which is Czech tripe soup. Not good. I was presented with a bowl of innards and expected to eat it. Everyone else was wolfing the stuff down, I went hungry that day.

To me it will always be dog food (Butcher's tripe) and the smell of those cans opening for the hounds at home has put me off eating tripe, more than seeing it floating in a bowl did.

I ate testicles in Slovakia once, and wouldn't be eating them again in a hurry.

I am now a vegetarian and the thought repulses me. However when a student in Spain I was taken out to dinner by a Spanish lad who was keen to impress me with Spanish food. He ordered callos for two. I racked my brain as to what callos could be and just could not remember.

When it arrived it was delicious in a tomato and pimiento sauce with lots of chic peas. As soon as I got home I looked up callos and felt literally nauseous when I discovered it was tripe.

I like rabbit and I like snails but not together. I've tried.

Warning! These pictures are stomach-churning

There's a restaurant in Manchester, at Salford Quays I think called The Mark Addy which specialises in seving tripe in a more modern way. I saw it featured on a tv programme about regional food. We're going to try & get there at some point, it looked lovely.

I was a child in Lancashire in the 50s and 60s and it was quite common. In fact I seem to remember there was a tripe shop just round the corner from us. I do remember having it with vinegar and although I didn't hate it I didn't much like it either and haven't had it since.

It's sold in the various asian butchers/grocers where I live in South London and I have sometimes been tempted to try it, but it would just be for myself because my family would definitely not eat it.

I know there's a classic French dish called Tripe A La Mode de Caen which maybe I'll try if I come across it.

I'd be interested to know from anyone who does cook it where they buy it from and what sort they get - also does it need any particular preparation.

When I was a child we used to have tripe and onions occasionally. For some reason I loved it. I would never eat or now.

My father loved it, and used to have tripe and onions every 2 or 3 years. From our first holiday in France we got him a jar of tripes a la mode de Caen, but don't know if he ever ate it.

I ate it in the bar in the village - workmen's lunch, and enjoyed it. However, the smell was foul. Having eaten soup and an entrée, and with cheese and dessert to come, I thought it was worth a risk.

Pigs feet are lovely, as are stuffed sheep's feet.