Florentine Tripe Sandwiches

Hit the linky:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062300708.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

Thanks, GeoNit, for the link. I enjoy tripe when prepared properly, in several different ways. Fried is good. Menudo (a stew) made from whole hominy, beef tripe and calves shin bones (no pork) is certainly one of my favorites. There is a dish of tripe in a thick gravy to eat with mashed or roast potatoes. There's other recipes, but these are the ones I am familiar with and enjoy when I can.

Having grown up on a farm, I was fortunate to have been exposed to eating most parts of an animal that most folks would shun. Also, my heritage is German-Russian (I am first generation), so I became used to this type of ethnic foods and cooking. Headcheese, whole-hog sausages with natural casings, liver, heart, sweetbreads, oxtail, tripe, marrow soup. However, we did not eat the kidneys or other organs such as lung (in soup) or testicles, but some people did. When I was exposed to Hispanic culture, I ate "tripes de leche" which is the internal milk-producing organ of the cow's udder, and found it to be delicious BBQ'd and sprinkled with beer.

We also existed a lot on wild game including elk, deer (venison), pheasant, grouse, ducks, geese, and of course fish, shellfish and crustaceans (no lobster in the Northwest), but we did have large freshwater crayfish from mountain streams which we steamed and also put in seafood stews.

I am straying from the topic so I better stop while I'm ahead. :))

Good article. I'm still looking for the ultimate, breaded, deep fried tripe. The Wayside's (Berlin, Vt.) pickled-then-breaded-&-fried offering was O.K.
The Bear