Trippa e lampredotto: Tripe Sandwich

I know I have a... greater diversity of palate then most people. I love textures and flavors which most Americans can't even stand to think about. When I was 3 years old my favorite foods were Macaroni and Cheese and tripe. Apparently I was a very adventurous eater before I had any concept of adventure.

When I was 3 years old and eating a lot of tripe my mom refused to tell me what tripe was... Until one day I finally badgered her into telling me. "Tripe is the stomach of a cow..." That's when I turned to a diet consisting entirely of Honey Nut Cheerios and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese until I was in middle school. I wish I was joking.

There is so much more to the world then meat, potatoes, bread and salad. Like for instance in Italy:

Milan is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Duomo of Milan

It's one of the world's centers of fashion, with gorgeous women dressed in the height of fashion. Not that I would ever notice such things.

I'm here in Italy for one thing, and one thing only. A dish with roots that go further back then most nations, which is based on humanity's deepest need for animal protein. A peasant dish that even today most people are only re-learning to love. 

I honestly think if you handed this to most any meat eater, it would be one of the top ranked sandwiches in the world. Between the intense beefy flavor of the meat, the bread dipped into the simmering liquid, and the fresh zing of the sauces, people would be pounding down doors to get this sandwich... at least until you told them it was a made from the fourth stomach of the cow.

Trippa e Lompredotto. The stomach is simmered with tomatoes, onions, parsley and celery for hours until it's falling apart tender. Then the bread is dipped into the cooking liquid, the offal is piled high, and it's served with a parsley sauce and a chili sauce. The flavor is absolutely incredible and the texture is much closer to meat then most tripe. I would consider this for someone's first foray into the world of whole animal eating... You have to work your way up to things like menudo. This sandwich could be your slippery slope into some of the finer things in life.

-NOM!