Comments on: Glorious Offal

By: gonzo

gonzo — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:00:21 +0000

I think one cannot call himself a gourmet or foodie if one does not like offal. Health reasons aside, most food people relish offal dishes. Nothing more annoying to me than squeamish Americans who know nothing about proper food and buy all their meats and fish in ‘safe’ vacuum packed plastic at the local Safeway.

At least the yanks now have people like Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain to help them broaden their palates.

Batali for one has single-handedly taught Americans about real italian food, and moved them away from their primitive spaghetti and meatballs stage.

By: RST

RST — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:25:23 +0000

Igoy,
Many years ago, while still in high school (Xavier), I ran away from home to Sagada for an unforgettable month in the mountains and enjoyed tripe like you describe from a large boiling cauldron of wild boar at a wedding I attended. What memories!

La boqueria not only has spectacular offal, but the selection of seafood/shellfish is absolutely imcomparable. There’s percebes, razor clams (which they will grill for you at the stalls), the marvellous espardenyes, which I have written about at length elsewhere (i.e. egullet.com) There is also a wonderful purveyor of local mushrooms towards the back of the market and many unusual varieties can often be found during the foraging seasons. A horsemeat specialist (not at all that unusual in Europe: horse meat butchers can be found in Mantova, Belgium etc.) is towards the front, near the Rambles entrance.

I have an old, very long post on Chowhound Chicago board on the four chambers of the bovine stomach and the Florentine panino di lampredotto (lampredotto being the rennet stomach-the most prized of the four types of tripe).

Richard
Opplicario@aol.com

By: igoy

igoy — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:28:29 +0000

am just laughing here. offal, is a new word for me. goodies are what we call these offal where i came from (SAGADA) and also here in MCALLEN, TX.

i still remember the 3rd day after any community wedding which we call “pappa” in SAGADA to be the best breakfast meal. overnight they boil the stomach/tripes from the previous butchered pigs from the wedding and then served hot for breakfast, yummm. i have not gone home for 10 years but was able to find the same well cooked tripe offered at flea market food stalls by MEXICAN migrants here in TEXAS.

to help with the gout problems, do drink a lot of fresh young buko juice.

By: ivan the streetwalker

ivan the streetwalker — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:57:23 +0000

MM,

I tried goats brain once in Marrackech, they weren’t that bad , very creamy in fact except that it WAS goats brain…

By: Marketman

Marketman — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:56:02 +0000

Apicio, didn’t realize the really earthy smells and tastes of tripe were a turn on for most…I am a bit quesy about it, must be a texture thing. lee, I do get gout (though no attack for more than 3 years now) so gotta steer clear of too much offal. fried neurons, if you are the guest of honor the host will ladle an eyeball or two especially for you…heehee. juls, they DID look very clean and fresh. And yes, goodtimer, calf’s brain is offal as well.

By: goodtimer

goodtimer — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:26:07 +0000

they serve calf’s brain in behrouz middle east resto. would that be the same as offal?

By: juls

juls — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 05:20:51 +0000

uhhh…. they look clean tho

By: fried-neurons

fried-neurons — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 04:28:50 +0000

Okay, those sheep heads are scary! And I don’t think I could ever eat eyeballs. Yikes.

Sweetbreads are yummy, though. :)

By: lee

lee — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 03:43:12 +0000

offal heaven is gouty men’s hell.

By: Apicio

Apicio — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 23:24:03 +0000

Thatâ€™s Mario Batali for you. I heard his dad produces sublime culatello in Washington state, but Mario, let us remind ourselves, is trying to introduce a sanitized food item to his countrymen in a time and place where any smell that can be washed off simply with water is usually masked and drowned with chemical spray. Earthiness is the essential flavour of tripe and Frenchmen are passionate about it and that is why Tripe Ã¡ la mode de Caen takes its rightful place somewhere in between the intense fetidness of Ã©poise and the sublime scents of Houbigant, Coty and Guerlain among the glories of France. Only cattle raised in chemical feed would at times give off an undesirable odour. Green grass grased animals supply us with a flavourful tripe that can rival any Callos MadrileÃ±os any day of the year.