Jake from Guts

If you teleport to eat tripe right now where would it be?

The restaurant Trippa in Milan. They have this deep fried tripe with rosemary dish that I believe is always on the menu, just amazing. Has this incredibly crunchy but airy texture. The kind of fry that’s brittle. I ate there alone two years ago and I still think about it. 

What was your first time?

It must have been in a bowl of phở when I was a kid. I don’t think I knew what it was, but it was definitely in there. The chewiness of it really got to me. To this day that is my favorite texture. If I’m ever crazy or rich enough to open a restaurant? Calling it Chewy forsure. 

Oakland has a big Vietnamese population and a lot of phở spots. If you’re ever there and craving phở, go to a place called Ao Sen and get the #5 with tendon and tripe. It actually really bothers me seeing phở in other places that doesn’t include tripe. When I lived in Sweden, none of the various phở places offered it because Swedes are so squeamish. Drove me absolutely crazy. 

Favourite recipe?

That tripe I cook most often is trippa alla romana, probably from a Rachel Roddy or Marcella Hazan recipe, but I just freestyle it now. Unfortunately, I can never get my hands on mentuccia, but it’s the perfect dish to me, even with mint. 

Another one I like to do in winter is the St. John tripe and onions, which I believe I heard about through you. That’s probably the most comforting dish I’ve ever made honestly. Really tastes like a warm hug. 

Truthfully though, I don’t cook it nearly as often as I should. Thinking I will do callos or menudo next.

Who and where has cooked the one you’ve enjoyed the most (if more than one stands out please feel free to elaborate)

Of people I know personally, only a few have ever cooked tripe for me. My mom never cooked offal unfortunately.

In Ljubljana, I’ve got this friend Dado who makes a beautiful Trieste style tripe at his restaurant Žmoht. It’s more like a kitchen in a shipping container with a few outdoor seats and it’s absolutely great. He cooks it with a lot of garlic and thickens the stew with bread. Beautiful and again, very comforting. 

Another guy in Ljubljana named Primoz occasionally makes tripe at his natural wine/denim shop. He announces it through a whatsapp group. It’s another stew, a recipe he’s perfected over many years. You sit right in the denim shop, looking at a wall of great wine and chop it out with him while you drink whatever he feels like opening. It’s always a good time with Primoz. 

Bad experiences?

The funkiest tripe I ever had was in Belgrade at a restaurant famous for serving airline pilots. I don’t remember the name but essentially pilots like to go there and get shitfaced. And they’re supposed to have good taste in restaurants? The food was supposed to be good anyway, but this tripe was, um… probably one of the only times I haven’t finished a dish because of its taste. I blame myself. 

Three places you would recommend (anywhere in the world)?

Don Blanc in Oakland, CA. It’s a Korean BBQ joint that does everything great but I particularly love their marinated tripe. Spicy! Delicious! When I was a teenager the place was a bubble tea shop/internet cafe/brothel. 

Also in Oakland, but in the East, there’s a place called Taqueria El Paisa that makes the best tripe tacos I’ve ever had. You pay at the register and then tell the dude chopping up the meat what you want. Trippa, buche, cabeza, lengua, all great offal cuts there. This is another place I would teleport to if I could. It’s usually my last meal in Oakland before I leave. 

More recently I was in Newnan, Georgia eating menudo at Carniceria Taqueria, in the back of a latino grocery store there. My uncle lived in the neighborhood and this was the only place nearby serving tripe, so I had to go. It’s just beyond the butcher counter and packed with locals with a very sweet woman waiting tables. I was there for a funeral so the menudo was a nice bit of solace. What is it that makes tripe so comforting? I don’t know why you would ever find yourself in Newnan, but if you do, this place is a trip. They fry their tortilla chips to order and make tamales on Thursdays too. 

Which tripe would you choose to eat if there wasn’t beef?

Pig! 100%. That’s my go to order at most Chinese restaurants these days. 

A rough guess at how many skeptics you have converted?

At least one that I know of. I took my girlfriend to eat pig tripe and peppers at this Chinese restaurant here in Ljubljana called Beli Labod on one of our first dates. It was her first time eating tripe, and she really liked it or was really trying to impress me. Now we eat it together wherever we go, most recently in Madrid. 

I’ve tried and failed to convince many family members and friends. I do have a friend who already ate tripe, but fucking loved the tablier de sapeur in Lyon we ate together. It was his first time having French tripe, so I’ll take some sort of credit for that. 

A sentence or paragraph on andouillette:

Andouillette is the sausage I want to love, but haven’t found the right one. It’s like the perfect date I just can’t fall for? On paper, it should be the dream dish. I’ve enjoyed some more than others, absolutely loved one, and am constantly curious about them. I wish I lived in France so I could eat it on a more regular basis. It’s a taste I feel like I’m halfway through acquiring. Someday I will make it to Troyes. 

JAKE MIKE BOY is a writer/waiter from Oakland, CA. After working in restaurants for years, he founded GUTS MAGAZINE, an online publication dedicated to offal, hospitality culture, comics, and film.