Jennifer McLagan

Author of Odd Bits, Fat, Blood...

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

I’d have to go back in time to a restaurant near Notre Dame, Paris that is now closed. Le Ribouldingue was a gem of a restaurant that featured offal.

What was your first time eating tripe?

I first ate tripe as a child, it was totally disgusting. Tripe with onions in a white sauce (we didn’t know to call it béchamel) is a classic English dish. My mother’s rendition of béchamel, as I remember it, was a thick, white sludge that blanketed the pieces of tripe, gluing them to the plate—not even the sprinkling of chopped parsley she added could help. I wasn’t put off by any strong gutty odor or pungent flavor, but rather by the complete absence of both odor and flavor, and the odd, chewy, congealed texture of it all.

Favourite recipe?

I have two, both from my book Odd Bits  - Calvados Tripe  and  Minted Tripe & Pea Salad.

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

One evening at the home of friends in Paris I was served a dish that smelt strongly earthy, with pieces of something I couldn’t identify. The deep brown sauce studded with carrots and topped with fresh parsley and looked wonderfully appetizing, so I dug in. The taste was rich, and the texture pleasantly chewy and slightly slippery. The sauce was flavorful and gelatinously lip smacking. I loved it. When I asked what it was, I was shocked to learn it was tripe (it’s the same word in both languages). It bore no resemblance to the parsley-flecked, white, tasteless glue of my childhood. 

Bad experiences?

Yes, see first time eating tripe.

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

I don’t have 3 places to recommend, not even one since Ribouldigne closed. I ate excellent meudo in Chicago’s south side, but I don’t remember the name.

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

Lamb

Would you read a book about tripe?

Yes, I have in French: Des tripes et des lettres by de Sébastien Lapaque et Yves Camdeborde.

I’d happily read another in English.

Write a sentence or paragraph on andouillette:

I love andouillettes. They are sausage, grilled and eaten hot with mustard and fries; the best known come from the town of Troyes in the Champagne region. While intestines are the main ingredient, often pieces of pork belly and mesentery are added to the mix in these sausages. They are so revered in France that in the 1960s the Association Amicale des Amateurs d’Andouillette Authentique (or, “the friendly association of lovers of real andouillettes”), was founded. The membership, consisting mainly of food writers, meets regularly to taste and grade these sausages. Their point system is based on the number of A’s a sausage warrants, from one to five. Only the handmade sausages merit a high score, but alas there are fewer and fewer