Tripe

Tripe is almost a cult dish among Croatian foodies and lovers of gourmet cuisine. In Croatia, there are even tripe clubs that bring people together on the weekends to cook and enjoy this dish in a variety of ways. When I was a child, tripe was one of the most contentious things in the whole world. If you’ve ever smelt raw tripe cooking, you’ll know why! My grandmother would blanch tripe for hours and the smell is very strong – I just hated it. But then, one night when I was 18 years old, I came home from a nightclub in the wee hours of the morning feeling ravenous. There was only tripe to eat. It tasted like pure heaven, and I was converted. Now sometimes I even dream of tripe – that’s how much I love this dish. Tripe usually comes cooked from the butcher. Unless you have a pressure-cooker, I would not try to cook it from raw as it takes hours and has a very strong odour.