Tripes

I usually like to entertain in style with fancy gourmet food but tonight I am taking another route by serving a humble one pot meal: TRIPE! The recipe calls for the "nasty bits" such as feathered and honeycomb tripe, pig trotters, pig's ears, beans, blood sausages, pork belly, chorizo, etc.. and getting the ingredients alone will be a challenge for most Americans. But for us Asian we've seen the nasty stuff all our life! When an animal is butchered in poor country, nothing is wasted especially, blood, guts and offal are turned into dishes that required long hours of cooking to make the stuff soft and edible and this dish is no exception to the rule.

This recipe is from the cookbook "Les Halles" by Tony Bourdain. Tony used to be executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles an authentic French Brasserie in New York. Tony is also a famous author with many books under his belt, and television personality. He is well known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and is the host of Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and his most recent show The Layover.

I wanted to make this dish for so long but I always hesitate to serve it as it might turn a lot of people off. However, I am a risk taker and like they say: "NO GUTS, NO GLORY", so I am going forward with the decision to serve tripe and if I fail.. BLAME IT ON BOURDAIN! But still no regrets, at least I gave it a try! Tony did warn in his cookbook that this dish will either make or lose me a lot of friends but in the end there is one thing for sure: My friends will never forget this meal! So let's find out how well this dish was received!

HERE COMES THE TRIPE BASKING IN ITS FULL GLORY WITH ALL THE NASTY BITS TURNED INTO A DELECTABLE DISH!

But I am getting ahead of myself here so let me take you the beginning and show you how the dish was cooked.

The tripe is a three-day dish to be prepared at a relaxed pace. The first day is the most hectic and by the third day all you have to do is to put the pot in the oven, sip a glass of wine, enjoy and relax until the arrival of your guests.