VivaSync

IN THIS ELECTION year, I have my own slogan to proclaim. I Like Tripe.

Tripe, for those of you strong enough to stomach the idea, is stomach -- specifically, the stomachs of ruminants, usually cattle and sometimes sheep (though pork intestines are occasionally substituted). The wall of the first stomach of the cow is relatively smooth and is called blanket tripe; tissue from the second stomach is called honeycomb tripe, which tells you pretty much what it looks like. The third stomach, which is folded back and forth, produces book tripe. ("Bible" tripe, which appears on the menus of many restaurants serving the Vietnamese noodle soup pho, is probably an overly strict translation of "book" tripe.) Rennet, which is the enzyme traditionally used in making cheese, comes from the fourth stomach of calves, kids or lambs. If you're curious about tripe, go to a large Asian grocery such as Maxim's in Rockville, especially on Saturday, and you're apt to see several different kinds.

Tripe is like tofu in that it has little intrinsic flavor and tends to take on whatever seasoning it's given. What it has is texture -- bounce, in some cases, like those old Jell-O commercials -- and some portions have a gelatinous substance reminiscent of calves' feet that can be very soothing.

Advertisement

However mild it may taste, it seems to have a fairly stimulating effect: Homer liked it, and he spent his life singing about Trojans and Greeks and gods making war. The Romans loved it, and you know how far they went (all the way to Scotland, as you'll see). William the Conqueror liked it too, so much that a dispute about tripe's preparation reputedly led to his quarrel with Philip I of France. William's favorite recipe involved the juice of Neustrian apples -- that is, Normandy cider, which means it was similar to tripes a la mode de Caen, probably the most famous French version, which is made with the Norman apple brandy Calvados.

Although it's not perpetually on the menu, the venerable La Colline, which manages to maintain a bourgeois-comfy existence in the middle of Capitol Hill, offers tripes a la mode de Caen frequently. Several other French establishments in the area will prepare tripe with advance notice. At La Miche in Bethesda, where the chef braises the tripe in white wine in a low-temperature oven overnight, you should call four days in advance. Jean-Michel, in the Wildwood Center at Old Georgetown Road and Democracy Boulevard in Bethesda, would like a week's notice. At Le Paradis in Germantown, "the chef loves it -- but it just doesn't sell," the hostess admits. Give them two or three days.

Tripe is very common on Chinese menus. Four Rivers, a lesser known Szechuan restaurant in Rockville, makes a very spicy version of tripe listed as "shredded stomach in chili oil" (although you may have to persuade the management that you really want it). Sliced thin -- julienned, really -- and mixed with leeks and carrots, it would be hard for even an avowed anti-organist to recognize.

Advertisement

Also in Rockville, the Peking Eastern House, a Muslim Northern Chinese establishment, has three or four tripe dishes on the menu, using lamb and beef. Here, too, the waiter and chef may be initially skeptical about your order, since apparently a lot of American diners have ordered the tripe dishes and then been unhappy. However, if you make it clear that you do indeed know what portion of the animal is being discussed, you can actually have it just about any way you like, on or off the menu, such as a simple stir-fry with ginger and scallions. Restaurants specializing in one-bowl dinners of noodles or the Chinese rice porridge called congee, including Paul Kee in Chinatown and its one-time sibling Paul Key in Wheaton, nearly always list "pork intestines," frequently mixed with a sour or slightly pickled vegetable such as cabbage, as a topping. And if you hang out at dim sum restaurants, you're apt to see spicy tripe there as well.

Korean restaurants large enough (or busy enough) to carry all the dishes of home will also offer tripe as one of the marinated meats for on-the-table barbecuing. Woo Lae Oak, the old standby in Crystal City, is among those offering it. (Wrap the grilled meat in a lettuce leaf, along with some of the shredded radish, chili paste, bean sprouts and noodles from the condiment dishes on the table, and eat the whole "cigar" with your fingers.)

The Vietnamese, who never waste almost any part of the cow, are particularly fond of tripe, especially bible tripe, in pho, the Hanoi noodle soup. The word for it on the menu is sach, and it's usually offered in combination with several other tidbits of beef such as the similarly gelatinous tendon.

Advertisement

Tripe is also the prime ingredient of a famous Mexican hangover recipe, the spicy soup or stew called menudo or, in Central America, sopa de mondongo. Although it used to be hard to find except on weekends (the only time to get it at Restaurant Abi in Arlington, for example), an increasing number of area restaurants now offer menudo every day, including the Mexican-Salvadoran Acajutla branches (a particularly good version with zucchini) in Northwest and Gaithersburg; the Peruvian Mi Peru in Gaithersburg; El Majahual in Falls Church; the Dominican Manna Restaurant in Takoma Park (which has it three or four times a week); Mixtec in Adams-Morgan; and the Salvadorean El Tamarindo branches in Adams-Morgan and Tenleytown.

Tripe is first cousin to Scotland's most famous dish, the mysterious haggis, which is traditionally presented with a ceremonial skirling of bagpipes on Jan. 25, the birthday of Robert Burns. (Burns wrote an ode "To a Haggis," hailing it as "Great chieftain of the pudding race," so it's obviously the dish du jour.) While haggis is not specifically tripe, it is a sheep stomach stuffed with a mixture of hearts, livers and kidneys and oatmeal and boiled for several hours; then cooled, reheated and served with veggies -- one of those all-day production numbers (the stomach is not eaten, it's only a casing). (Letting it cool has a purpose beyond melding the flavors: Two thousand years ago, Aristophanes wrote about a still-simmering stuffed stomach that exploded all over the banqueteers.)

Although he no longer regularly makes haggis (or stewed tripe -- patrons didn't go for it) for casual consumption, James Graham of Old Town Alexandria's Scotland Yard does religiously prepare it for Burns' Night, and does the whole thing up right with full plaid costume, skirlers, pipers and readings from Robby. But if you're interested, call now; there are only two seatings, 6 and 8 p.m., and the place can easily fill up with regulars. ACAJUTLA -- 1721 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202/965-9333; and 18554 Woodfield Rd., Gaithersburg, 301/670-1674. Casual; entrees $5.95-$11.95. Wheelchair accessible. FOUR RIVERS -- 184 Rollins Ave., Rockville, 301/230-2900. Casual; entrees $6.95-$13.95. Wheelchair accessible. LA COLLINE -- 400 North Capitol St. NW, 202/737-0400. Business/informal; entrees $18.75-$25.50. Wheelchair accessible. PEKING EASTERN HOUSE -- 16041 Frederick Rd., Rockville, 301/527-8558. Casual; entrees $5.95-$21.95. Wheelchair accessible. SCOTLAND YARD -- 728 King St., Alexandria, 703/683-1742. Informal; entrees $12.95-$19.95. Wheelchair accessible. WOO LAE OAK -- 1500 S. Joyce St., Arlington, 703/521-3706. Business/informal; entrees $8.50-$18. Not wheelchair accessible. THE FEED BAG

Advertisement

A lot of Washingtonians call us looking for places to dine and dance (which are few enough); but not very often is there an opportunity to dine and enjoy dancing, of the exhibition variety. Taberna del Alabardero, the fine Spanish restaurant that looks like a grandee's downtown apartment, is celebrating its "Gran Festival de Flamenco" Wednesday through Nov. 2. with a special four-course fixed-price menu ($40), and live performances by Manolo Leiva y su Grupo Flamenco of Madrid. Seatings at 6 and 9; for reservations call 202/429-2200.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnJ6zpr%2FTsqOeZ2Fuhnd7kGlma21fqb%2BqvMRmoK1lqaTCrbiMpaCknV2ewXCAj3GYcJyUaXpyr8CdZG1rlZp6ooPFn2SaaGKXr3iAwXJvbppf