“Cecilia came walking into the house today with a small, blue bucket that was filled with soup. She stuck her finger in it and then tasted the soup. I glanced in and saw what I thought was chicken. So I also stuck my finger into the bucket to taste the soup. It tasted pretty good, but was different than what I expected. It was very flavorful and had a spiciness to it. I asked if it was chicken soup and she told me it was “sopa de tripas.” As we walked into the kitchen she set it down. She also told me that Kathy didn’t like the soup. I thought that was weird since Kathy likes almost anything. Well, I liked it right up until the moment I knew what it was. I looked up the word “tripas” in a Spanish dictionary and found out “tripas” are bascially the insides and the intestines of a cow. Hmmmmm. Cecilia told me that they clean the tripas with bleach, a lye mixture, and a lot of water. There was also the knee joint of the cow in the soup along with onion, garlic, oregano, and corn. She told me it was often sold with beer as a “boquita” which is like a starter to a meal. I did try the sopa de tripas and actually took a bite of the tripas, but I couldn’t do any more than that. I just couldn’t get past the texture. Now, although she said I didn’t have to give her credit, Kathy came up with the name of my blog.”
What's this?
The knee joint
Looks good??
Scooping out her lunch
It's the texture I can't get past
November 19,
2013 Addition: So I’m in El Salvador again two years after starting this
blog, and I’m chatting with a friend from the US about the sopa de tripas.
Well, he tells me that when we were at the Latino Festival in September this
year that I ate tacos with tripas. “WHAT?!” I said. Oh yes. The “pork taco” I
thought I was eating was actually pork with tripas. And as he pointed out, I
loved them and in fact took one of his tacos when I’d finished mine. Moral of
the story: Never take food from anyone anytime unless you’re sure you know what
it is. My parents fed me quail once and told me it was chicken. Nice.
2 comments:
Sometimes it may be better not to know exactly what you are eating.
LOL I feel the same way! That's exactly it - it's that funny texture you feel from the intestines - it's not smooth like other kinds of meat so it feels quite scary. How about pig ears? Ever tried that one?!
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