Sometimes, you have cravings. We know this. Hence: Scanning the Menu, a new feature where the MenuPages Blog (and our trusty Find-A-Food search) will do all the leg work for you. Every week or so, we’ll highlight a particular crave-worthy dish and illuminate restaurants around the city where you can indulge in it. Suggestions always welcome. This week: tripe.
Dually inspired by yesterday’s offal post and a recent thread on Chowhound, we are turning our scanners towards the wonders of beef stomach lining: tripe. Though pork and sheep tripe are produced, beef tripe is probably the most common variety in the kitchens of San Francisco. It’s usually made from three chambers of the four-chambered cow stomach and is prepared in a plethora of ways, ranging from poached sausage (Andouille) in France to stewed in Africa to fried in Mexico.
Since the Chowhound post offers up plenty of tripe options, we’ll try to stay original. So, here are some (non-Incanto, non-Chinese and non-Mexican) tripe picks for the offal-craving San Franciscan:
• Delfina : Their tripe alla fiorentina ($10) was the first thing that came to our minds when thinking about tripe and the city.
• Bocadillos: A tripe basquaise ($7) is just one of several offal offerings in the menu section dubbed “The Innard Circle.” Basquaise means the tripe is braised with onion, garlic, and peppers.
• Pho Phu Quoc (PPQ): if you’ve ever dared to cook tripe yourself, you know that it doesn’t fetch a high price at the supermarket. For the bargain hunters, look no further than a pho joint like PPQ. A mere $4.95 gets you two options: pho tai gan sach (Rare beef, tendon & tripe noodle soup) or pho nam gan sach (Beef brisket, tendon & tripe noodle soup).
• Old Krakow: West Portal’s finest Polish restaurant offers flaczki, a beef tripe soup, by the cup ($4.50) and by the bowl ($7.95).
[Photo courtesy: Flickr/Platinum288]
