A-Z Challenge 2025 - T is for Tripe

Well of course I think of tripe as another word for nonsense, which fits in with most of my A-Z posts.  Unfortunately it is also: 

the first or second stomach of a cow or other ruminant used as food

having googled it (as you do) it seems there are plenty of recipes for preparing it.  I suppose some of those could even make it taste edible.  But there is just something about it that makes it seem very unappetizing.  It's a bit like offal I suppose - another group of foods that don't have mass appeal although I have eaten liver and kidney in the past.  Not so much these days.  We also used to eat tongue that came in tins. (Although it might have also been available on the deli counter.) I don't think I fully comprehended just what that was at the time - I'm going back to my childhood here - and we also had spam.

Yes for any younger readers out there spam is not just rubbish e-mails it's also a canned meat product made with ground pork and processed ham.

I suppose it's a bit daft really that while I'm happy to eat meat (I try not to think of lambs or cows etc when doing that) the thought of tripe or offal or insects has a very negative effect on my appetite.

I did once plod through a pig's trotter dish in France - I thought I was ordering a piece of pork not a foot!  I did not enjoy it.

Anyway enough tripe for one day.  Moving on the T countries are:

• Taiwan
• Tajikistan
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Togo
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• Tuvalu

Although I don't officially have a theme I wanted something to link my posts so I thought I'd see how many countries in the World I've visited or might visit. 

I've only managed one of the T's - Turkey.  Hubby and I did a package trip one year, after the kids were old enough to leave home alone.  It was towards the end of the summer season so the heat wasn't too much for us pale and wan Brits.  It made a change for us as holidays with the kids tended to be camping trips or places like Center Parcs.  We stayed in a nice hotel  with a pool but the beach was only a short walk away.  

Hubby did consider going to Thailand - he has a former work colleague who moved out there and married a Thai woman who would definitely host us but it's not somewhere high on my wish list.  Tunisia is probably one of the few African countries I'd consider going to but, as our son and his family are currently living in the US our travels are focussed on trips to see them for the next few years at least.

That's 18 out of 197 countries then.

And 20 out of 26 letters done.