
Apparently today is World Tripe Day. That’s right. October 24. Mark it in your calendars for future food adventures.
It started as a fun campaign in the UK to get more people to eat tripe “as part of a healthy, balanced diet”, according to the Tripe Marketing Board. Yes there’s a Tripe Marketing Board in the UK. These people obviously mean business.
A while ago, when I found out there was such a day, I asked many people if they ate tripe. There was a general chorus of “NO!” in that disgusted-how-can-you-ask-me-this tone.
But I like this campaign because I believe if we eat animals, we should be ethical and not wasteful. Consume the whole beast. Sure there’s a textural element to tripe that puts people off but if it’s cleaned properly, and prepared tastily you won’t immediately turn your nose up at it.
Look I’m not advocating that suddenly everyone who is squeamish about offal start eating all the parts they usually wouldn’t but we shouldn’t discourage the eating of this or any other animal organ. If there are people willing to consume parts of the animal you’re not willing to, be grateful. No butcher should be throwing these parts away.
I’ll confess that while I eat tripe, it’s not something I’ll have often. Probably once a year or less, but when my mom makes it – and she makes it good – I won’t turn it down.
I’ve shared her recipe below. If you’re feeling adventurous enough you should give it a try. In Italy they sell it at food stalls on the road, battered and deep fried. My mom says her grandmother used to make it this way sometimes. I’d imagine this way makes it calamari-like. I’ll have to try it to find out.
My mom’s recipe is an adaptation of her mother’s recipe, which was pretty much how Cape Malays cooked it back in the day. Best of all, it’s not hard to make. The only thing that takes a bit long is the pressure cooking of the tripe – about an hour or slightly longer – but once that’s done the curry is quick and easy to make.
All you need are the ingredients pictured below.
And you’ll end up with this beautiful and tasty bowl of food.


- 1kg of cleaned tripe, pressure cooked until soft
- 2 onions, chopped
- Ghee or butter for sauteing
- 2 tomatoes, grated
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 heaped tsp grated ginger
- 1 heaped tsp ground garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp Packo roasted masala
- 2 tsp kokhni masala
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- 2 curry leaves
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- Pressure cook tripe until soft. Should take an hour or just a bit longer than that.
- Allow to cool and cut into thin strips.
- Saute onion in butter or ghee until golden.
- Add tomato, tomato paste and spices and curry leaves.
- Allow to cook until spices are well combined and curry sauce has thickened
- Add cooked and cut tripe into curry mix. Allow to cook so the tripe absorbs all the flavours of the curry.
- Lastly add the vinegar to add some tang.
- Serve with white rice.
- I used curry leaves here but you can also use bay leaves. It's more traditional to use bay leaves but I didn't have any. I also prefer curry leaves so if bay leaves are more your thing, please use that.

Do you eat offal? If yes, which parts do you eat and which parts do you say no to? Talk to me in the comments below.