Tripe!?...Yeah, Why Not!

On my second day in Lisbon, I stumbled into a cute restaurant named Adega de Mo. Trusting that my first meal in the city wasn´t a fluke, I decided to order a lot of food. I ordered bread (In every European city thus far, I have found that bread is rarely included in a meal. Restaurants often place it on the table, but you are charged for it if you indulge.) with a side of goat cheese and green olives. I heard the wine was really good in Portugal, so I decided to try it out for myself (it is good) and ordered half a caraffe. Next, came the decision as to what to order for my entree. There was a dish a dish on the menu that sounded intriguing called ¨Dobrada con Feijao¨, which when translated, means ¨tripe with white beans¨. The description included spices, herbs, onions and sausage..all good stuff. I didn´t know exactly what tripe was, but I knew it wasn´t anything they serve at In N Out, so I was a bit apprehensive. Regardless, it sounded good, and I wanted Europe to take me out of my element. What better way to do that than trying a local delicacy I would never, EVER order in the friendly confines of Del Mar? I asked the waiter what the dish was like, and instead of responding to me in Portuguese (apparently the news of my Spanish-Portuguese language confusion travels quickly in Lisbon), he simply walked away and came back 30 seconds later with a tiny plate of the dish. My reservations were quelled by this delicious-looking plate of food, plus I felt a little obligated to order it at this point. I gave him the universal nod and smile.

The dish was really good, but the tripe itself wasn´t my favorite. The meat was well-prepared, but the texture of it didn´t overwhelm me. It was a bit chewy and slimy, but it was good nonetheless. I found myself eating a lot more of the tripe than the rest of the dish at first, because I wanted to save the beans, sausage and sauce for last. It was faaaaantastic. I sat there with my bread, cheese, meat and wine, and felt like a fat American. All was good.



Sidenote: I later ordered a dessert (Maca Asada - roasted apple on the oven) and an espresso. The total cost for the meal was a mere 9.5 Euro. If you are not familiar with the conversion rate, that is roughly 42 dollars.