When I was maybe 8 or 10 years old I was putting away some awesome fried chicken when I realized: I’m tearing this chicken’s leg muscle from its bone with my teeth like a savage.
This realization didn’t slow me down any. Fried chicken was way too tasty and I’d already been eating it for way too long.
Philosophically, I don’t suppose there’s a difference between tearing into and devouring a cow’s glutes versus her stomach. Mentally, the difference is huge.
I was at work and had just gotten “what everyone else is getting”, as I’m wont to do. After several bites, I said something about the squid and Queenie said, “That’s not squid.” I can’t explain how it suddenly tasted bad – like slightly-spoiled meat – but it did. The chewy texture is squid-y, but the taste really isn’t.
To the left, is actually a regular, boring beef soup Annette had for lunch one day. You can google “cow stomach” on your own. If you do, you’ll see why I thought it was squid. Just imagine squid-looking pieces in this soup here and that’s basically what it was.
Since I got here in July, I’ve eaten plenty of noodles, dumplings, ramen, soups, dim sum, fish balls, chicken feet and, as you know, cow stomach. So you’ll understand if I spend my last few days here in HK eating pricier western food.
O hi, Asia! 
Haha! It’s tripe, isn’t it? I was subjected to this as a child and still don’t like the texture. It’s eaten a lot in Jamaica, but then all parts of the cow are.
I’d thought of tripe as the menudo my Mexican friend’s family cooks. Makes their kitchen smell like a petting zoo. Blegh! But I guess cow stomach is cow stomach.