Who would ever accuse you of being rational, Steve? :p Sorry, but we seem to be falling over each other here... you slightly before me. ;-)

In the broad sense, I love tripe. In the specific sense, I've never had it. A friend, whose judgement I respect, said much the same about tripe and snails - "They taste of what you cook them with". Since garlic seems to be the standard flavouring for snails, I don't suppose I ever will! Tripe? Maybe.

In the broader sense, tripe is... the organs, I suppose. Not even the lesser cuts of meat. Rump is still muscle; oxtail, scrag end of neck, ditto... As with many a child, I didn't like liver much ("More bacon, Mum!"). Childrens' palettes are more inclined to sweet flavours than bitter ones (oddly, I've always like sprouts); as an adult, I DO like liver. I love kidneys. There's probably no way you could cook kidneys* that I wouldn't enjoy. Heart I've never had (as far as I know). It's not that they're not freely available, I've just never felt like indulging in the long slow cooking time. Mum used to make a wonderful sweetbread stew. Never had brains or eyeballs (I imagine they're much like snails & tripe). What else counts as tripe? I love black pudding; I will always try whatever local variant of BP there is; and haggis (lungs+) ditto.

But I've never tried tripe. Southerner. I suppose that's it... ;-)

*Except, obviously, with garlic!