There are two occasions when I eat tripe: When I have menudo, and when I have phố, đặc biệt (is that spelled that right?). In the menudo, the tripe tastes meaty and is tender. In the phố, it’s kind of crunchy. The tripe looks different in each dish too.
Why is the Vietnamese tripe the way it is? Is it because it’s not simmered in a broth like the menudo?
Not sure but aren’t there different varieties of tripe? Yep, Wiki confirms – maybe the Hispanics and the Vietnamese are starting with different parts of the stomach(s).
Whereas menudo is honeycomb, which looks . . . exactly like what it sounds.
I will be in menudo friendly country next month and engaging in the activities for which menudo is the folk remedy, so a few bowls of that are definitely in my near future.
I have three cans of it in the cupboard. (Not easy to find up here any other way.)
Yeah, those are the two types of tripe that I’ve had. I remember that when I was in elementary school, I was always told that cows have 4 stomachs. So, I figured that they were just tripe of a different stomach. What do the other two stomachs look like?
Wiki says the fourth one isn’t much eaten because of its glandular tissue.
Johnny, where are you getting that canned menudo? That’s not something I would have thought existed . . . though I’d have rated its plausibility somewhat above the canned haggis (multiple brands!) that started showing up in my suggested Amazon items after I did some Burns Night-related searching.
While on the subject – if you like tripe, I think it’d be difficult not to really like this simple dish – great while it’s still Winter for many around here:
http://www.rimag.com/recipe/580-Warm_Tripe_alla_Parmigiana.php
Juanita’s is carried at my local supermarket, Cost Cutter. (Or ‘Cost Slutter’, as I like to call it.) If I want to go down the road a piece, Hagens also carries it without hominy. A nice ‘taste of home’ up here in the PNW! Two of the cans in my cupboard are Juanita’s (at least one of which is picante), and the other one is another brand I haven’t tried yet. Anyway, just check out the Mexican Food section of your supermarket.
Juanita’s isn’t as good as the menudo I’d get in restaurants in L.A. and Orange, but I find it tasty.
I ate the last of my canned haggis last year. I need more. (Or else call that guy in Oregon and have him send me a frozen one.)
[Spock]What is tripe?[/Spock]
Well that just cost me a little money. Juanita’s does online mail order and I am about six cans of soup and two things of chorizo poorer than I was an hour ago.
No, seriously. They have it in supermarkets! You’ll need to go there anyway for the cilantro, onion, and lemon. 
I didn’t see the chorizo on the website. LMK how it is. The stuff a coworker picked up for me was tasty, but it wasn’t spicy enough.