Tripe is the result of boiling beef or pork offal accompanied by vegetables; this recipe was a main diet for sectors living in poverty or hardship.
A bit of history
Enslaved people and mestizos in the Spanish colonies received the entrails or undesirable parts of beef, and they prepared stews, improving their cooking techniques over time.
In Spain, they also prepare a dish with the beef paunch, a typical dish in rural areas called "mondejo," with the difference that it was cooked with sheep offal.
In Panama, it is simply known as "tripe" and is cooked as a stew with onions, carrots, chickpeas, and a bay leaf, seasoned with chorizo or chitterlings (which are always sold salted). It is considered a heavy meal, traditionally eaten with white rice.
More side dish varieties
Other side dishes include salads and sweet plantains. In rural areas, when building a new house roof, the prospective owners, along with friends, family, and construction workers, organize a meal known as "tripe feast," where tripe is the main dish.
A variant known as "tripe at the back" from the province of Colón also includes pork knuckles and legs and replaces chickpeas with white beans.
The preparation varies depending on the country; salty or sweet. The flavors are so different that it is common for residents of one region, where tripe is cooked with local ingredients, to dislike the recipe from another region.
