The way to a man's heart is not always through the stomach...

Pierrot, a beautiful French bistro in Beacon Hill, gave the setting for our Valentine’s dinner last night. The aromatic lamb shank did seem tempting, however B decided to be adventurous and ordered tripe.

Not being entirely sure what tripe was, he asked the waiter, who said it was made from part of a cow, although he was unsure which part …. Despite this, B decided to be intrepid, and stick with the order.

The first couple of mouthfuls were uneventful, if a bit a chewy. B then turned over a piece of tripe to find a network of corrugations on its underside, which immediately brought to mind teaching in the dissection room focusing on the gastro-intestinal tract of cadavers.

B went red and had to drink some cold water.

B has eaten a variety of unusual things over the years including a whole cow tongue, roasted grasshoppers and frog quarters, however this is definitely the worst looking food that he has attempted to eat.

Despite this, he managed to regain composure to finish the meal.

We have since discovered that tripe is made from one of the first three stomachs of a cow - honeycomb tripe, which was B's meal, is made from the second stomach.

Next Valentine the aromatic lamb shank will win out!