Just picked up [belatedly] on emeritus re the East End [p107 Eel Pie?] and the other chap in the States who is unable to comprehend tripe the food [p101*] as opposed to "that's a load of tripe" [meaning rubbish]. It may seem counter intuitive to the original opinion but so called "offal" [the unwanted cheaper animal bits] has always been a staple of the relatively poor, usually transformed into something rather delicious by necessity.
When people get very wealthy they are often seen to be paying high prices for a reversion to simplicity, eg basic bread dipped in olive oil with a bean salad etc. In Industrial Lancashire and obtained from Bury Market, Tripe was a staple along with Black Pudding-now very trendy. We'd have it with salads, in summer chilled and sprinkled with salt and vinegar along with brown bread and butter Yum!! Some people would cook it in milk but that didn't appeal in my household, probaly too Mexican
Apart from the Market there was a chain of UCP shops [United Cow Products] ...I'm not making any of this up-sounds like Desperate Dan of the Beano comic with his Cow Pies doesn't it
You could get every type of Tripe from White Honeycomb to Flat and browner stuff plus many other remaindered products including "Brawn" a sort of poor man's Pate, "elder" too gritty and "knuckles".
The Bury UCP shop is still there in a different guise. It's actually also a part of Vintage TV History. Candid Camera, was a Granada TV program where Jonathan Routh played practical jokes on the public eg a car was apparently "driven" in for repair but it had no engine! In the Bury UCP, a man eating Sausage and Chips [it wasn't all offall] valiantly puts up with a hand that keeps emerging from behind the Coat Rack and stealing his sausages. Happy Days!
The fact that the ex-TV/Tripe shop is now a trendy eatery in Ramsbottom [the Chorlton of North Manchester- but really Lancashire] rather makes my earlier point about wealth I think! Marc in Manc will know what I mean.
Dave