KEY POINTS:
A shortage of tripe has forced the cancellation of Dunedin's longstanding monthly "tripe night".
For 10 years, tripe and onion enthusiasts have met regularly to eat and socialise, but this month cattle stomach is off the menu at Wobbly's Bar and Restaurant in Victoria Rd owing to supply problems.
Wobbly's part-owner Frank Murphy spent Monday visiting Dunedin butchers but came up short of the 30kg of tripe needed to cater for the 120 members of the tripe club who were due to gather last night.
The shortage has left club convener and "queen of the tripe" Lorraine Paterson facing a night in with roast lamb - a huge disappointment for the 73-year-old widow who was a founding member of the club.
Mrs Paterson, who was introduced to tripe as a child during the World War II, struggles to describe the attraction.
"I don't know. I don't know. It's just tripe. It's got a taste of its own."
She says the club is very social and the tripe is served with mashed potato, beer and wine.
Tradition dictates that it must also be accompanied by bread and butter.
Normally, the tripe is supplied by Robertson Meat in Hillside Rd.
Head shopman Dave Cadman said he could see the shortage looming and stockpiled enough for the club's August meeting, but could not get enough for this month.
His tripe comes from wholesaler Alliance Meats at Burnside, which sources it from an Affco plant in the North Island - one of two still producing tripe in New Zealand - which is shut for the off season.
Alliance's Otago-Southland wholesale manager, Bill Arlidge, said his company rendered cattle stomachs instead of turning them into tripe which must be processed in a special room to satisfy Ministry of Agriculture requirements.
The market for tripe generally appears to be shrinking. Centre City New World supermarket stocks premium "honeycomb" tripe when it can get it, but butchery manager Paul Mason says tripe is a "dying thing" sought after mainly by "traditional" customers.
Mrs Paterson suggests anyone lucky enough to have tripe on hand should boil it until tender, drain, add boiled onions, milk, salt and pepper and then thicken.
Mr Murphy said Wobbly's had been offered sheep stomach as a substitute but did not like the green colour and the thought of having to clean it first.
Disruption to tripe supplies is expected to continue for another couple of months.
-Otago Daily Times
