Flaki

Tripe soup

Tripe soup (işkembe) from Turkey
Course	Soup
Main ingredients	Offal (Tripe)

Tripe soup is a common dish in Balkan, Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, and Eastern European cuisine. It is widely (not universally) considered to be a hangover remedy.

In Bulgaria, a whole pork, beef or lamb tripe is boiled for few hours, chopped in small pieces, and returned to the broth. The soup is spiced with ground red paprika which is briefly fried (запръжка), and often small quantity of milk is added. Traditionally, the soup is served with mashed garlic in vinegar and hot red pepper. There is a variant of the soup with intestines instead of tripe.

The soup was very popular with the working classes until the late 1980s, and there were many restaurants serving only shkembe chorba (шкембеджийница, "shkembe-restaurant"). Later they were replaced by fast food restaurants but the soup is still highly regarded, and is part of the menu in any cheap to moderately-priced restaurant. Office workers avoid eating shkembe chorba at lunch, or eat it without adding garlic.

In Croatian cuisine, its is known as Fileki, Tripice or Vampi.

The Czech version is heavily spiced with paprika, onions and garlic resulting in very distinct spicy goulash-like flavour.

There are a number of different German versions of this sour soup from southern parts of the country, including Bavaria, Saxony and Swabia. Seasonings include lard, onions, garlic, meat broth, wine vinegar, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. In the nineteenth century in parts of the German Empire that are now Poland (like Silesia), "Flaki" was a street food. The tripe was cooked with long bones, celery root, parsley root, onions, and bay leaf. The tripe was then sliced, breaded and fried, and returned to the broth with some vinegar, marjoram, mustard, salt, and pepper.

The Greek version, called patsás (πατσάς), may be seasoned with red wine vinegar and garlic (skordostoubi), or thickened with avgolemono. The Greek version sometimes uses calf feet with the tripe.