For lunch, I was regaled with tripe ala Veneziana by Benjamin Pahović. And this is one of my favorite dishes. My mother used to make them just to my taste. Actually, it is the other way around, for my taste was formed by my mother’s cooking. She learned how to cook from my father’s mother, and so my father also relished the tripe my mother used to make. Anyhow, Benjamin is pretty close to my mother when it comes to tripe (“Tripe?!” October 10, 2003). I added a dollop of my hot sauce, and I was off. Indeed, I was in my teens in no time. Amazingly, all such a feat takes is a little bit of food of the right kind. Which only goes to show how important our stomachs are in our lives. In fact, they are central. Not surprisingly, they are much closer to the core of things than the old hearts. The heart is but a pump, after all.