Cow stomach or Salsa de Panza

I was talking with my Spanish teacher about a couple of things concerning cow last week (her husband is a butcher and proprietor of three carnecirias so she is my goto when it comes to everything cow). One, Guatemeltecos make ceviche out of raw diced torro testicles, and two, they eat cow stomach two different ways: they make it in a sort of ceviche where they cook the stomach (takes two days on the stove or two hours in a pressure cooker) and then add mint tomato onion garlic and whatvever else they want. Or, they cook it and then stew it in this golden brown mess of potatoes and sauce with tomatos and onions and maybe some garlic. They call it Panza en(de) salsa, though I like Panza de Papas more. While my mouth was still watering I told my host mom about it and being the amazing spectacular person she is, she decided to make it for lunch today. Could I ask for anything more?

When I entered the house there was definitely the humid somehwhat unctous smell of entrails (perfect for Kathleen). I´d call it the smell of a freshly washed dirty meat counter. As near as I could tell from watching the stew gurgle away on the stove, the golden brown color comes from the water the stomach gives off along with some tomatos. They served it with rice and hot salsa and fresh tortillas. The Belgian that is also staying at the house right now gave it one look and begged off. The rest of us dug in. Although I´ll admit, I slathered the first bite in hot salsa...

The stomach was tender enough - there wasn´t much taste to it, just a very delicate cross between tripe and mutton. It was chewy like tripe but instead of coating your mouth with fat like mutton does, it coated the throat and stomach on the way down. The stomach itself was smooth on one side and the other looked a pine cone that had been broken open. There were sort of criss crossed little hairs or veins or something. I did manage seconds but don´t imagine that I´ll be ordering it the next time I see it one the menu. However, we´ll probably have it for breakfast tomorrow as there were leftovers. Yum, reheated panza de vaca.