Mario Batali, the raven haired, clog hopping Food Network celebrity chef, has developed quite a reputation for converting the offal resistant of New York City. His West Village Babbo (110 Waverly Place)  is nearly impossible to get a table at and the lucky ones who do are chowing down on a Batali favorite he often eats for breakfast called "testa", a salami like meat that is made by boiling a pig's head. Whatever floats to the top - fat, gristle, brain, and various other biological matter - is skimmed and turned into salami. But testa is where it starts at Babbo. The menu would send a PETA supporter into shock: pig's foot Milanese (pounded, breaded and fried pig's foot), lamb's brain francoboli, and beef cheek ravioli.

And at Nino's Tuscany (117 W. 58^th Street) many a Soprano-like table has been seen reminiscing about the old country while enjoying trippa alla fiorentina, chef Sal Mourocco's tribute dish to his home town of Mola di Bari in the Puglia region of Italy. Trippa, or tripe, is the lining of a cow's stomach. The honeycomb shaped edible offal is a traditional ingredient in Italian cooking. "It's a traditional dish, "the chef says.  "My grandmother used to cook it for me. When I make it I think of her." Pugliese cooking is home of "cucina povera", or peasant food, and that is something Sal is proud of. "We don't waste anything. That is the tradition of my town and why I have tripe on the menu. That's why Italians come here - for traditions. That means comfort."

The city's Italian kitchen contingents aren't the only ones who think this way. Mechel Thompson, owner of Maroons -a Jamaican and Southern restaurant at 244 W. 16^th Street - agrees. According to him, any decent Jamacian household will serve stewed oxtail (yes, the tail of a cow) on a Sunday. "That is why we serve it here. It's like going to Brazil and eating feijoada. When you are in Jamaica, you eat oxtail. It means you are home."  The entire menu at Maroons comes from family recipes- Aunt Sarah's Stewed Oxtail is a recipe that Mechel's partner Arlene Weston grew up eating at her Aunt Sarah's house. "People come in and tell us it tastes just like their grandmother used to make. That is the charm of comfort food. Finding the right balance of the ingredients and timing to recreate the memory. Oxtail is difficult - the texture is important."

The Southern menu at the Harlem institution Copeland's (547 W. 145^th St) also offers offal comfort and traditional specialties to Southern and soul food seeking diners. Items like short ribs and chicken & waffles are standard, but the brave who visit order Copeland's Chitlins & Champagne. Chitlins are pig intestines and Southern traditional calls form them to be simmered. Mr. Calvin Copeland, owner of the 45-year-old Harlem establishment and true-blooded Southerner made the decision to serve the boiled innards with the unlikely champagne glass companion. "Chitlins are a dish from 100 years ago. It's old school - one of the most popular things to eat in the South. You have the bottom of the barrel and then the top of the barrel. Chitlins are so low on the food totem pole, but they are so good they deserve the top treatment. So I serve them with champagne. I think it works."

What works for Michelin starred  British uber chef Gordon Ramsay is making kitchen hopefuls cry for their mommies on his restaurant reality show "Hell's Kitchen".  But in his real kitchen at his New York City restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London Hotel, located in the, um, London Hotel (151 W. 54^th Street), Ramsay pushes the already stuffed offal envelope at his French leaning restaurant  by combining parts that should only be touching in very rare circumstances. A seasonal dish so popular patrons request it no matter what the calendar says is something fondly called "beef tongue ‘n' cheek". The dish? You guessed it. The tongue and backside of a cow served atop one another in a deep, rich meaty sauce. Well, maybe you didn't call the sauce.

The animal innards menu tour continues at Congee Village (100 Allen Street) where the dish that takes center stage is porridge called congee. Congee is gruel of boiled down rice and water that can best be described as the Chinese equivalent to oatmeal, or grits. The rice is boiled down so much that it is unrecognizable as grain and creates a porridge that is served with a host of other foods. Sounds harmless, right? Choices of accompaniment at Congee village are boiled goose intestine, pickled vegetables with or without intestine, or dine on a house favorite: pork stomach porridge.

The variety of offal served around New York City is as endless as the variety of restaurants that fill the city. And while few of these foods seamlessly cross cultures, reasons for eating them are similar. Food, whether it is in the form of French cuisine, canned tuna, or animal parts al a carte, can always be an adventure. Basically it comes down to this: one person's gag at the whiff of chicken livers sautéed in balsamic vinegar is met with another's eager squeal. Or was that the pig?