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Street Stall · Fried Lamb Intestines

Gallinejas

Gallinejas — street food from Madrid, Spain
Photo: Tamorlan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

It's one of old Madrid's oldest working-class street foods, sold from open-air stalls along the Manzanares river since well before the 20th century, and it's still considered a defining local dish today.

Gallinejas are cleaned lamb intestines, fried slowly in their own fat until crisp and curled, served hot with a squeeze of lemon. A handful of traditional stalls near Madrid's old river district still fry and sell them fresh.

Why it's made this way: It comes from Madrid's slaughterhouse district tradition of using every part of the animal, turning cheap offal into a defining local street snack.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.