Cartilagenous I'd say. But the Mexicans swear on it as a hangover cure and salty chewey spicy soup is better than you think. Edit: the soup is called menudo if you're interested
Assuming I’m not mistaken about how cartilage feels to eat, I’d say neither but closer to cartilage. It’s really chewy and hard to sink your teeth into to. Honestly it’s kinda like eating gum but with a meat taste. The smell is not great though and often overpowers a lot of food without lots of preparation. Honestly kinda hate tripe overall.
Neither, but if I must choose it's probably slightly more like muscle than like cartilage. If prepared properly it's really soft and a bit chewy, distantly reminding me meat from stews.
(That reminds me a local pub that prepares some fucking amazing breaded and deep-fried tripe. Definitively not doing it at home - it spills and bubbles the oil like crazy.)
In terms of texture I feel like it might be somewhere between seaweed and cartilage. Chewy, but firm and juicy and absolutely meat-like. My favourite is the Florentine Lampredotto, made out of the fourth stomach of the cow. It makes for a mean sandwich.
I feel like it depends on how it's cooked as I have tried tripe and it's felt sometimes cartilage (which I hate), and on a fuew cases musclely which is what I would expect a well made tripe to feel in the mouth