Beef....it's what's for dinner!!

I know there are a few things that will be overwhelming to me when I go home someday, and likely the culture shock will happen at the supermarket.....Super WalMart!! I have grown accustomed to ignoring the aisles that I don't understand or have any use for here, like the dried fish aisle and the crazy spices aisle. Now that I live in a town without walmart I have learned how to find and buy things at my open market.

Now if you aren't clear what an open market is, let me explain. All the vegetable growers, fruit growers, and various meat ranchers bring fresh produce and meat to this big market in town every day. They rent stalls and are there....all day, every day. There is refridgeration here, but it isn't used or trusted widely, plus having a refridgerator on all day wastes electricity. So, the locals buy their fruit, veggies, and meat at least 2 times a day, sometimes 3. They think I am strange (they have told me this as fact) becasue I don't go to the market every day, usually only 2 times a week. I have a refridgerator and a deep freeze outside and I am not afraid to use them!

One of the things I have had to figure out is how to buy meat. In the big city I lived in, I would go to the meat counter at walmart and pick out a pound of ground beef, much like you could do in America. But not in this town. Meat is generally brought in every day and sold fresh every day. But it sits out in the open market until it is sold. First lesson, buy early in the morning!! I have learned how to acquire ground beef and ground pork so we can eat sausage. Ground beef is not something done here, but the pork is. So, I figured if they could grind the pork, they could grind the beef.....and we could eat spaghetti and tacos. :)

So today for your viewing pleasure, or viewing horror, I have put together some pictures to take you on a tour of the market and the process of getting the ground beef.

Welcome to our big market. This is usually my first stop. Fresh veggies and fruit. But, today I am needing to stock up on ground beef and ground pork, because our supply is low, so let's move on.

Here we are entering the meat section of the market. If you aren't sure, the smell will tell you!! The first time I brought Ryan here he said he may become a vegetarian after seeing/smelling this place. Hannah normally tries to breathe as little as possible in this section if she is shopping with me. Just in case you weren't sure we were in the meat section, you are now. This is how you can buy your chickens. They eat pretty much everything on this bird, except the chicken breasts. You would think that would be good for us, but they won't sell them to me because I won't buy the skin and all the bones (which they want me to pay for) and I usually can't get much meat off of it. Thankfully, my good friend BG found a supplier of frozen chicken breasts which keeps me from having to very personal with my chickens before dinner. Sorry, Hudson was the photographer for this outing and we couldn't resist. On every table there are heads to the animals so you can be for certain what you are buying. This poor mountain goat has had a bad day. And, yes, that is his stomach laying to the right of his head, the greyish matter. No, we didn't purchase anything off of this table. Finally, our destination. Beef. It lays there all nice and chopped up for us on the table. I try to pick the best cuts praying we don't get any chewy, gamey kind. I ask for 4 pounds on this day and she about has a heart attack.....why would I want so much? She happily sells me the meat and off we go to our next stop.
This is my friend, the meat grinder lady. She has a very nice smile and we chat each week about my goings on and why oh why are my kids not in school. I think she is finally getting it. I kindly give her my meat and she quickly washes it and begins to chop it into smaller pieces, eliminating any tendons or other unwanted matter around the meat.She then goes to this machine, the meat grinder. It wasn't what I was used to as a meat grinder but it works all the same. She stuffs all the meat into the top compartment......

And out it comes into the blue bucket. She does this 7 or 8 times until it is small, and nicely ground. And then we get to have tacos and spaghetti.

I have to say, I was very happy to find out how to get ground beef since it is a little outside the box of normal cooking here. At first they weren't sure they could do it, but I convinced them they could. Please don't be afraid to come and eat with us sometime.....I cook and clean my food very well before eating it!