I fell in love with the meat market

I remember, my first week here and my first trip to the market, meat market, or sometimes called the wet market. One of the wives took me and I just remember trying not to look too closely at the meat and promising myself I would not gag due to the smells. I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments. This was the girl who rarely ate hamburgers because the thought of all that ground up disgusted her and still had difficulty touching a raw piece of filleted chicken.

The markets here, whether its a veggie, fruit or meat market, are usually all outdoors, all crowded and noisy and all very smelly. There are usually a couple of people in various corners with meat grinders and sanitation is never, ever thought about. When you pay for your meat and you get your change back...its usually wet and has bits of meat hanging off of it. Exact change is something you want to have! In my old city there was even a corner where you could buy your dog meat, yes dog meat. I haven't seen that here in the new city but I haven't asked either. Anyone who has ever lived in this country knows exactly what I'm talking about.

I used to dread the market...watching where you'd step for fear of stepping on some left over meat or guts, praying you wouldn't fall down, and dodging bits of flying meat as the "butchers" went to town on a piece of cow. Its mostly pork in many cities, but there are some chickens (whole..beak and all) and you also have some beef. Oh, and don't forget to go early in the morning or else you'll have room temperature, fly covered meat.

So this past week, I had a moment, where I realized I really have turned into someone very different. It was that moment where I discovered I had turned into my worst fear...that person that is just a bit strange and you can't put your finger on why. Here is why I say this.... I was walking through a meat market with a friend just scanning the aisle looking for friends we could talk to, taking in the sites. And if that wasn't weird enough, my friend turned to me and said, "hey look, that's a nice piece of meat there, that looks really good." "Ya," I responded, "it really does, makes me kind of hungry for some ribs." I didn't realize then, but looking back on it...I would have never in a million years thought I'd look at a piece of raw, bloody, skin still attached meat and say, "wow, that looks yummy." Yes, I really did. Welcome to the East side.

Outlook on raw meat changed - check!

Maybe I should have taken that FFA Meat Judging class in High School.......nah, I think you had to dip to enroll in that.

Beautiful Feet