Monday, April 16, 2007
Chad’s Butchery
We had spoken to Tore and Jeanine about the little pleasures of life in Haydom and one thing that came up was that the pork was really the best local meat to get. They told us of the pseudonym that the restaurants sell it under, which I believe translates to Hot Feet or something like that. There are many who may be offended by people eating pork so the restaurateurs being sensitive to their clientele’s religion keep it out of their faces. Our mouths watered as we spoke about the fresh pork that can sometimes be purchased when Mama Kari has a pig slaughtered at her home.
The next day when Emma Stella was sitting down to lunch with us, she mentioned that Mama Kari was having a pig slaughtered on Saturday and asked if we would like some. After our discussion the previous night, we jumped at the offer. But how much did we want? What was enough and how much was simply piggish? At about $2 per kilo we figured two pounds was plenty for our first time.
Saturday came and we had a nice morning of little visitors in the form of Karina Neema and her brother Olaf Omani. Then we walked with Emma Stella to her home to have lunch and meet her family. It was a very nice day and we spent a couple of hours doing our best to communicate and looking at her yard and livestock. We strolled back home and were called by Mama Kari’s housekeepers, who were on their way home, to come for our meat.
Abby and Nikki headed for home and I followed the housekeeper to Mama Kari’s freezer room. She said she had 2.5 kilos and asked if that were OK. Why not? I said, “sawa.” (sure) She handed me a clear plastic bag with a hunk of meat in it with a long bone sticking out one side of the hunk. I thanked her and carried the bag next door to our house. Now, I don’t know if I have talked about the kitchen knife situation in our house but it is pretty sad. I am used to a good set of sharp knives and here I don’t have that at all. We have a bread knife that couldn’t cut butter until I put a bit of an edge on it and a paring knife that I have to sharpen on the back of the bread knife before I can use it. So I sent a text message to Tore to see if he had any sharp knives I could borrow; thankfully he did. He had just used them to carve up his 5 kilos of pork so though he said the knives were very dull they did the job.
I went over and picked up the two knives and walked home like some slasher-film villain to take my pork apart. I quickly took the butcher knife to the back of my bread knife and in no time had a nice edge on it. I pulled the quite disgusting succulent pork from its confines in the plastic bag and set it on the just washed counter. Where to begin? What was my goal here? What cut of pork is this anyway? Man there’s a lot of fat on this. Homer Simpson would be licking his lips and mumbling, “MMMM Pork Fat!!” I on the other hand had no idea where to start. I turned the hunk over and over looking for an X or some other mark that would signal a starting point. I found none.
Then I decided to just jump in and chop it up. I thought, ‘well I would like a couple of nice pork roasts and probably some smaller pieces that will cook quickly so start hacking.’ And, hack I did. I don’t know how long it took and I really don’t know how I did it but before dark I had freezer bags with enough meat in each for 5 meals. Maybe this is too gross but I was surprised at the lack of blood and sinew that I found. I must say it was a pleasant surprise. Compared to the hunk of beef that Emma Stella had chopped up the week before, this looked like something that one might actually find in a grocery store in Canada. I’ll let you know how it tastes once we get the nerve to cook it.
The next day when Emma Stella was sitting down to lunch with us, she mentioned that Mama Kari was having a pig slaughtered on Saturday and asked if we would like some. After our discussion the previous night, we jumped at the offer. But how much did we want? What was enough and how much was simply piggish? At about $2 per kilo we figured two pounds was plenty for our first time.
Saturday came and we had a nice morning of little visitors in the form of Karina Neema and her brother Olaf Omani. Then we walked with Emma Stella to her home to have lunch and meet her family. It was a very nice day and we spent a couple of hours doing our best to communicate and looking at her yard and livestock. We strolled back home and were called by Mama Kari’s housekeepers, who were on their way home, to come for our meat.
Abby and Nikki headed for home and I followed the housekeeper to Mama Kari’s freezer room. She said she had 2.5 kilos and asked if that were OK. Why not? I said, “sawa.” (sure) She handed me a clear plastic bag with a hunk of meat in it with a long bone sticking out one side of the hunk. I thanked her and carried the bag next door to our house. Now, I don’t know if I have talked about the kitchen knife situation in our house but it is pretty sad. I am used to a good set of sharp knives and here I don’t have that at all. We have a bread knife that couldn’t cut butter until I put a bit of an edge on it and a paring knife that I have to sharpen on the back of the bread knife before I can use it. So I sent a text message to Tore to see if he had any sharp knives I could borrow; thankfully he did. He had just used them to carve up his 5 kilos of pork so though he said the knives were very dull they did the job.
I went over and picked up the two knives and walked home like some slasher-film villain to take my pork apart. I quickly took the butcher knife to the back of my bread knife and in no time had a nice edge on it. I pulled the quite disgusting succulent pork from its confines in the plastic bag and set it on the just washed counter. Where to begin? What was my goal here? What cut of pork is this anyway? Man there’s a lot of fat on this. Homer Simpson would be licking his lips and mumbling, “MMMM Pork Fat!!” I on the other hand had no idea where to start. I turned the hunk over and over looking for an X or some other mark that would signal a starting point. I found none.
Then I decided to just jump in and chop it up. I thought, ‘well I would like a couple of nice pork roasts and probably some smaller pieces that will cook quickly so start hacking.’ And, hack I did. I don’t know how long it took and I really don’t know how I did it but before dark I had freezer bags with enough meat in each for 5 meals. Maybe this is too gross but I was surprised at the lack of blood and sinew that I found. I must say it was a pleasant surprise. Compared to the hunk of beef that Emma Stella had chopped up the week before, this looked like something that one might actually find in a grocery store in Canada. I’ll let you know how it tastes once we get the nerve to cook it.
