I have seen the animals, exsanguinated, thrown on the top of minibuses for transport to market where they are skinned and eviscerated and roughly hewn with chainsaws …. All too still-warm! Did not see any offal. And all the intestines are in a sort of cage on the trolley and folks who cannot afford the outside meaty bits pick them over; altogether not a place for a vegetarian. But I am determined to master meat. I am missing it too much. For the second week in succession, I bought a bunch of some green leafy stuff; asked how to cook it, got the ‘with tomatoes’ reply, but failed to make it work. Somehow, the soaking in chlorinated water discolours it and puts me off ….. and there are lots of other veg. - beautiful cabbages, aubergines, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, carrots, ginger, garlic, chillies and potatoes. Because so few people have much money, the market also sells twists of things – clingfilm twists of a tablespoon of tomato puree, salt, flour, spice, sugar - little plastic bags filled with about three tablespoons of oil – just enough for one day’s meal. And the standard measure is a ‘boite’ – holds about a half kilo of beans, or pulses. It is an old tomato can. No weights needed. Numbers are a challenge for me – I do not speak a word of Djoula (yet) and most of the folks in the market have a scant grasp of French, and my lack of comprehension of their accent makes the numbers they do give me hopelessly inaudible to me – we stand off smiling, and there is always a shortage of change ….. I stick to the same ladies – the ones with school-aged children around who can help us out!
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Meat, Phase 1 - not for vegetarians
I made it on Saturday in time
for the meat market, but blanched at the reality of this event. Great
carcasses fresh from slaughtering were brought into a sort of zinc shed with
stone chopping blocks. All the butchers were hacking away with machetes,
preparing little piles of shattered bone and meat in what appeared to be a sort
of random way, and women were pushing forward to snatch an appropriately-sized
bundle, packing it themselves into carrier bags and paying I am not sure how ….
All too random; no ‘I’ll have a nice piece of rib, please’ so I withdrew
in confusion and will have to get one of my co-workers to guide me as to how it
is done. I suspect it is just that I cannot see beyond the random.
I have seen the animals, exsanguinated, thrown on the top of minibuses for transport to market where they are skinned and eviscerated and roughly hewn with chainsaws …. All too still-warm! Did not see any offal. And all the intestines are in a sort of cage on the trolley and folks who cannot afford the outside meaty bits pick them over; altogether not a place for a vegetarian. But I am determined to master meat. I am missing it too much. For the second week in succession, I bought a bunch of some green leafy stuff; asked how to cook it, got the ‘with tomatoes’ reply, but failed to make it work. Somehow, the soaking in chlorinated water discolours it and puts me off ….. and there are lots of other veg. - beautiful cabbages, aubergines, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, carrots, ginger, garlic, chillies and potatoes. Because so few people have much money, the market also sells twists of things – clingfilm twists of a tablespoon of tomato puree, salt, flour, spice, sugar - little plastic bags filled with about three tablespoons of oil – just enough for one day’s meal. And the standard measure is a ‘boite’ – holds about a half kilo of beans, or pulses. It is an old tomato can. No weights needed. Numbers are a challenge for me – I do not speak a word of Djoula (yet) and most of the folks in the market have a scant grasp of French, and my lack of comprehension of their accent makes the numbers they do give me hopelessly inaudible to me – we stand off smiling, and there is always a shortage of change ….. I stick to the same ladies – the ones with school-aged children around who can help us out!
I have seen the animals, exsanguinated, thrown on the top of minibuses for transport to market where they are skinned and eviscerated and roughly hewn with chainsaws …. All too still-warm! Did not see any offal. And all the intestines are in a sort of cage on the trolley and folks who cannot afford the outside meaty bits pick them over; altogether not a place for a vegetarian. But I am determined to master meat. I am missing it too much. For the second week in succession, I bought a bunch of some green leafy stuff; asked how to cook it, got the ‘with tomatoes’ reply, but failed to make it work. Somehow, the soaking in chlorinated water discolours it and puts me off ….. and there are lots of other veg. - beautiful cabbages, aubergines, lettuces, tomatoes, onions, carrots, ginger, garlic, chillies and potatoes. Because so few people have much money, the market also sells twists of things – clingfilm twists of a tablespoon of tomato puree, salt, flour, spice, sugar - little plastic bags filled with about three tablespoons of oil – just enough for one day’s meal. And the standard measure is a ‘boite’ – holds about a half kilo of beans, or pulses. It is an old tomato can. No weights needed. Numbers are a challenge for me – I do not speak a word of Djoula (yet) and most of the folks in the market have a scant grasp of French, and my lack of comprehension of their accent makes the numbers they do give me hopelessly inaudible to me – we stand off smiling, and there is always a shortage of change ….. I stick to the same ladies – the ones with school-aged children around who can help us out!
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