It’s Friday, so I’m off to the grocery store. That’s right. Another trip to Central Market before it becomes a place to be avoided at all costs - Central Market on Saturday and Sunday. Occasionally I find that I have mismanaged my week and I am required to go to Central Market during the weekend. This will be all the motivation needed to get myself in gear for weeks to come. The shopping experience during the week is relaxed, easy, pleasant. During the weekend it is like the roller derby. This week was jam packed full of evening activities. We ate several dinners together as a family but I did not cook a single one. As is usually the case, we are all wanting to sit down at the table and eat a good home-cooked meal. I haven’t decided what I will be cooking yet, but when I do I will post it for you too.
I am reminded of an essay I wrote last year which I posted on my old website. It is an essay about my favorite Central Market butcher. I’m off to see him right now. What a pleasure! Last year’s essay is below -
Sam and Alice
written by Lauren // 2007
The more I cook for my family, the more I am realizing the value and importance of a really good butcher. I’ve developed a fondness for one butcher in particular at Central Market here in Houston. I find myself waiting for him to wait on me at the meat counter, forgoing the other available butchers. He takes a special interest in choosing the best meats for me - - - and he tells me I’m beautiful. He tells everyone they’re beautiful, frankly, but I believe him. He sees through my un-styled hair and shapeless sweat pants, at least I think he does. And he really does take particular care in choosing and preparing my meats. He is the Sam to my Alice. You remember them from ‘The Brady Bunch”. Alice was the tireless housekeeper and Sam was her loyal and flirtatious butcher. It struck me the other day as I walked through the meat section after a happy exchange with my Sam over flank steak that it is incredibly comforting to buy your meat from a butcher that takes a special interest in you and your family. So many of the large grocery stores are just refrigerated, pre-packaged meat cases, with only a stocker behind the counter rather than a real butcher. If you ask the distant stocker to prepare your meat in a certain way he stares back blankly, if you can find him at all. It’s a very dissatisfying experience.
Fresh foods like meats and fish and produce should have a connection to the people who buy them. It shouldn’t be an institutional exchange. The fresh ingredients we use to prepare a magical family dinner are basic necessities, like fresh air and sunlight and big skies. You can’t just package those things and stash them on a shelf, with only a stocker to check expiration dates. It should be more organic than that. I want to feel that connection, that reassurance that the cycle of life is still wholesome, that feeling of community. I’m not ready to completely “Buy Local”, but I know where those devotees are coming from. I still like the convenience of the grocery store over the farmers market, although that may change. For now, I may not know where my Central Market flank steak came from anymore than I know where a pre-packaged Kroger flank steak came from, but I know that my Sam does, and he is making sure my family enjoys the quality ingredients I want for them. I may evolve into a “Buy Local” girl eventually. It feels right to me as this world gets larger and increasingly devoid of regional character. In the meantime, however, I will continue to see my Sam at the meat counter at Central Market. He is my connection to a past when people knew where their foods came from…………….and he thinks I’m beautiful.
