A few days ago I was reading the new story about a Liberian woman in New York who was jailed for smuggling monkey meat. I thought about the supermarkets I’ve been to in other places than the US and how it resembled pet stores more than grocery stores. I’m curious to know what’s allowed and not allowed in the US in terms of meat. Maybe it’s a simple Google search, but apparently there’s a lot more allowed than I previously thought. I was at a Chinese supermarket called Great Wall and then a Korean Market down the street called H Mart on Sunday just outside of DC, right down the street from my office, to look for items not normally found in “regular” grocery stores. While there, I was surprised to see frogs (big suckers, too!), turtles, and more. All live, which is what made it more interesting. I enjoyed watching patrons choosing which fish they wanted swimming in an aquarium and the “butcher” fishing them out with a net, smacking it on the head with a clever, scale the fish, chop off the heads, rip them down the center, remove the innards, and put the remaining meat in bags. There was one particular couple that asked for live eel. Quite entertaining watching the employee netting different eel, producing it to the customer, and watching them inspect it and approving or disapproving the catch – all the time observing the eels’ mouths widely open trying to sink its fangs into its captor’s hands. (I wonder how they knew which eel they liked or disliked. Speaking of which, ever watch people choose watermelon? Funny scene while they listen, tap, feel, etc.) Anyway, when they had their choice of eel and tilapia fish, they asked for them live, so the worker bagged it up, cut out a small hole, took another bag, filled it with the water they were swimming in seconds earlier, and placed the bag with the animal/dinner in that.
This was all entertaining for me to watch. The (bad quality) pictures above were taken with my camera phone.
Enjoy.
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