Friday, March 06, 2009

Meat Street

I was going to wait to post these until I could get downtown and get more pictures. I took these last week when I went down for my cheese bread fix. Thankfully I ate my cheese bread before I had my driver take me down "meat street." That is not the name of the road - that is what I call it. By the time we got to "meat street" it was no longer a quiet morning. Everyone was out and about and cars were double parked and there was no way to get a good shot of either up or down the street to give you an idea of just how many meat stores are there. I will try it again at some point after I return from vacation. Have to tell you that my driver and I had a bit of a communication problem. It is enough to say that he probably already thought I was "a crazy American lady" from my picture-taking episode at the cheese bread bakery. I told him [my driver: SaH-mee] that I wanted to go to the butcher shops to take more pictures. Somewhere in my "English" instruction he misunderstood and we drove through the "wedding dress district." Up and down all of the little side streets and alleys where the shops had all their wedding finery displayed in their windows. I will return to "wedding dress district" to take pictures and share those, as well, at some time in the future. After I was able to make SaH-mee understand that I wanted to go where "all the animals are hanging," he dutifully drove me and shadowed me in a most protective way, for which I am most appreciative. Thanks SaH-mee!

For each of the shops where I took photos
, I asked first, if it would be okay. The first shop I went in the guy working said, "Yes. 50 riyals." What? I'm not paying 50 riyals to take a couple of pictures! "50 riyals." No. "I will give you 10." "25 riyals." "I don't have 25 riyals, I will give you 15." We bantered back and forth for a couple of minutes - with him laughing the whole while and then he said, "Halas." Finished. The driver I was with had to tell me that he was only joking and that it was okay for me to take pictures. Both the butcher and the driver got a pretty good chuckle over the whole exchange. This was the first shop I where I took pictures. I will go back and deliver the photo of the butcher to him when I return from vacation - I doubt I am going to have time to go down before then - although I might try to get the SaH-mee to deliver the pictures for me...

This was the second shop. It was busy. The butcher / shop worker didn't have time to smile or pose but he was willing to let me take photos.

This was the final shop I "snapped." I wish I would have asked the two young men - locals - sitting outside in plastic chairs if I could take their pictures. But I didn't, because, frankly they were rather intimidating - and I am not easily intimidated. They were dressed in their white thobes which were COVERED in blood. [I'd hate to have to do their laundry! No amount of bleach could possibly make those dresses white, again.] The shop worker happily posed for me - again, on the condition that I take a copy of the picture to him.

As I was putting the camera away and SaH-mee and I were walking toward our car, one of the young men dressed in white red asked SaH-mee - in Arabic - why I was taking pictures. Do I really know what SaH-mee's response was? No. If I was only fluent in Arabic... For all I know, SaH-mee said, "She is just another crazy American that I've been blessed with driving today." All three of them - the two locals and SaH-mee - got a big laugh out of whatever it was SaH-mee said to them. Crazy American? Maybe. But pictures of "meat street" had to be taken!

16 comments:

  1. OMG!!! they still have their heads on...I think Ive gone Vege in a heartbeat... :(

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  2. I've been a vegetarian for a while, and have no regrets about that, Coolred.

    Did you click on the pictures to enlarge them? I think the animals are smiling. [/sarc off]

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  3. Now i am hungry. I bought a young goat for a July-Forth BBQ a few years ago. Took me months to eat the whole thing, and i really like goat now. I'd want the head skinned before i popped it into the oven, though.

    Thanks for showing us some Saudis who are engaged in regular life activities like lining up thirty wedding dress shops in a row (???). If i knew nothing of my own home but what i heard on the news i would not go outside ever again. Sammy and the Butcher seem like normal guys.

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  4. i'm not a vegetarian, but have NO difficulty in describing myself as an admitted wussy who appreciates plastic-wrapped packages of 'anonymous' meat.

    ~ShyAsrai

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  5. Are they all goats, Vermindust? Or are some of them lambs? No clue. Don't eat either. Have never like lamb - even when I did eat meat. Not a chance of me trying goat.

    I hope I don't make it all negative, over here. There really are some very nice people. I do have a hard time with some of the attitudes, but that doesn't negate that many locals have gone out of their way to be gracious hosts in their country.

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  6. You are not alone, ShyAsrai. I to am an "admitted wussy who appreciates plastic-wrapped packages of 'anonymous' meat." Even though I don't eat it - I cook it for DH and The Kids.

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  7. I don't know about you, but I ain't eating anything that's looking back at me.

    At least remove the head. Then again, could you imagine the pool of blood at the bottom of the cooler.

    Yuk! I'm with CoolRed, goin' VEG all the way!

    Oh, I forgot to ask you, I would like a postcard please.

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  8. They do appear to be sheep, right, but really it's hard to tell when they are undressed. Or, technically, dressed. I grew up dissassembling my own dinner critters so their charm at the point of hanging-by-the-heels their eludes me. (I do agree with you on matters of cruelty; kick a live animal and i will knock you flat.)

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  9. For the most part, Janice, the coolers I saw were remarkably clean. So were the shops. Although in my mind there is a huge difference between "clean" and "sanitized." Did you send me your address? I'll send you a post card!

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  10. I don't know about you Vermindust, but slitting an animal's throat... I'd say that is animal cruelty. Being an animal lover - that is difficult to handle.

    I guess choosing your own goat / lamb hanging by its heels is not all that different than choosing a steak in an anonymous plastic package.

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  11. My address is on it's cyber-way!

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  12. This place looks like an operating theatre in a hospital compared to the halal butcher I went into in Edison NJ once, Miss Sabra. It was filthy and all you could smell was the brassy aroma of blood and shi$. Ugh. Just thinking about it again makes me queasy.

    But my bro lives in the country and butchers all his own meat - it always seems to have better flavor... (including lamb)

    (I won't watch him do the butchering though...However, in the event of nuclear holocaust I am going to be heading his way. He hunts and dresses what he kills, is a master carpenter and used to be a biker. I figure if anyone is going to be able to survive - it's him!)

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  13. Got it Janice. Good thing I'm right-handed. My left is about useless at this point...

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  14. I'm pretty sure that the little lambs and goats and cows are not slaughtered on "Meat Street," DL. I saw a man carrying in an animal - it was wrapped in a white sheet - so not sure what it was. It was coming from off the premises, though. Doubtful that I could - no, I know I couldn't - go and see where they are being slaughtered. Within in mere seconds I'd be crying hysterically, I just know it.

    DH used to hunt. He doesn't any more. I can't handle it. I have tried deer and rabbit - but can't get into any of it. I'm so glad that now he just plays golf...

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  15. Golf is far more satisfying than any hunting trip.

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  16. DH would agree with you, at this point in his life, 100% NOTR! And I am much happier with him golfing than hunting...

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