Walked into Jeffrey’s Meat Market on essex tonight with the goal in mind of picking up the pig I had previously reserved for this weekend. There was at first a bit of a communication issue with the guy who first tried to help me. When I asked to pick up my pig, he grabbed a slice of bacon out of the case and pointed at it. “No” I said “the whole pig” gesturing with my arms like a proud fisherman re-telling his favorite story. He then gave up on me and directed me towards another man who worked there, Dennis, a nine fingered butcher. Dennis quickly grabbed my pig from the back and pointed out that it was not going to fit in my backpack. “Not to worry” I said, pulling a several year old ikea bag out- “it should fit in here”.
Dennis helped me load the pig into the bag and gave me a handshake “anything you need, come see me”. I’ll be back, this is exactly the kind of place I’ve been looking for.
I made the traverse from the east side to the west of manhattan, painfully aware of the beast weighing down my shoulder. It would be a crime not to honor this animal by cooking it perfectly. I’m going to do my best this weekend to do just that.
