From Slaughter House to Silver Spoon
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 10/Jan/2010 07:19, 34 days ago
Yesterday I fulfilled a goal of mine, something that in Canada would be quite simple, but here requires courage and determination.  I bought meat.  I didn't just simply buy meat, I wanted to see where it came from and see the journey it takes from being a cow to being in my tummy.Greg and I started out at 6am.  I left my house (having to squeeze through a crowd of women sitting in front of my gate listening to the Koran being read on the loud speaker nearby) and we walked about 20 minutes to the edge of the city where the slaughter house was. When we arrived we saw cows being led up to a large cement building which only had one wall and some posts holding the roof up. Once the cows were in the building, they were tipped over and their legs were tied together.  A man would grab their horns and push their heads back so their necks were exposed.   A second man brandishing a large knife would slit their throats quite deep, almost right through so the knife was hitting their neck bones. Blood would spurt out and the cows would thrash around for a while and then go limp after about 10-15 minutes. The building has no walls on three sides so that the blood and other things can run out of the building into a little moat which surrounds the building and be washed away.Once the cows are dead their legs are untied and they are skinned. Men also remove their hooves and their internal organs (kidneys, livers, stomachs, intestines). Their internal organs are brought around the back of the building, I think to awaiting carts to be carted to the market since a lot of people like those parts of the cow.The carcass is hung up from the leg, the remaining skin is removed and the butchers come in to examine which parts of the cow they want. Once the butchers have made their selections the parts of the carcass they select is cut off and they cart it to their stall in the market. Only butchers buy meat at the slaughter house, people like me have to buy it at the market.I went to the market at 9am to choose my meat. It is sketchy to go later than 9am because as the day progresses more and more flies come to the market and they love to play on the meat. At 3pm you can sometimes not even see the meat for all the flies that are on it. It has also sat out in the hot sun for hours which if I remember my meat lessons is a no-no. I found a stall that had a nice looking piece of beef that did not yet have a lot of flies milling about it. I asked for half a kilo of filet. He located it on the part of the cow he had and cut it out for me. It cost about $2.50. Pretty good deal for filet. I ended up making a beef and coconut milk curry for dinner and it turned out splendidly.