Going to the Market for Chicken and Beef

When I first got here, I went into grocery stores looking for packaged meat. I remember having a desire to cook “lardon”, which is a special cut of bacon found in France. I thought, since I am in a French speaking country which has many French imports, it shouldn’t be hard to find lardons. I also remember seeing a package of them in the grocery store in the largest Ivorian city, Abidjan. So, my second week here in Daloa, I went into every single supermarket looking for this bacon only to find that none of them carried it. In fact, I didn’t really see any meat in these grocery stores at all, except for the occasional small cold cut selection. Why? Because people sell and buy meat here the traditional (and I’d argue, normal) way. What does that mean? In the case of beef, someone kills a cow and brings the fresh meat to the market to sell the same day. When I first witnessed the “beef stand", I was in disbelief. The meat was just there like that, on a slab with millions and gazillions of flies swarming around. I remembered what my mom always says, “Where there are flies, there are maggots.” Yuck! I thought, “Looks like I won’t be eating any meat except for fish in Côte d’Ivoire.” And all of a sudden, I could sympathize with those who choose the vegetarian lifestyle. Anyway, what I also noticed is that I was the only one around who was fazed by the fresh meat-selling process. With time, I have gotten over the disbelief and have now become one of the butcher’s best-selling clients; he gave me a call last week just to say hello!

When buying chicken, the process is a little different. Quite simply, you go to where the guys sell chicken at the market; there are tons and tons of chickens in many different cages. Depending on what type of chicken you want –African, “poulet du cher” (which is the type of chicken we have in the States), etc – you pick one out and the seller lets you hold the live chicken by its legs so that you can feel its weight. Normally, you want to try out 2-3 to make sure you’re getting the heaviest chicken – after all, for Ivoirians, that’s what counts – which one has the most meat. After that you decide which one is the one that gets to go home with you, you have it killed – that is, if you don’t want to take it home live and wait a few days and then kill it yourself. How much to have the experts at the market kill the chicken? 100 CFA which is about 25 cents. They cut the poor thing’s throat, put it in hot water, the feathers then literally rub right off, and then they remove the undesirables and leave you with the meat, cut how you like. It’s necessary to mention that they give you the feet, the head, and the gizzard – all of which people here eat. I have never seen anyone eat the head so I don’t really know how that works. As for the feet, I’ve tried to eat them but the claws (i.e. chicken toenails) get in the way and besides, there’s really no meat on them.

Prices:
For a kilo of beef (a kilo is 2.20 lbs) = about $4
For a whole chicken = around $5 (depends on size and type/breed)