Good Meat Store

I like the local meat/deli/liquor/specialty store (Nick's of Clinton).   They offer good specials each week.

For example, this week they are offerring Filet Mignon for $12.99/pound.  That may seem a lot, but they trim the membrane off and slice it to choice for free.  And I have them save the trimmings to grind up for The Mews (they love it).

But more importantly, I cut the steaks into 4 oz sections, which is all I need for a meal about 2x a week.  Which means my Filet Mignon steak is only $3.75. Try to beat that at any restaurant, and I cook it just as well, LOL!  And rib-eye and delmonico is often cheaper.

Yeah, chicken and pork is cheaper (and my routine meats) but a small steak is good sometimes.  

And they special order my favorite wine when I order 4 cases at a time.  And discount the price.  4 cases does last a while for me.  So a couple days ago, the manager actually called me to say that my favorite wine was going on sale this week and did I want to delay pickup until it was "officially" on sale?

Well, I normally order the 1.5 L bottles as being a little bit less expensive at $16.49.  But the smaller ones at 750 were going to be $6.99, so like $14 per 1.5L.  $2.50 less per volume for the same amount!    So I said to order 6 cases.  No point in passing up a good sale.  It's not like the wine will go bad sitting in my cool basement!

Don't get me wrong.  I drink 2 glasses of wine with dinner and I'm not worried about that.

There are other good things about the place.  For one, it is the only place I can routinely find eggroll wrappers.  And some of their produce is usually cheaper than the local grocery stores.  And they actually have ripe Golden Delicious apples.  The local Safeway thinks they should be green.

I love Nick's...

Busy After Thanksgiving?

I mentioned going grocery shopping previously, as that was about the least busy day of the year.  I used to eagerly volunteer to work the day after because the commute was so easy.  It was worth driving to and from work just for the pleasure of driving on nearly empty roads (and it always scored me major points in the office for "giving up" such a valued "off" day).

The regular commercial grocery store was indeed nearly deserted!

But I also shop at a strange local market.  Its a butcher counter, a serious deli counter, a huge beer/wine/liqour room, and a small assortment of fresh produce at great prices.

I love the butcher counter.  They have small packages of meats like any other place does, but they have whole big chunks of meats too.  You want an entire filet mignon?  They will trim it professionally and custom-cut it into steaks.  Same with del monico, NY strip, or pork.  They wold butterfly chicken breasts if I wanted one.  And they have a dozen kinds of sausages.  Its the only local place I can get a beef brisket or a whole pork butt.

The deli section is immense.  I don't buy porcciutto often (and apparently can't spell it either LOL!), but they have 3 kinds!  They sell several kinds of fresh turkeys and the line is out the door the few days before Thanksgiving Day.

I discovered Pomegranate liquor there too.  Now I make what I call a "Cavebear Sling".  Ice, 1 oz gin, 1 oz pomegranate liquor, 2 oz pomegranate juice, fill sling glass with ginger ale...

But I told you all that to tell you this...

The day after Thanksgiving is NOT a slack day there!  They have their own Black Friday sales.  They sell whole slabs of beef (whole, not cut).  Delmonico for $2.88 per pound (just for example), and all meat is on supersale!  People were in a frenzy.  I despaired of getting just some regular meat for a few days of cooking (while my turkey thawed out.

But, you know how they used to say "get to know your butcher"?  It works.  The number I pulled was 12 down the line, but I have been comoaring gardening notes with her for 3 years.  She saw me and asked what my number was.   When I told her, she looked around and said "what do you need?"  Fortunately, I just wanted a couple meals until the turkey thawed, so it was 2 chicken thighs and 2 hot italian sausages.  But there was also some unindentified "pork roast" on supersale.  I asked, but she didn't know exactly what cut it was either.  I took one because it looked like it was good for stir-fries.

And I'm experienced at the place.  Get the butcher number and go get a deli number at the same time.  The deli turns over customers faster.  My deli meat order was ready before the butcher order was.

If that last part doesn't make sense to you, you haven't shopped around here.  Nick's of Clinton (existing only in Waldorf these days) is an unusual place.  But I bet some NY folks are familiar with the idea.  Other places too, but I only know this kind of place otherwise from visiting a friend in NYC.

The chicken was dinner tonite, the italian sausage will be dinner tomorrow, there will be a good pork strir-fry Sunday, and I will cook the turkey (I hope) on Monday.

Oh I STILL forgot why I mentioned all this!  The people in the store filled shopping carts up COMPLETELY with MEAT!  I've never seen that before in my life!  Complete racks of "wholes" of several cuts of steaks, 10s of pounds of hamburger, 6 whole chickens.  I can't even describe it all!

When things calm down the next time I shop there, I will ask them about it.

I WISH I had my camera with me...