Have a Butchers

The first in an occasional series of posts for all the Meat Hygienists in the audience…

A couple of different people have asked about how we buy our food and supplies out here. Shopping is a bit lengthly sometimes,because for the most part there’s not really such a thing as a one-stop supermarket, such as we would be accustomed to at home.

As Niger’s second city (sorry, Zinder) Maradi has a wealth of choices compared to Galmi, and certainly there are at least three stores that would be considered Western – in that they have aisles and choice for some products! These are usually our destination for all long-life products, canned vegetables, cleaning supplies and so on.

Fruit and vegetables can come from any number of stalls and smaller shops across town, but  we usually hit one of the main market areas to try and get as much as possible in one place. This month, a lot of things are fairly scarce as hot season ends, and people focus on planting grain. However, there’s still fruit appearing from the coastal countries, or up from South Africa. If you’re lucky, you can find some reasonable stuff.

Meat is the one which seems probably least palatable to Western cultures. You can buy raw or cooked meat from a market stall, but you usually buy part (beef) or all (chicken) of the animal and do the cleanup work yourself! We usually get our beef from the market, and often will have it ground then and there for a few francs extra. Chicken’s harder to find, but can be picked up from some of the guys barbequeing meat at the side of the road.

At Galmi, meat purchasing was a bit more creative, but also more convenient. During the week, some regular traders bring meat to the compound. While we were there, we got all our beef from the meat man, who comes in on his motorbike on Wednesday mornings. Beef seems to be roughly the same price everywhere.

Galmi’s meat man – a little off the top?

We do have a bit of a treat sometimes if we happen to be driving out of Maradi in the evening. Near the city gate on the road towards Danja, there’s a guy who grills large hunks of lamb every day. We’ll maybe ask for two or four thousand francs’ worth, and he’s only too happy to whip out his cleaver and hack it up, straight off the coals.

Getting some lamb. The little bundle he throws in is powered spice – very hot!

More lamb on the barbeque. The stall in the background is a guy who makes fresh chips/fries every evening.