When we were in LA I had just assumed there were no butchers in America. The closest I found was the counter at Bristol Farms, or the meat stand at Malibu Farmers' Market. The Bristol Farms guy might represent himself as a butcher, but he's operating within a supermarket, which just demeans the whole thing for me. And the Farmers' Market stand, while they get brownie points for telling you the provenance of the meat, are selling it all vacuum packed up.
Perhaps at this point a definition of a butcher would be helpful.
butch·er [boo ch-er] - noun
1. a retail or wholesale dealer in meat.
2. a person who slaughters certain animals, or who dresses the flesh of animals, fish or poultry, food or market.
3. a person guilty of brutal or indiscriminate slaughter or murder.
4. a vendor who hawks newspapers, candy, beverages, etc., as on a train, at a stadium, etc.
Props to dictionary.com and all but I think 4 is just nonsense. And to be clear, I wasn't thinking so much of 3. either.
I'm talking about that guy who slaughters, dresses and sells good meat. You know, the dude who tells you where it's from and how to cook it, and who'll debone it for you too. So, by butcher, I mean the kind of place you wander into with a vague idea of cooking something meaty, and come away with a hunk of meat whose parentage you know, and a recipe, and probably 8 rashers of bacon too just it looked good.
Hello Dickson's of Chelsea Market!
Now that's what I call a proper butcher.
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