Hoof or Mouth?

You probably have listened, as have I, to all the scare in Europe about Foot and Mouth (over there it is called Hoof and Mouth). The psychological steam rolling effect on farmers on the continent is over whelming. Not so in Albania, “meat is meat,” they say! Where’s the A-1 sauce?

It’s such a rare and privileged event to have meat at a meal that one is welcomed with the invitation, “Please come to our home for a meal. We’ll have meat.” Aside from being such a celebrated event, while dining one can not only get a complete description of the beast being eaten but also a complete background check of the butcher.

A butcher (pronounced ka sop pee) in Albanian society holds a rather heralded position. In America, his status he would fall somewhere between a heart surgeon and an auto mechanic of fine foreign cars, two great hands, eight great fingers (whose counting?). No wonder that good butchers are such household names. Once, while dining, we got a complete profile of the family's meat cutting friend. “He’s made such a turn around in his life,” the father said, “from being a tank commander to a butcher.”

Come to Albania. We’ll get out the grill!

Back to May 2001