“You don’t know what you’ve got until its gone ” is rattling around in my head this morning and that is because I am actually rather more, well, distressed may be a bit extreme, but I am quite bereft to be honest and its all about meat and the things that we hold onto in a quest for some certainty and predictability in our lives. Regular readers may recall that I previously mentioned that the butcher shop that I have been patronising for more than twenty years was to shut forever. well it has come to pass and I find that there is no seamless moving to another purveyor of the fleshly foodstuffs for me. When I did our shopping this week I went into another establishment that I have scoped out as a possible replacement I found the public part of the shop was lined with self serve cabinets and most of the meat was pre packaged. After about three seconds I just turned around and walked out profoundly disappointed. Yesterday I had to resort to buying meat from Woolworths even though I don’t like the way that they package their meat either.
The search will continue until I find a suitable replacement source for the family meat because I just can’t bring myself to continue succumbing to the perversion of pre-packaged meat. I feel the need to pick both the precise pieces of flesh that I want and to have it cut and presented as I like it. I don’t know any way to put it but the closure of may favourite Butcher shop has utterly disrupted my conceptions of the culinary arts and its going to take awhile to find that inner peace once again.
In mourning Comrades
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
You are spot on Iain. We only buy meat from the local butcher. Have bought supermarket meat a few times but the quality is usually poor. Mince that is grey in the middle, tough steaks and roasts, chicken breasts that stink of nitrates. It is also sad that local businesses like your butchery are being undercut and wiped out by the ‘big four’. Sad days indeed and not great for our stomachs either.