Carnivors

The hardest part of our weekly shop is finding the meat that we want. First off we had to learn the different names that they give to meat.

Carne is a general description for meat – it could be anything.
Tenera is bovine calf meat
Vacuno is meat from a bull
Cerdo is pork
Lomo is a fillet usually of pork
Pollo is chicken
Conejo is rabbit used in paella
Cordero is lamb
Pavo is turkey  
Jamon is ham

Then we had to find the cuts. A lot of the meat is cut thin for frying rather than grilling. It is also very difficult to find joints of meat to roast except at English butchers. There is a lot of pork and chicken but very little lamb and surprisingly not a lot of beef. The pork is excellent but cut too thin for the BBQ. They seem to sell mostly every part of a chicken including the feet which we imagine are used to make stock. At Christmas the shops had suckling pigs which they spit roast and of course the cured hams but no turkeys. In the supermarket the rabbits are skinned and vacuum packed but in the market they are sold live to fatten up for the table.

Of course fish is plentiful, of excellent quality and well priced. Perhaps we should eat that instead.