..BBQ´d parrot…

I’ve spent in total over a year in Tena during 3 trips here. I’ve done many things but one things that I have avoided is going shopping for meat. I would pass the butchers shop, their fronts open to the road, their racks hanging cows heads, tongues and chunks of meat covered in flies with someone ineffectively swatting them in a laidback fashion. Approaching a shop I would breathe in, hold my breath as I passed and breathe out further down the road.

On Saturday I organised a BBQ by the river. I needed meat. It would seem I needed to go to the butchers. It was a hot day, so much so that sweat was dripping from my forehead as I walk up the road.

It’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I walk in. The butcher is sitting behind a very long largely empty ceramic counter, but he has in front of him a collection of different animal parts. There are hooves, bony bits, odd shapes of non descript meat…

“Is this all you have?” I ask tentatively.
“Want are you after?” he replies.
“Well, meat (beef) or pork or chicken”.

He goes over to a large chest freezer, opens it and removes a giant hunk of frozen meat.
“Pork?” he says. I nod.

He then proceeds to take the hunk of meat and cut it using a heavy duty band saw. I wince as he wipes the blade with a dirty rag. He adjusts the settings. I end up with 7 x 1.1mm thick pork chops. The man is also selling parrots - live parrots. We have our BBQ and having laced the meat with an incredible amount of salt, it turns out to be a delicious meal eaten off banana leaves by the river. I do not get stomach issues and I think it is a small miracle!