Halaal markets

Since moving here halaal markets have been one of my biggest complaints. In Denver we had a great market. The crazy thing was there was only one but it was excellent while there are around 20 or so here and they all suck..well one is decent but still not as good as the one in Denver. You can't trust these guys for a second and they seem to think white skin = stupidity. And that men buying meat also = stupidity because they have tried passing off lamb as goat for pasanday, when i ask for extra lean ground beef, they give me ground beef with chunks of cartilege and fat etc.

I quit getting halaal ground beef because they wouldn't give me good meat and i started going to the kosher grocer who gave me great meat but then i found out how pro Israel they were and decided i didn't want to support that so i tried every halaal market here to see if i could find some decent meat somewhere. Then my inlaws came and my mil made sure we got good stuff. She's good at this and not intimidated by any of those guys. I noticed what she does. She walks in the store with an air about here and treats the guys like they are beneath her. It works. That is my new thing. I am not nice to these guys anymore. I don't know why i ever was. I guess that's just who i am but i realize i can't be that way any more. And being nice doesn't get you nice cuts of meat. It's like the French. They can sense your fear or intimidation. You cannot outwardly be nice to them and you can't be rude. It's an in between thing. You just gotta be cool and get what you deserve.

Things were good when the inlaws were here but then it turned back. Well i went to the same store by our house this weekend and they reverted to their old ways. And the sucker (me) trusted them to give me good meat and was too busy to check (had baby with us and in a rush to get home to get to Zack and Ambrine's great Eid dinner party - thanks guys). I got home, pulled the meat out to put it away and saw the big clumps of cartilage and fat. Dang it! I got so MAD. I told DH "Take me back now. I'm about to kick some Pakistani butt!" All the halaal markets are ran by Pakistani's here (and i think one of the problems). Anyway, i actually went and returned the meat. I can't believe i had to do this but i was fed up and the last time i used the fatty cartilege ground beef it about made me sick with the chewy clumps in it.

He didn't give me much of a fight unfortunately because i had had enough and was ready to fight him. From now on, I'm going in there and going to have attitude and no meat they hand me is ever going to be good enough. I will always send them back to the back to get me a better cut, etc. I really do miss the market in Denver though where everything was cut in front of you and you could pick the piece you want since it was right there. Here, most is cut in a back room. The one that is done in front of you is far from home. Another weird thing is the Indian store two seconds from my house is great to me. The only thing is they don't have beef. That guy is the best. He's not cheap like the others either. Whenever i get green chili's i get a handful which ends up not weighing anything so he just gives them to me where others would often charge a quarter or whatever. I don't care about the money but i think it's cool he does it. I only wish he sold beef because i'm tired of fighting these other guys and feel frustrated shopping. You'd think that these butchers would be more Islamic in behavior. I get better service from Jews and Hindu's and they treat me better than my "brothers" in Islam. Sad. I do realize someone has to get the bad meat so as not to waste but it doesn't need to always be me. Sometimes i wish i could just go to the regular grocery store, pick out my own meat, and be done with it. But no, i gotta go ready to fight. Well i'm ready dang it!