shop
types of stores

Les Boucheries (butchers)

by David Applefield

The Parisian butcher shop has a fine array of its own idiosyncrasies. First of all, most butcher shops sell pork, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, liver and some sausages, pâtés, poultry, rabbit and game. Specialized poultry like turkeys, pheasant, pigeons and cornish hen should be bought in a marchand de volaille, your neighborhood poultry shop. If you see a butcher´s shop with nice photos of thoroughbreds on its walls, get the message. Here is where horse meat is sold. Horse is reputed to be the finest meat on the market. Try some. You can buy steaks, roasts, hamburger meat, etc. at your local Chevaline shop. They´re usually decked out with a gold horse´s head over the shop door.

The cuts of meat are particular to France. Steaks are not pre-cut, nor is chopped meat previously packaged. If you´re used to thick steaks you have to ask for one trs épais. French meat is very tasty but on the whole not as tender as US beef. Less hormones though! The superior cuts of beef-câ"�te de boeuf, entrecâ"�te, filet mignon-are expensive. Pork, though, is excellent and relatively cheap. As are certain cuts of lamb and mutton. Don´t be alarmed by scrawny slabs of lean red meat hanging above bellowed cutting boards on nasty aluminum hooks. The blood-stained butchers cut steaks out of these hanging slabs as they go. Fresher. Chopped steak for tartare should be purchased just before eating. Supermarkets have meat departments but there is no bell to ring to call for the butcher. You can´t make special requests. If you want your steak thicker go to a butcher shop.