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It may be recalled from last
week’s exposition, how livestock are thoroughly examined physically and
technically before they are certified as safe and edible. My readers were
provided with detailed accounts of the slaughtering, skinning, dissecting,
dismembering and draining processes step by step all the way through to the exit
door of the slaughterhouse.
The depiction was made
possible due to the courtesy and cooperation of Negussie Taddesse, the head of
the Commercial Department of the Addis Abeba Abattoir Enterprise and Yirefu
Gabre, the chief administrator of the Kara Alo Abattoir S.C.
It should be noted that, as
the stock gets closer to the consumer, more caution has to be taken to secure
its safety. The big delivery trucks or the smaller vans, in the case of Kara Alo,
are washed with flash hoses to ensure that every stain and drop of blood is
cleaned.
Inside the trail, there are
rows of rails on which rolling hooks are suspended. The porters wearing
pullovers and gloves as well as big boots carry the parts according to
identifying tag numbers which correspond to the locations of the butcheries.
That means that if the stock is to be unloaded first, it is hanged very close to
the door.
The butcheries are located at
various sites but are more concentrated near the St. George Church, Arat Kilo,
Lideta, Sebategna, Ketchene, Addisu Gebeya, Kazanchis, Kera and other places.
One should note that the satellite towns like Sululta, Kara, Burayou and Kaliti
are also meat-selling sites.
One can patronise veteran
butchers like Girgiro at the Arat Kilo area, Bekele at St. George Church, Batcha
at Kera and Meskolu at Addisu Gebeya.
I spoke with many of them.
Some have been in the business for over 40 years. There were times when people
like Girgiro were brought to court for selling meat at exorbitant prices like
five Birr per kilogramme! But times change, do they not? Girgiro et al. have now
made names for themselves and are old-time affluents.
It is a bit disappointing to
observe that the hitherto well-cared-for meat undergoes quite a different
experience. It is exposed to suspect delivery and suspicious dissection at
hidden tables located out of sight.
Each of the eight sections of
meat is further sliced into smaller units which are distinct and identified by
names. The saligegn and the shagna, two of the eight segments, are separate and
distinct as per the rule of thumb. Each part is preferred for different recipes.
The shint and dabit for instance, are to be eaten raw, if they are available
fresh.
It is fascinating that some
connoisseurs of meat prefer the tougher servings. Many others prefer the tender
morsels that almost melt in one’s mouth even before the tongue feels it.
The livestock originating in
Harerghe, in the eastern part of Ethiopia, is conventionally considered as the
most tender and suitable for raw meat. In fact, many butchers post on their
doors or front walls, a hand -drawn picture of a bull with a disproportionate
hump on its back with a footnote reading “Ye Harer Senga is available here.”
Whether that coinage is a simple fraud or a genuine trademark is anybody’s
guess.
Unlike former times, present
consumers seem to abide by the current medical recommendations on “food for
health.” Most appear to refrain from eating choma or fatty meat. Lean meat seems
to be the preference of our times.
“Choma is food for the eyes
if not food for thought,” says Mamush who works as a cashier at his father’s
butchery. “Slicing into choma is what counts the most, even if you have to visit
the bathroom more often," Mamush quipped as a way of promoting the business.
Many meat lovers seem to enjoy slicing into choma and swallowing mouthfuls,
ignoring whatever doctors or veterinarians proclaim.
I have also met consumers who
can discern home- grown oxen from crossbreeds, and zebus from hybrids or
fattened bulls just by looking at the meat displayed in the shops.
The stock with yellowish fat
is labeled as organic while the massive white stuff is categorized as tasteless.
I had tried to confirm this statement by asking the popular butcher Obbo Bacha
at Kara Alo. He smiled but kept mute. I took that allegation to hold true - not
because Obbo Bacha would not commit himself to giving such a confirmation but
because, having tasted the difference, it really did prove true!
I must say many consumers of
rare meat tend to turn a blind eye to the way raw meat is handled in the
butcheries, whether they are popular or not. A closer look at the butcher’s
table reveals that rejected ligaments and blood-stained tissues are either piled
on the counter to be sold later as scraps, added to orders to be roasted or left
there as feasts for flies.
Where and how do the butchers
dispose of the rejects? This is a simple question that begs an answer. The
traders in the field claim that it is confidential but the answer seems to be
too obvious to be confidential.
Incidentally, some of these
butcheries happen to have drinking taverns as well as adjacent eateries. You may
happen to notice that the bathroom is located far away in the backyard.
Investigative eyes might encounter sights that would disgust anyone to the point
of ejecting whatever had gone inside them, to put it diplomatically.
Butchers wearing white aprons
or gowns, if you like, are sometimes showy and boastful. They conspicuously and
audibly sharpen their carving knives as if to cut or slice chunks while in
reality they do so because they have nothing else to do.
I have been talking about a
thousand or more heads of livestock that are slaughtered at the official
abattoirs everyday in and around the capital. I have been told that there are
illicit abattoirs in the dark corners of the city where the blood of cattle and
herds of sheep and goats is shed every day.
The nocturnal slaughtering
that takes place by the riverside behind the British Council, for example, is a
case in point according to observers. Nobody risks venturing close enough to be
able to disclose the facts for understandable reasons. I find some solace in
assuming the ignorance of English by those outlaws. |
