Yesterday like any other I woke up and laid in bed and planed out my day. What do I have to do? What do I need to do and what I really want to do. My wife reminded me our meat locker was getting low, I thought It was time to go to the butcher for some holiday meats. Kielbasa, steaks, pork chops and my favorite meat sticks flavored with black pepper. For me to make it to this wonderful store in Olyphant I have to drive by three grocery stores. Each fully capable of serving the typical customer. I though am not your typical customer. Not that I am a miss prissy or some other person who looks down on the regular grocery store. But I expect and demand a fresh well produced product. I have had good steak from my local grocers, but I have also had horrible poultry and horrible steaks from these stores as well.
Company is coming so I needed the best meat I could buy. Today I purchased four types of kielbasa (Regular, smoked with cheese , smoked turkey with cheese and plain turkey kielbasa), pepper sticks, kielbasa sticks, Black Angus steak beef patties, smoked pork chops, thick sliced freshly smoked slab bacon, a pork tenderloin, country style boneless ribs and a meaty bone for soup.
I purchased a lot of meat today. I know I could have gone to the super store up on the highway and bought items with the same names as these. A steak is a steak right? Sorry, but that is not the case. The name of the cut is really the only comparison you can make. When you walk into those stores you are in a big box. Nobody says hello and asks how you’re doing or what you are thinking about cooking tonight. I hate to use the analogy of Sam the butcher from the Brady Bunch. But to me Sam was a man you could be proud to call your friend, and even more proud to call him your butcher. The big box just lacks something. Maybe it’s the smell of the smoker or the fact that Sam just doesn’t work there anymore. All of the employees at Bosak’s care about your food and are genuinely concerned with what they can do to help you. Tonight my wife and I portioned out the meats and vacuum sealed them all.
Today I got enough food for about fourteen meals. I spent about sixty-six bucks and a half hour of my time to get the meats. Sure Bosak’s isn’t a Wegman’s, I couldn’t buy my wife’s favorite hair spray there or Christmas lights or a big plastic tub to store junk in there either. Bosak’s only sell groceries. I was talking to a man in line who purchased those two slammer steaks in the photograph. He spoke of the meat he was purchasing as if he had a vested interest in the transaction. He was as proud as a man who had just purchased a new car. We chatted for a couple minutes and we both went our separate ways. We most likely will never meet again, but we both will always share the joy of seeing those two huge steaks freshly cut to order. I hope he cooked them to perfection and the meal will be a lasting memory.
