With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I began weighing my poultry options. I could roast a…read morecouple chickens or try to find a turkey. In France, turkeys are generally eaten around Christmastime, and therefore they're a bit difficult to find around November.
Not wanting to pay 12 euros a kilo for a bird at the Thanksgiving store, I went to my neighborhood boucherie to order the bird. "Bien sur!" they said, and also mentioned that two orders had already been placed for Thursday.
Today I went to pick up my Turkey. The butcher commented "c'est une belle dinde!" I suppose that only a man of the meat trade could lovingly look at a turkey carcass and say that. But I had to agree. At a little over 4 kilograms, and costing around 7 euros a kilo, it was definitely less expensive than ordering one in the Marais. The nice butcher used a torch to burn off any remaining feathers, and even partially trussed the bird for me; I mentioned that I was going to stuff her with vegetables and aromatics. Since he didn't have a plastic bag large enough, he gave me a nice reusable canvas bag with the boucherie logo on it. Now that's service!
I also noticed a group of teenagers on break from school ordering roasted chicken and potatoes. The other meats in the cold case looked fresh; I think next time I'll try their pâté, some sausages, or even some poulet rôti.