Moving Part 2 - Local Food

No need to bore you with the rest of the move because there are important food items to discuss. The town we moved to, we'll call it Stars Hollow, has a population of around 17,000 with a downtown area dating back to the late 1800's. Presumably by intention, the downtown does not have any chain stores that homogenize so many towns across the country. Our first morning we went to the little diner/cafe for breakfast. $7 got me eggs over easy, hashbrowns, linguica sausage and wheat toast. Everything was cooked perfectly and my coffee cup never got below half empty. The wife had pancakes, eggs and slab bacon for just under $6. We'll most likely become regulars. The next day we visited the butcher shop downtown. They heavily promoted their sandwiches, especially a tri-tip one with an apricot bbq sauce. I had no choice but to order the tri-tip while the wife had the hamburger. Both were outstanding, largely due to the quality of the meat. The hamburger suffered somewhat from the cooking method - a virtual steaming process on a George Foreman grill - but the quality of the meat was so good that it still tasted great. Most interesting was the owner. While the kid made the sandwiches I asked the owner about the local cows that can be seen grazing on the nearby hillsides and if he ever gets his meat locally. Apparently I hit a nerve because he began his diatribe with "I don't know what line of work you're in, but in the meat business..." He went on to explain that it was a common myth to think that the local, grazing cows would produce the best meat when in fact they were mostly retired dairy cows and their grass diet made for lean, dry, flavorless meat (I declined to bring up my recent experience with the grass fed ribeye steak). He said that a strict grain diet was necessary to achieve proper marbling and the impending hamburger would prove it. After stealing a few bites of the wife's burger I can't argue with him. Since that first visit I have been back for several sandwiches and pork chops. The roast beef (made on the premises) was nothing short of outstanding. Since my initial visit, when I got the "stupid kid" treatment, I've established a good rapport with the owner and he has been both friendly and helpful. For more information on the pork chops, see the next entry.