New Orleans Meat Market Culture

A humble mailbox

This isn't about singles' bars or pick-up joints.  If you are looking for a date while visiting New Orleans, you've stumbled onto the wrong blog.  Stick around anyway.  You might learn something about another kind of meat market in New Orleans.

Corner grocery stores are all over the city.  There are more corner markets than supermarkets.  There aren't many greengrocers, but most people don't eat a lot of vegetables in New Orleans, though most recipes call for what is called "the trinity."  That would be a base seasoning of diced yellow onion, green bell pepper and celery.  You can taste them in just about every dish.  The more you taste them, the better the meal.

Quicky's

The newest and spiffiest Quicky's I know of was finished last year on the corner of Franklin and North Claiborne Avenues.  It's a gas station that also offers a full-service line of groceries, especially meats in all their abundant varieties.

The Speed-a-rono 3000

I drive a motor scooter as I make my rounds hither and yon throughout New Orleans.  When you only buy gas a gallon at a time, you don't pay too much attention to the price of gas, but I've noticed that gasoline is cheaper on the downtown side of the city than it is on the uptown side.  Frau Schmitt thinks the cheapest gas in the city is at Brother's in the Lower 9th Ward.  She is usually right about these things, but I don't always want to go all the way to the Lower 9, so I detour my way to Quicky's.  I think Quicky's is in the 8th Ward and I like that part of town.  There is interesting scenery.

After buying gas one day at the Quicky's on Franklin Avenue, I went inside out of curiosity.  It's a gas station, of course, but it's also a grocery store.  They actually have a decent produce section, too.  Onions, green bell peppers and celery, of course, as well as a few other fresh vegetables.  Good quality.

They also have a selection of packaged foods and prepared frozen meals, but what really caught my eye in the freezer case were the frozen ducks, as well as turtle and alligator meat.  Only in New Orleans.  

If you are looking for fresh meat, they have every cut of beef, chicken or pork you may be looking for, as well as some veal cuts, all sorts of sausages, and a whole rack of lamb on display.  Yes, you can buy both alligator tail and rack of lamb in a gas station in New Orleans.  They even sell those little paper chef hats that you can put on the protruding bones of a rib roast or on a roast chicken's legs if you like to make a big deal about presentation.  A lot of people do that in these parts.

A full service gas station

Quicky's isn't really any different from most of the corner meat markets.  Besides a meat market, they offer a deli, po' boys, fried chicken, check cashing, and bill payment services.  The deli serves a number of hot plates for dining on the go.  The collard greens smelled like a whiff of heaven.  If you don't know what a po' boy is, welcome to New Orleans.  It is an overstuffed sandwich on a loaf of french bread.

Of course there is a full selection of soft drinks, beer, wine and an extensive line of both top shelf liquor and rotgut.

We had a couple stay with us a few months ago and they went into a neighborhood corner meat market and when they told us about the next morning over breakfast, this is what they had to say:

"We love stewed turkey necks.  Never had them before but we think we're going to have them again today.  They were delicious.  It was a nondescript corner shop and we were thirsty so we just went in for a bottle of Big Shot.  We saw the tray of turkey necks stewing in a chafing dish behind the counter in back so we decided to try them.  Boy, are we glad we did.  Who would've thought stewed turkey necks could be so delicious?"

New Orleanians know.  They also know where to shop.  Be it ever so humble, there is no place like your corner meat market.  Poke your head in one when you are walking around the city.  Nobody will mind.  You just might find something that turns your expectations upside down.  

Pink Ford Fairlane for sale

Also for sale on North Claiborne Avenue is a pink Ford Fairlane.  It's been parked out front of another gas station for a few months now.  I don't know why anyone hasn't bought it yet.  I'm tempted, but I've gotten spoiled getting about 100mpg on my motor scooter.  I suspect I would have to buy more than a gallon of gas a week if I drove this old Ford.  It's not the car for me, but I have to admit it has style.  You never know what you'll see when you wander around New Orleans.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.