Markets

Why are all the markets in Baltimore city? I love going to Cross St. Market, but it's a hassle to get down there. I love going in to see if they have muskrats, or chicken feet. I can't go to the local Piggley Wiggley to find those! The smells are just great! Can you say fried food? They can fry water in those places! Me and the Mrs. like to go in and take the tour, start at one end and go to each stall. Stall? Why are they called stalls? Maybe I've been buying horse meat? Even worse, maybe I've been eating horse meat!

So we go from stall to stall. Asking what things are, how you would cook them, and in some cases why you would cook them. We took my in laws to Lexington market in the fall, and we had a blast! We sampled sushi, fried chicken livers and gizzards, a must have at all of the markets, and some fresh head cheese. OK, I had the head cheese. Let me tell you, it was pickled pig chunks in jellied aspic heaven! We had donuts, peanuts, cookies, and did I mention the head cheese?

I think it would be great to get your hands on one of the many empty stores in Baltimore County and open your own market! Get a really good fish monger, somebody who can get more than just tilapia and flounder fillets. Some whole, fresh sardines would be a nice change, along with huge shrimp thingies with claws, lango something steens or other. Get a butcher who has really good meat! Buffalo, goat, mutton, ducks, and rabbits. Throw in a couple of good produce guys and life would e good! How about different kinds of eggs? I want to try goose or even and ostrich egg!

Why can't we have it? The city has a bunch. Don't we deserve one stop shopping for quality rations? I want to be able to eat a smoked turkey leg while a stroll around looking at chitterlings and other vittles being cooked and sold at great prices! I want to be able to wipe the grease off my chin from Vietnamese noodles as I get ready to sample the fresh liverwurst. Why should I have to go to Taco Hell for that garbage, or to bodega on Eastern Ave. I want to go to my neighborhood market, right here, not downtown to sample real Mexican food.

I know we can do this. We need to do this. We must do this! We got those new office mega complexes on the extension of rt. 43, why not a market? Doesn't a guy have the right to quality eats and pack of cut flowers from the same place? Am I forever doomed to eating chicken breast, but not feet and combs? Why should I have to settle for bologna when I can have souse or zungenwurst? I suppose this is just another of those things I shall have to wait until I'm rich to see to fruition? But let me tell you, it would be sweet!