Quail Eggs and Pork Bellies

 I was drug here, almost to the day 27 months ago, kicking and screaming like a bratty ass five year old jacked up on Skittles and Starbucks. In all this time, i have tried to give Amarillo the benefit of the doubt. For instance: This is a major center for beef packing, so naturally i believed I'd be able to buy really nice beef here. WRONG! I don't know where the good stuff goes, but it isn't here. (Not even to the boutique butcher shops)  My one hard and fast criteria for moving here was there be one good Chinese place. Again, Donner assured me this place was littered with them and certainly one of them had to be good. (Or Not!) Finally, i love my produce. I want a reasonable selection that's been taken care of where i don't feel like I'm wasting my money and should just get the frozen variety. To say I'd lost that lovin' feelin' a few times would be more than fair.
It was during one of these low times, i discovered Meyer Lemons at the local grocery store. They had two bags and it was pure reflex that i grabbed them both. I instantly ran down the list of fish and picked my top five. Well five turned to four and so on... Lastly, i was left with a sad little block of frozen flounder. A little butter, white pepper, and i got my poach on. At last, I lived to eat another day. Within a few days that dozen Meyer's were a memory. Slowly, the sudden glow of sunshine on my culinary adventures here began to cloud over. Once again, i was back to the same ol', same ol'.
During the rest of last year, i kept an eye out for the occasional "treat", but alas i was left wanting. When we took a trip to Ruidoso, i wanted to pack a lunch basket with some reasonable water ham and Jarlsberg. Three deli counters in town and all three asked what that was. It boggles the mind! In their defense, they did know what Swiss cheese was.
Once again, i had all but given up on this town. I'd begun to make peace with the mundane and lack of anything remotely different. Then i spent ten days out in civilization.
Oh joy of joys!!! I had great Chinese four times, hell, maybe five. I bought romaine hearts and we had a great chicken salad. It felt like i was being shown sunlight for the very first time! Then like all good things, it ended. I came home and locked myself away from the world until I'd had a sufficient amount of time to sulk. Personal sulk time is highly under-rated!
As i was coming out of my funk, i had to go to the store and both boys just had to come with me. I swear, the fascination with going to the store eludes me. (I've probably written about this part before, so please forgive me.) While at the store, one of the boys was climbing up my neck in the way only a teenage boy can. He wanted to help and so i told him to go ask the produce guy at The Devilstore where the blood oranges were. I knew this was a safe one and he'd be gone for a while. Or Not!!!
Yeah, they had them alright. so i got two bags and went home and enjoyed the moment. They hadn't really ripened enough, but they were quite lovely still. That happened around the middle of January.
Two weeks later, we were at the store and discovered they had Cara Cara's. SCORE!!! It appeared that i was in a rally of foods i had written off for this hamlet. Then last week i had to go to the doctor.
Don't be alarmed, it's something that happens from time to time. I have been watching this one piece of skin on my hand and it just kept getting angrier and angrier. So, i took a couple of pics and sent them to my Homegirl Bubbles for an opinion. She's got her game ON in this department. So, on her advice, i went to get it checked out and we'll see, but in the meantime, i did get to have a great conversation with my doctor.
He's originally from Corpus Christi. I told him he should have been a girl because some of the prettiest girls I've ever seen came out of Corpus.
Anyway, he and i have this familiarity between us. He asked if i had been to the new market yet and i asked him, "What market?"
He filled my ears with visions of OZ!!! So, naturally i had to go there Saturday. I'd love to say he was mistaken, but he was not. Their produce department is awesome. Who'd have thunk you could get whole bamboo shoots and fresh basil and green mangoes and even pudding fruit in Amarillo.
As if that weren't enough, their meat is pretty good and reasonably priced. I did help myself to some quail eggs while i was there, but i left the pig uterus for someone else. One of the best things i saw that day were whole redfish and their eyes were still clear. I will be back on grocery days that's for sure. The only thing that bothered me about the whole experience was, quite petty but, they had twelve different types of preserved duck eggs and even packages of duck egg yolks, but they didn't have a single fresh duck egg in the place. If they can solve that i think i might just have a love here afterall.

Until i visit with you again, Peace Be With You, D