By choice, I’m living in a building where relatively few people speak English as their primary language, but most people can speak in English if they choose (except the poorly documented migratory residents from below the Southern US border).<\/p>\n
I went today for the second time to a large supermarket in the Golf Mill shopping center (malls are dinosaurs, but I digress). In the era of Wayne’s world, this area of the Chicago suburbs was lilly white “alligator on the shirt” snooty yuppie land. 30 years later, it is Ellis Island – Asian restaurants everywhere, and a heavy presence of Eastern European immigrants. This grocery store very much caters to those folks – a huge deli with all kinds of unrefrigerated cured meats, then lots of polish, Greek, Italian, Bulgarian items… The good meat and the deli are why people come here.<\/p>\n
I’m waiting turn for my number to be called and a curious conversation begins. A woman next to me, to my eye looks like an upper class Indian woman, but possibly Pakistani – wants to buy Kosher beef. She has a conversation with the deli clerk about which beef products they carry are Kosher.<\/p>\n
It crosses my mind she may really be wanting hal’al beef – in a pinch, Kosher dietary law about handling of meet is very similar to Islamic dietary law, since they both are based on Abrahamic law. Both religions would prefer a butcher of each other’s group over those Christian butchers who totally ignore dietary laws laid down by God, or God help us – those evil Pagans.<\/p>\n
She settles on a pound of Vienna Brand beef bologna and asks 3 or 4 more times – you’re sure this is really Kosher right? This is extremely important to this woman. She needs an extra bag to double wrap her bologna, lest some fumes of the blood of Jesus sneak in.<\/p>\n
I’m mostly just amused, since I’m a member of none of the religions, but I do see some merit in some rules beyond those of the USDA.<\/p>\n
Now it is my turn – the Boars Head brand of ham is $5.99 a pound, she shows it to me, and then takes it over to the same slicing machine she just used to slice the Kosher Beef Bologna.<\/p>\n
Someone is going to hell over this, I’m just not sure who.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By choice, I’m living in a building where relatively few people speak English as their primary language, but most people can speak in English if they choose (except the poorly documented migratory residents from below the Southern US border). I … Continue reading