Shopping, shopping... and the first batch of cat food!

As I walked down to the Russian Market this morning, I happened to see a young woman menacing a tuk-tuk driver with a stainless steel meat cleaver.  I thought briefly of intervening, not so much to save the driver, but because it was a really good-looking meat cleaver, and that was one of the items on my shopping list. This particular woman, however, did not look even slightly inclined to surrender her cleaver, so I left them to settle their dispute.

My list included a few household supplies...

• wheeled mop bucket
• 2 stainless steel mixing bowls
• meat cleaver 
• cutting board

... and some of the necessary ingredients for the cat food, like chicken livers and chicken hearts.  

The best price I could get out of the supplies' seller (the same lady who sold me the grinder) was $33 for the whole lot, and the chicken lady quoted me $9/kg for hearts and livers, but she didn't have the hearts in stock. These prices all struck me as high, but they didn't seem inclined to bargain, even when I walked away. 

I came home empty-handed and rang up Visna, the tuk-tuk driver.  We went to Lucky Supermarket in BKK1, the more posh expat area.  I came away with the household supplies for $28, and all are of better quality than in the Russian Market.  Better still, I found packets of chicken livers and hearts for $5.90/kg there -- my only gripe with them is that they come on polystyrene trays.  

I think the covered markets can be effective places to shop for the locals, because they are in better positions to negotiate -- they know the going price on all these items.  When I can find better quality housewares at a lower price in a supermarket, I know I'm being royally ripped off in the Russian Market. When my sense of standard prices improves, and when my Khmer improves, I may try the covered markets again, but meanwhile, life is less stressful and more economical at Lucky.  

Lucky Supermarket is also the only place in the city, as far as I've seen, that sells cat litter. Not a thrilling purchase, but a necessary one.

I came home with all the ingredients -- the chicken livers and hearts, a whole dressed duck, and a small packet of ground beef (simply because my cats aren't all that keen on poultry).  After some fussing with the meat grinder -- finding a place to fasten it securely, figuring out how the blades and extruder are supposed to go together -- I am pleased to report that I've made my first batch of raw cat food, and Crumpet at least has been nibbling at it.  I would also like to report the following:  It's messy work, and revolting for a squeamish vegetarian.  Rubber gloves are now on my shopping list. On the other hand, it's gratifying in an evil sort of way to hack things up with a meat cleaver. I had to summon a fair bit of courage to lop the first foot off the duck, but by decapitation time, I was swinging that cleaver like Henry VIII's executioner. And once I had it put together correctly, the grinder had no problem munching up all the duck bones. 

We're quite a way from making a business out of this, but I'll be really pleased if my two cats will give it their seal of approval.