I've been frequenting Queens vivo pollo markets for years. This is the first time I took a camera. Without making any jokes, I'd strongly encourage everyone to buy their poultry here. Yes, the outside looks ominous, but inside, you get a faint barnyard smell with the mix of bleach, shit and coffee. You have a fairly happy and boisterous crowd of shoppers, pointing and arguing amongst family and friends to find the most delicious, red,black or white chicken, pigeon, guinea fowl, assorted ducks, turkeys or Rabit. With the trend of knowing where your food comes from, what is better than a jovial pollo salesman grinning at you as he hands you a flapping fowl for closer inspection? After you give the bird a good carressing, he proceeds to tie it to a scale to get the weight and price. Smiling, he hands you a ticket and asks "whole or cut?" while making a chopping motion and giving an even bigger grin.
You then take your little katz' deli esque ticket and you pay a man in a bullet proof booth. The prices are slightly higher than the grocery store, $1.79 for chicken and $2.79 for the guinea fowl. The butcher disappears into the backroom and you wait amongst the fowl and patrons till you get the still warm bird returned to you, plucked clean and fresh as can be.
I stepped outside to see my quivering party for a few minutes. When I returned, I wasn't sure if they finished my bird yet. I pulled back the "curtain" to the killing room and the jovial fellow gave me another grin. "It's done." As he handed my my fresh guinea fowl and pulled his lunch out of the microwave at the same time. The guinea fowl was wonderful. I brined it for a couple of hours and roasted it slowly. Rich,flavorful and only slightly gamey. Left over dark meat made the best tacos i've had in a while and some stock out of the carcass for a few meals to come.
Let me tell you, these birds look clean and healthy and are the best i've ever tasted. Where has your chicken at wholefoods been the past week? A few distribution plants and left out on the sidewalk during a smokebreak or two? Plus, buy 10 chickens get 1 free and they deliver. Although, I'd advise going in and looking your dinner in the face.
