Learning about the butcher counter Until this year, I don't think I have EVER approached the butcher counter at my supermarket. First off, I was dating a vegetarian and then in addition living with another one, which makes it impossible to cook meat. And I didn't know how to do it anyways. Since I've started my meat explorations, I've been stopping by every so often for whole free-range chickens, and spicy italian sausages. Yesterday I did two "advanced" things -- for me anyways. I purchased some smoked ham hocks to make a stock for a butternut squash soup (recipe from the Gothamist that I am too lazy to link). They were much bigger than I was envisoning, and I asked him to chop it up into smaller chunks. I also got him to cut merely two little lamb chops off the end of a rack of lamb. [Please note that everytime I say that I "asked" the butcher to do something, that really just means that I looked terrified until he said "do you want me to cut XYZ?"] The soup was amazing. The lamb -- dressed with some oregano, lemon juice, and garlic, and broiled for 4 minutes on each side -- was amazing. I will be doing this again soon. My argument about "it's hard to cook meat because you have to make SO MUCH of it every time" is quickly falling by the wayside. I'm well on my way to become a good meat-a-vore.