Don’t Eat The Meat!! – Privos Market, Odessa

For those of us of a certain age……..when ‘elf  ‘n’ safety and food hygiene laws were a vague trembling in the underwear of the bureaucrats and jobs-worths……and thus yet to be born………and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and Bird Flu had not been invented to scare the population, (yet we are here today….makes you wonder how our ancestors survived eh?),  Privos Market will bring back some fond (or not so fond) memories.

The market is famous in and around Odessa…….and rightly so.  Here, you can actually buy genuine herbs and spices required for a curry or Chinese.  If you ask any of the purveyors of such fine spices to mix you a suitable curry mix for chicken or lamb for example, they will do exactly that………because these stalls are owned and run by Asians from the distant “Stan’s” who come to Odessa to ply their wares.

Fresh organic vegetables and fruits are everywhere and are exceptionally cheap……..well Ukraine was known as the “bread basket” of the USSR after all.

There are some cheese and meat counters which would resemble your local deli or corners shop, clean and refrigerated with vacuum packed produce……….and then there are the others you will remember from your childhood (if you are over 40 something).

“The Others” fall into 2 categories…….fresh, and I mean extremely fresh or those selling produce which looks like, (and probably was), it was slaughtered around the same time that Genghis Khan was running rampant around the region……back in the 13th Century!!

So, a brief comment about the “Fresh” meat…….and I mean “fresh”………so “fresh” that you point to it running around the floor and 10 minutes later it is in your bag, plucked (if applicable), gutted and……….still warm!! Of course, having seen the animal in question before deciding it was the “one for the pot”, you will have made your own judgement (as there is noone else’s to take) as to the general health of what you are to later eat.

The alternative kind of meat, that which was slaughtered when our good friend Genghis and his Mongol hordes were running amok, is, well, very self evident to the eye………and nose!  (It is at this point you are thankful for the supermarket chains which exist here.) 

 

This “experience” is either curtailed or enhanced by the weather in Odessa, as much of Privos Market is open air.

It therefore follows, that at -10 degrees in winter, the fragrance is more pleasant than when it is +37 degrees in the height of summer and the flies are fighting like the RAF and Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, over which 10 year old pig’s trotter in which to lay their eggs. 

Although, the title of this blog is about “meat”……..some care should also be given to the cheese products for sale at Privos……..for the same reasons as the meat, but add to this a multiplier of numerous people sticking their fingers (and consider where they had their fingers before they did this) into large quantities of the cheese on display and breaking off (or digging out) a piece on which to “nibble” before they decide to buy it…….or not.

I would therefore recommend, to those of a weak constitution or who are particularly squeamish, that Privos Market is an excellent place to buy fruit, vegetables and spices………but use the supermarkets for meat and dairy produce. 

It is however, a great experience for those who want a trip down memory lane.