Stew Meat

I grew up on lamb.

It was baked in kibba, stewed in tomato sauce with green beans, rolled tightly into cabbage leaves. The taste of my home and the scent of my father’s mother’s kitchen.

After leaving for college, I often called home to ask dad for his recipes. One day, I wanted to cook a family dinner for my housemates.

“So, how much meat should I get from the store?”
“One pound of stew meat and-”
“Stew meat is beef. I don’t want beef, do I?”
“Actually, Emma, you’ll want a pound of stew meat and a pound of ground beef.”
“Are you telling me I’ve been eating beef all my life?”
“Well, yes.”

When the butcher from the Old Country closed his doors, all of the Lebanese women in Peoria started substituting their traditional cuts for beef. For reasons still unknown to me, the White butchers weren’t to be trusted with lamb. Even after the Alwans and Couris started opening shops of their own, buying beef had become a culture of habit.

I guess I grew up on beef.