Where’s The Innards?
Elvis, as you can see, is in the cooler. Besides missing one wing tip, he also came without the customary bag of giblets. I discovered that at 5am this morning when I unwrapped him to soak him in the brine. I was already two dishes behind from yesterday, so that was serious. Two options: Go to Cliff’s when he opens and see if they have any extra or buy chicken giblets ay Food Lion.
About the time that Cliff was supposed to open (8:30am, O thought), the idea of readily available chicken hearts and gizzards seemed okay. I checked their meat counter and there were none, so I asked the butcher.
“No, I don’t have any – they’re even out of them at the warehouse. I can’t even get any for myself.”
Ominous background music. A moment of panic. Has there been some sorta worldwide giblet panic? Have they started trading commodity futures on them on the CBOT, running up the price, and leaving me without the fixins for traditional Thanksgiving gravy?
I drove over to Cliff’s. I could see the butchers working inside, but the door would not open. He would not open until 9am, the very time that Elvis was scheduled to exit the brine. It was a short walk over to Weaver Street Market, so I trotted over there. The shelves didn’t have them, so I got in the dreaded turkey line at the meat counter.
There, people would tell the butcher the size of bird they had ordered and he would disappear “in the back” for about 5 minutes and return with their bird. I was third in line, wondering if they were killing the birds only when ordered. Finally, I got a chance to ask him, he said “no,” but said I should check with the kitchen. I asked the guy washing dishes just outside the kitchen and he told me he was the wrong person to ask, he was “just the dishwasher,” but I should go ask customer service. The customer service desk was unmanned, but then a young woman who had been earlier shelving fresh bread went back there. I asked her and she pointed at the bagger. The bagger was very nice and sympathized with my plight, but when she returned from the kitchen she told me the turkeys there didn’t have giblets either.
Here I was in the situation I had attempted to prevent. Running from store to store on the day before Thanksgiving, fighting crowds abd searching for one critical ingredient.
I went to Harris Teeter and checked the shelves. No giblets. The butcher was shelving chicken, however, and I asked him.
“Oh, they’re over on aisle 13 in the frozen food section. Let me show you.”
And there, sure enough, were hearts and gizzards in little pint containers!
10:15:42 AM 
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