“I Don’t Eat That”
Every morning the trucks start to arrive on Stockton Street in Chinatown. Vegetables of all kinds are delivered and are stacked up high in cardboard boxes on the sidewalks for the grocery vendors to bring inside their stores for their customers. In a show of gruesome theatrics, in come the hog delivery people with stacks of butchered pigs, some whole and some cut in half, waiting to be carried in. Working in teams of two, they each carry a butchered hog and walk into the meat markets to deliver their goods. Often very guarded and always giving me and anyone with a camera a look of disdain, I managed to talk to one of them while pulling a hog from his truck.
“I don’t eat that stuff” he says. “I’ve seen too many things and I just can’t now”, he continues. As he hurries along with a hog on his back, he mentions that he hopes he never ever works in the beef industry as he’ll miss eating beef too much. He then complains to me that this “damn” work is too hard and no one deserves it. I agreed with him and wished him well, thinking to myself why there’s no refrigeration in their trucks. Another day in Chinatown and another reason not to eat pork.
First photo Leica M6 and Arista Pro with the second photograph with my Olympus XA4 and Arista Premium at 1600.
Powerful. Truly powerful.
meagannicole February 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pmHumbling as well.
Thanks Meg! Yeah it’s something to see what goes on in the streets.
John Agoncillo February 2nd, 2009 at 9:34 pmSo that’s what you’ve been telling me about! I haven’t been there in the morning yet. Great story and pix, though sad. Nice that you found a worker who would talk.
Brad February 2nd, 2009 at 10:25 pmThe unrefrigerated carcass truck reminds me of a similar scene I first saw in Haifa, Israel. Pretty wild. You can actually get organic meat, though it does cost more. However, organic ranching is a more humane operation from raising to slaughter than what you get out at the concentrated animal feeding operations where all the cheaper meat comes from.
John Wall February 3rd, 2009 at 1:25 pmGreat narrative. A word of caution actually to anyone considering eating meat delivered in Chinatown. My brother’s friend used to deliver there and a number of the restaurants would buy their “old” stuff.
pinky February 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pmnice – kinda looks like what I just saw last week in Marrakesh – although obviously not porky pig
dylan February 6th, 2009 at 11:52 amGreat photos and story!
hoi February 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pmdid you get what the numbers mean? 3’s & 4’s ?
alex March 18th, 2009 at 9:45 pmHey Bro! I think the numbers correspond to the store. So all the ones that have say “3” on them go to a particular butcher/store.
Thanks everyone.
John Agoncillo March 18th, 2009 at 10:18 pm