Team Charm, lead by Jen, found a restaurant auction in Northern Virginia a few weeks ago, and yesterday the bidding closed. It was online only, so no one got to hear an auctioneer, but we were also protected from accidentally bidding on any Ming vases by scratching our noses. (Something that I am pretty sure happened at least once on every sitcom I watched growing up.)
Anyway, we got a lot of necessary equipment for the space at a much lower price than we would have buying it new. A sandwich table, a couple of prep tables, some big mixing bowls, a nice food processor, and the crown jewel, a slicer.
The funny thing is, no one actually like, wants the slicer. It’s big and heavy and scary, and some of us (me) don’t really relish touching big hunks of meat. And yet, after talking it over, we realized that we wanted the slicer badly, because of what it will allow us to do.
Getting unsliced meat from local(ish, we hope) farmers that follow sustainable practices is going to be much, much more cost effective and less wasteful than trying to get pre-sliced good meat. Also, no one really wanted to go with the pre-sliced hormone-treated “conventional” meat we could get, even though that would be cheapest of all.
So, we’re psyched about this dangerous albatross of a slicer, even though it means a certain amount of hassle and a whole lot of vigilance.
Charmington's 
March 24, 2010 at 9:41 am |
Oh my god. I was always TERRIFIED of the meat slicer at my old bagel shop job, even as I realized it was amazing. Fortunately the butch Johnsons and Wales guys were always butchly up for cleaning it, the most terrifying part of all. Washing a devilishly sharp circular blade? What could go wrong?
And yet they really are awesome.
March 24, 2010 at 4:56 pm |
I’m glad to hear about this move on your part, I think it was a smart one. Your collective heads seem to be on straight.
April 29, 2010 at 12:10 pm |
You do know that you can slice vegetables and cheese with your slicer, right? Remind me somday to show you the scar down the middle of my right index finger…
But anyway…yes, you can use it for veggies and cheese. Good for you buying a slicer — they might be ugly (and slightly dangerous) but you’ll be glad you bought it!