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Sorry, I couldn’t pass this one up! |
First of all… Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours! Be good to your other half!
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At this time I am in Iowa City hanging out. There were some employment issues (even in a van, I can’t live on 13 hours!) and I made yet another job change. That, family worries, and the painful rotator cuff had put me in a worn down, depressed state. A couple days out of town works wonders…
Thankfully, on Wednesday I met one of the coolest people on the planet. She brightened the day and sold me something fun to eat on this latest “van trek”.
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Lou, the “Meat Lady” is as fun as our products are tasty! |
Just before leaving Cedar Rapids, I decided to visit “Lou the Meat Lady”, a colorful, lovable character who runs a meat shop in Cedar Rapids. She is pictured to the left.
Lou is a super fun person. She is featured in the recent TV ads in support of Cedar Rapids getting a casino (The vote is in March). I won’t weigh in on whether or not we need gambling in town but would surely bet a twenty that it will pass. *smile*
Lou started the Village Meat Market and Cafe (a MUST VISIT) in that area of Cedar Rapids called “Czech Village”. Czech Village and its wonderful museum were inundated by the 2008 flood of the mighty Cedar River. The National Czech and Slovak Museum – the cornerstone of the settlement – was repaired and moved to higher ground. Gone forever is Polena’s meat market, a beloved icon of the area locals affectionately call “Bohemie Town”.
During this time, Lou had a vision – to open a meat market and cafe that would help breathe new life into the area. I think she is succeeding! Her vibrant personality and old world recipes are like nothing you’ll find anywhere. A quick check on Yelp.com will confirm how good the food is! One favor – if you are a fan of Czech food and check out her website, please let Lou know you read about it on “Brad’s blog”. I told her that her shop would be featured here. She will really appreciate it!
This is going to be a great place to hang out besides being a great place to buy food. Village Meat Market and Cafe has live music in addition to carryout “old world” style meat products that are perfectly seasoned and smoked. What a find! I’m excited about the entertainment! It might be a good motivation to walk or bike across town and back in the weight loss effort.
I put the Jaternica links (they look like greyish polish sausage) in the van’s crock pot. Eventually they disintegrated and turned into a mushy, crumbly meat gravy type thing. No additional water was needed. It took about two hours to cook. And yes, it was salty…
We all know that sauerkraut gets a bad rap due to its preservation process. 1 cup has 560 or so milligrams of sodium. Have you looked at your canned soup though? How about sandwich meat? It’s often much worse than that. At least you can wash some of the salt off the kraut to make it a little healthier.
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I wouldn’t take a delivery job with your own car or gas , you will go BROKE FAST !!
02/18/2013… Once I got there for orientation, I found they were blowing smoke up my backside. The company was skimming most of the delivery charges and only paying a flat 50 cents to the driver.
Example… A company five miles away orders ten subs, paying $.65 / sub for a delivery charge (total $6.50). I would still only get paid 50 cents to traverse ten miles. It would have meant me paying most of my tips for the privelege of delivering… I told my co-worker that street pimps keep less of a percentage than that… and decided it was not for me!
Thought I would let you know Polashek’s Locker from Protivin, Iowa will be featured on Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. The show will air on February 25th at 8 PM on the Travel Channel and feature Andrew sampling Jaternice, Head Cheese, Pickled Pork Hocks, and Pickled Beef Tripe. The show is actually Bizarre Foods America – Iowa and will feature all Iowa businesses.
Thanks a bunch for the info. I had never heard of Protivin. It’s about 10 miles west/southwest of Decorah and not far from the Prairie Farmer Bike Trail (which I vowed to visit again when the weather warms up).
I know there are a lot of Czech folk in this area… Spillville (and the Bily Clock Museum) was a great time.
I will make sure to visit Provitin on the next trip to Decorah. Now the task is to find someone with cable TV so I can watch the Travel Channel. 🙂
Jaternice… YUM!