Wrap It Up
This past month, I was running a bit low on butcher paper, used to wrap my briskets in for cooking at a low temperature for the better part of a day. Just to be on the safe side, I ordered 2 rolls, well in advance of when I knew I would actually run out. My order, promised for delivery within 12 business days, didn’t arrive for almost a month. And only then after I called customer service, and a wonderful sales agent personally delivered the rolls to our soul food kitchen. Talk about service! And then, a few weeks later, the delivery service calls to say they are delivering some packages. I don’t think anything of it until I open the delivery and discover that the original 2 rolls of butcher paper had finally arrived. I now had 600 meters of the stuff.
So I called customer service to report the error. And my trusty sales agent told me not to worry, someone would come pick up the excess in the next day or so. Which of course hasn’t happened. I think he appreciated the honesty and was doing me a favor. Either that or they just simply forgot about it. Who knows.
What I do know is that I have am excess of this top-quality butcher paper sitting in inventory, where it is likely to sit for a while. Even at the rate of 10 kilos of brisket being cooked every week, it will take me a while to make a dent in my supplies. So if you know anyone nearby who needs some butcher paper, tell him/her to come by.
In the meantime, I want to applaud loudly the existence of quality goods I can avail myself of here in Tel Aviv: like the post-consumer packaging materials we use in our business; like my various suppliers for produce, cheese, meats, poultry, and fish, which are a bit pricier than the standard fare, but whose quality is obvious; like the domestic production of organic foodstuffs. And so on. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot.
The market demand for truly healthy cooking, for example, is still in its infancy here. I had a prospective guest call me yesterday, inquiring as to whether our vegan menu was prepared using separate vegan-devoted kitchen equipment, much like kosher protocols. That was a first. I hope it’s the first of many.
