There is a butcher shop in town (by the railroad tracks, as the name accurately suggests) that we are obsessed with. They have the absolute best meat and fish. Everything is fresh, beautiful, and reasonably priced. The shop is pristinely clean, the staff is extremely conscious of cleanliness, and they have separate storage areas, knives, and saws for each type of protein (which is, sadly, not the case anywhere else). Chicken is 7000 CFA per kilo, or about $12 per kilo, or $5.50 per pound. (Side note: can we please move to the metric system? It’s so much easier for math purposes.) Ben bought some beautiful steaks, which were expensive, at about $18 per pound, but they were fresh and delicious. As some of you have noted, these prices are ok for the US, but must be insanely expensive for the average Congolese person.

Every time we go to the shop, we buy extra proteins to freeze at home. The Embassy gives everyone a giant freezer, so we have plenty of space to freeze meat. The butcher will order special cuts of meat, as well as thinly slice meat (our neighbor makes awesome bulgogi) and grind meat to order.

Only 150 meters to the right!They make great kebobs and marinated meats, too.

This photo sort of gives you an idea of how clean it is. It’s spotless. This is the fish counter. Meat and chicken counters are to the right. 

Fresh fish list! A lot of the imported fish arrives frozen. 

Likouf is a common fish here. 

Those prawns (on the right) are enormous!