Savoring Federal Hill: Part 1 - Foodies on the Road

The only thing better than getting together with a group of your foodie friends, is really getting the opportunity to explore the foods and purveyors of a new region.  This past weekend I had the opportunity to get together with a group of my personal chef friends from all over the country in Providence, Rhode Island.

One of the many food centric activities we planned was taking Cindy Salvato's Savoring Federal Hill Tour.  After meeting in a a cafe in the historic district and grabbing a morning coffee, we headed to our first stop, Antonelli's Poultry. 

The sidewalk has a sprinkling of chicken tracks leading up to entrance, where the signs proclaim "Choose Your Chicken Alive".  Cindy informed us that the tracks lead inside, but you'll note there aren't any coming out.

The inside of the narrow shop features a counter with fresh quail eggs, and freshly dressed chickens.  Customers head to the back of the store and go past a plastic curtain to choose their chicken from the cages stacked in the back.  The chicken is then killed and cleaned on-site.  One of the Silkies, which features fluffy white feathers, and black skin, was brought out for us to see, as was the partridge below.  The shop also carries rabbits.

Since we there early on Saturday morning, there were plenty of families, kids in tow, that came into to choose their chickens.  In addition to fresh meat, the shop also carries a nice selection of spices, seasonings, and other goodies. 

They also showed us some of the egg yolks that came out of the butchered chickens.  Said they were great dropped into soup.  (photo courtesy of Mary Beth Brinkerhoff)

It was nice to see a shop operating pretty much the same way it has been for the past century.  In this era of nuggetized, shrink-wrapped, boneless chicken,  it was a great to see that truly fresh chicken is still available for those that seek it out. 

Stay tuned for the rest of the tour....