I really like lamb - it’s far and away my favorite animal meat. However, American cuisine seems to have a real problem integrating it into dishes. When I want a casual lamb meal (as opposed to chops or leg which cost 25 dollars and which aren’t usually served at non-upscale restaurants) I have to go to ethnic restaurants (Indian and Moroccan.) I don’t mind doing this because these restaurants are good. But they serve lamb in stews, cubes, or kebabs. What I really want is a lamb sandwich. Why don’t you ever see them?
I don’t mean gyros here. I mean thin-sliced lamb and perhaps some other condiments like lettuce and cheese, on a bun or between good thick slices of bread. You can get deli-style sandwiches with beef, turkey, and ham, but not lamb - and also, you hardly ever see lamburgers.
There’s a restaurant in town called Banderas. I think it’s a chain. It had a sandwiches that were like a French Dip, but made with lamb. They were awesome. I haven’t been there in like 7+ years (before I had my son) so I don’t even know if it’s there any more, though.
I love lamb. I’ve been known to make my own lamb sandwiches at home. Like roast beef sandwiches, but with leftover lamb.
Hear in Dekalb County at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market, they have a buffet-style restaurant where they serve the most delicious lamb samosas. It’s jeopardizing my diet just thinking about that place.
I love lamb too, but it’s an expensive meat to buy at the supermarket, especially because lamb chops are so small and ground lamb is very rare. The few times I’ve seen it at Publix, it has been imported from Australia. I’ve never seen it just thin-sliced for normal sandwiches, like roast beef. But I love gyros and Indian food, so it continues to be a rare and exotic treat for me.
Because the market is dominated by beef, pork, and chicken. The price of lamb is very high compared to the big three and on top of that most people don’t really know how to prepare lamb properly. I plan on purchasing a leg of lamb one of these days but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it.
Lamb is also one of my favorite meats and I’d eat more if it wasn’t a couple dollars a pound more than beef. Despite all the talk about free trade in the U.S. tariffs against Australian and New Zealand lamb keeps the price artifically high.
…and the big three would like to keep it that way.
US sheep producers have a weak lobby and don’t band together well, I guess.
Go to a good meat counter in my homestate of Iowa (a top pork and beef state), and lamb is relegated to a small selection of shoulder chops, mostly fat and bone, and an occasional leg at holiday times. I love the stuff, but sometimes I feel almost subversive eating it.
I bought a boned rolled mini leg of lamb the other day for $6.99. It weighed out just over 1 kilo (2.2 pounds). I had it roasted with vegetables. For lunch each day since then I have had a toasted lamb and chutney sandwich or a lamb and cous cous wrap with Moroccan spice and a dab of yoghurt. I have a little left but I think I’ll give it to the neighbour for her cats. Maybe I will buy another one this Thursday.
They band together well enough to limit the imports of lamb from Australia and New Zealand, but not well enough to promote lamb in the supermarkets. As Australians living in the US, my wife and I would eat a lot more lamb if the prices were more reasonable, and that’s only going to happen if foreign (i.e., Australian and New Zealand) lamb gets a fair go in the US marketplace.
Ah, protectionists, you see. They want to keep prices UP, not down, preferring not to try for greater market share and instead keep what little they have. No one wins that way.