Arctic, thanks for sharing those wonderful stories!

Here in Spain people are not very squeemish about eating practically everything that you can get from a pig. We eat it all, using different parts for differently prepared things. I have a bag of frozen pig's snout in my freezer right now. I also have frozen tripe and trotters. They are absolutely delicious. The snout is chopped up into small bite sized pieces and cooked over a BBQ grill. The tripe is prepared with a rich tomato sauce and lots of spices like paprika. Trotters are made over a grill, BBQ'd or with a garlic sauce. No butter is used in cooking, only olive oil or lard.
These are all traditional dishes, BTW. Lots of lovely fat and spices. yum!

We also have street markets where you can buy local produce like fresh veggies and fruit. They are usually held on Sundays and all the locals go.

Of course, there are huge supermarkets too, with all the modern pros and cons, but a lot of people still like to be SERVED and pick and choose their food. In any supermarket there is a butcher's section where the butcher serves you the meat you want. You point it out and he gives you the exact piece and amount you want.

Some of the best places I went to that had markets like the ones you describe are in Tunisia and Turkey. They have all the food in the street and it's beautiful. You can even choose a chicken or small bird and they give it to you live (or kill it there). Unfortunately a lot of Westerners were shocked at this and some ladies were thoroughly repulsed. These are the same people that think nothing of eating meat in a restaurant. It seems that some people don't want to make the connection between the original animal and the fact that it has to die for them to enjoy eating it! LOL. Any thoughts?