A few days ago, I documented my first visit to a Pollo Vivero, or live-kill poultry place. Well, having now had the joy of dressing and eating a freshly-killed turkey, I can absolutely state the following points:

Cutting off Heads Isn't That Hard: I thought that removing the bird's feet and head would be really difficult, but it was actually easy. I used a sturdy, German-style chef's knife, located the respective joints, and sliced away. While the legs came off in one piece (each), I had to take the neck off in two pieces. I used a paring knife and reached inside the carcass to cut it closer to the torso.

Live Turkeys Don't Look Quite the Same: My turkey's torso was longer and slightly sleeker than the Butterballs that I was used to. That having been said, it was still quite meaty, and the actual process of cooking it was very much the same (minus the pop-up timer, of course).

Live Turkeys Are Yummy: The turkey tasted more or less the same as a grocery store turkey. It was slightly more succulent, but I also chalk that up to the fact that I brined it.

Live Turkeys Dry Out Easily: Unlike store-bought turkeys, which soak in a broth solution until you unwrap them, live turkeys need to be protected from drying out. I wrapped mine in moist paper towels before brining it.

Turkey Heads Are Fun: Being somewhat perverse, I held on to the turkey head and feet so I could show them to select people. Two of my sisters got in a little bit of a tiff over who got to keep them (I'm not the only weirdo in my family), until my youngest sister claimed the artist card, stating that she wanted to draw the various parts.

I have decided that I'm definitely going to go with live poultry for Christmas. Does anybody have a good recipe for pheasant?

Having grown up on sterile, deep frozen turkeys, I have always had the sneaking suspicion that my Thanksgiving was missing something. About a year ago, my wife and I moved into a Dominican neighborhood, an experience that has brought me into contact with an almost endless array of new, exciting foods and food services, notably the collection of "Vivero" joints in my area. Basically, these are sort of like a cross between a butcher and a pound. You go in, choose your bird or rabbit, tell them what you want done with it, and come back in a half hour to pick it up.

I've been circling the Vivero for a while, curious but also a little nervous about getting my poultry from a place that looks so much like an animal shelter. Still, with turkey costing a fortune in my neighborhood, I felt like this might be the year to try out a fresh bird. Because of the season, the owners recently got in a shipment of about 400 turkeys, and I found that the whole process was surprisingly easy. Basically, I picked out my bird (I was looking for an animal in the 15-pound range that looked guilty), and told them that I wanted it plucked, cleaned, de-legged, beheaded, but generally left intact. Explaining this took a while, as the workers only spoke Spanish and I only spoke English. Still, between us, we managed to get it all worked out.

About a half hour later, my bird was ready. When she saw that the legs were still attached (my Spanish, clearly, is not very good), the lady at the window gave me a funny look, but immediately endeavored to make the package a little less unwieldy. Her method was to, basically, jam the turkey's feet up its rear end. She managed to get one in before giving up.