A week ago, when I went into St. Cloud Meat and Grocery, one of several Somali grocery stores in town, to buy some rice, there were a couple guys in the back of the store chopping meat. I asked what kind of meat they had, thinking if it was lamb I would buy some.

“Camel,” said the owner.

“Camel?”

He smiled. “Do you want to see it?” Well, of course I did. We went to the meat counter and he showed me the bags of chunky red meat, some of the chunks entirely fat. The boys were busily mincing up some other kind of meat.

How could I resist? I bought a little over a pound of camel stew meat. “What is it like?” I asked the man. “What other meat recipes should I look for?”

“It’s like goat,” he said. After quickly considering and dispensing with the idea…