singley.org > blog archives > I Needed Some Fantastic Sausage 12.11.2004

I needed some fantastic sausage, and I was prepared to go to great lengths to get some. For many years during the holidays, my family would have one of two types of sausage at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Served as an appetizer would be small slices of either Polish, for grandma (maiden name: Wronski) or Swedish, for grandpa Andy Anderson.

This tradition had been overlooked in the past few years, so I decided to travel to west Chicago, where the store names are all written in Polish, to find some serious sausage. Asking around, I was directed to Gene's Sausage and Delicatessen, which was farther west on Belmont Avenue than I'd ever been by a long shot.

Around 1:00 I hopped on the 77 bus loaded up with a good book, a bottle of water and a couple of granola bars. I expected this to take a while.

By 2:15, I was surrounded by Polish people. Gene's Sausage is a fairly large store bathed in soft yellow/orange light that made me feel like I was in a roadside diner in 1973. There were bags of sauerkraut, cuts of meat I never knew were edible, a vast selection of Eastern European wines and dozens and dozens of Polish people.

I walked towards the deli counter in the back of the store where probably 30 folks were ordering their holiday meat products. This was a serious operation. I'd say there were ten people working behind the counter, flinging around ham shanks, slicing tripe chunks, packaging giblets. I hung back for quite a while just watching, but mostly waiting to see if there was at least one employee who spoke English. Up to this point, I hadn't heard a word of it since I entered the store. And, people really knew what they were doing at this deli counter, so I didn't want to interrupt their meat mojo with my silly questions. How I wished at this point that I'd called my grandma first and at least learned how to say "hello" or "thank you."

After about 5 minutes of pretending to browse Lithuanian port wines, I approached the counter and said, with a dopey American smile, "Hi!" "Hello," said the nice, young woman. "Umm, I'm looking for some sausage...but I'm not really sure what kind." You see, there were probably a dozen different types of sausage hanging from giant racks behind the counter. She was very kind and patient with me, explaining that there were really only three main types of Polish sausage: 1. their most popular, traditional sausage, 2. one that was similar, but with a bit more garlic and 3. one that was, in her words, "really only for Polish people - much more fat in this one." I played it safe and said that I'd take some of the first. "A link or a pair?" she asked. "Uh, a pair!" I said, having no idea how much sausage I was actually ordering. A moment later, she presented me with probably about three and a half feet of meat, folded over and vaccuum sealed. Price? $3.23. Well, heck, since I'm there, I might as well order some of the garlic sausage as well. I ordered a link for $1.76. This place was amazing.

With about 5 pounds of well-packaged sausage under my arm I went up to the register where the woman immediately spoke to me very quickly in Polish. She was either greeting me, asking "paper or plastic" or insulting my sweater. Tough to say from the tone. I said something haltingly in English, she said, "Oh, oh. Sorry!" and gave me my change.

I got back on the 77 bus, eastbound, past the Expressway, past about three dozen burrito joins and finally back amongst the urban hipsters at the Belmont train station. The granola bars were gone, the book was half read, and there was a whole lot of sausage ready to share with the fam.

That's a whole load of meat. Mmm.

Oh how I miss my Polak peeps. Nothing like Polish sausage to bring a smile to your face.

Andrzej

3.5 FEET of MEAT for 3 bucks??!! I will never need to work again!! Atkins, here I come!!!!