Guest Sausage: Sausage on the move

Florian writes of our tour of the British conference circuit--and restaurants--across the UK:

"The last two weeks were occupied by three conferences in England—one in Oxford, one in Bristol, one in London—and coincidence had it that A and I went to all three of them together. Inevitably, sausages accompanied our journeys and since A's camera was out of reach, I employed the camera of my very old mobile phone to photograph some of our meaty friends. Most of the photos didn't come to anything, courtesy of my phone's poor camera, and even the two here shown have pretty grainy pixels. But, hey, when a sausage passes your way, you cannot allow technical vicissitudes to stand in your way. Both images were made in Oxford, and yet highlight the sausages cosmopolitanism, with one picture depicting a selection of the great many varieties of English sausages in a butcher's display in Oxford market, while the other is an Italian dish of orecchiette salsiccia e broccoli, containing fried pieces of spicy salsiccia mantovana. I can assure you the consumption of the dish was sweetened with lots of 'house red'. Then again, can one possibly sweeten the delight of eating sausages?"

Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano

In the last months, I keep learning how challenging history can be. Everyday I'm confronted by missing documents and stories told to me that (otherwise) remain untold. As I write, I repeatedly try and understand how difficult it can be to weave everything together. But my work as a historian is hardly the history that has proven the most challenging in the past 14 days.

I've been traveling and experiencing post-Smoleńsk Polish history abroad -- at embassies, chatting with Poles abroad, and through newsmedia. How to wrap my mind around my own absence from the streets of Warsaw as Poland comes to terms with the vulnerable void left by the crash? Debates about Wawel, the political arena's future, and culpability skirt around the issue. For me, it's the memorials placed outside people's places of work that convey the human loss many are experiencing.

Expect colorful sausage coverage from me in the next days -- to catch up. But in the meantime, I'll let this British pub grub absurdly symbolize my confusion.

Guests' Sausage: Americans from Paris in Warsaw!

On a recent visit to Warsaw, Louis and Maggie reveled in the culinary delights of Poland and its Eastern European brethren. They were so satisfied by and grateful for A's restaurant recommendations that they asked permission to share their excellent experience with all of A's blog readers, just in case any of them found themselves in Warsaw without A around. Thus was this guest post born.

Just around the corner from A's apartment, on Plac Konstytucji, there's a restaurant called U Szwejka. According to A, this means At Švejk's. But it also reminded us of Meredith, whose last name is eerily similar, and whom we missed dearly during our unofficial music-grad-students-abroad-on-fellowship-weekend-frolic-in-Warsaw. Anyway, back to the restaurant.

A can tell you who the restaurant's mascot is, and whether he has anything to do with the neon smoke-stack and animated puffs advertising the restaurant. In any case, the façade alone tells you that this is a spirited, "folksy" restaurant. It's kind of like the Polish Applebee's.

Except the ambiance is way, way more spirited (and of course more Polish). While we waited for our food, we enjoyed not one but two separate concerts by roving musicians.

Finally, the main event: the food. Portions were generous - no, make that ginormous. With four different kinds of sausage and lots of accoutrements, a single appetizer was more than enough for the three of us.

The main platters were almost insurmountably large and oh-so-heartily delicious. From top-to-bottom, some before and after shots of Louis' schnitzel, A's ribs, and Maggie's goulash:

We tried really, really hard to finish all the food, we swear. Thanks, U Szwejka, for filling our bellies with deliciousness and filling our spirits with joy!

East Side Story

I'm really just using that title for this entry because it conveys that I'm writing about another sausage from the "East" (Bulgaria!). Also, it emphasizes that I have been witness to 4 pieces of artistic stuff (poetry, an art installation, a video, and [of course] articles about jazz) with that title in the last two months. So, I wanted to help wear it out, because it's not so genius in the first place.

Genius? That the waitress at my local Bulgarian haunt suggested sausage to me after my original request (something with cheese) was unavailable. Here's what I got.

This mode of delivery, all wound up like a lollipop, allows the outside to be crispy, but the inside to remain moist without all of the fat that plumper sausages have. (Who says I'm not learning in my eating?) Obviously, those potatoes were heavenly. And I have to say, I think this mass-produced folksy pottery is a genius way to give sausage, cabbage, and other pale starches some relief in presentation. Check out my very tasty lentil salad below. Looks...blech. But that's not how it tasted!

Guest Blog: Happy New Year!

Warsaw is really not like this every day. But this is pretty hefty gray, no? That security man is keeping slush from killing people on the sidewalk below. Kind of a fun job, I think.

Meredith entices me to Taiwan with these new year's sausages. They look so ... much like fireworks! Who wouldn't want to try them?


I guess this man. He looks kind of done with the whole selling of the sausage. Maybe he and I need to do a cultural exchange:

Tłusty Czwartek

After spending my morning brushing up my Polish (that's how I spend many mornings) last Thursday, I headed off for my usual pre-reading ritual: good coffee. Lo and behold, as I trudged through the snow -- seriously, so much snow has been falling -- I saw a crowd of people. Even though I knew who they were and why they didn't mind hovering in the wet snow for hours, I was surprised at how long the queue was on ulica Chmielna:

Obviously, they're all waiting for fresh pączki (also known as Krapfen, Berliner, or just plain old jelly-filled) on the last Thursday before lent. Fat Thursday! This place on Chmielna (thanks, Greg, for the hat-tip) has the freshest and best in Warsaw. So fresh that they can't be kind when they serve you. No matter: delicious!! And everyone here thought a minimum two hour wait was critical to their pre-Lenten parties. I waited forty five minutes before deciding that I wasn't that picky about my donuts, unless it's the cake doughnuts in Ball Square at Lyndell's, which are obviously the only ones I'll eat in the greater Boston area.

Then I went and had my coffee and this nice, very adequate, but not earth-shattering pączek:

Guest Sausage: Cassoulet from St. Paul!

Even though I'm simmering sausage (veal + pork) in vermouth as I write this, I've not been eating much sausage of late. It would be tasty in the winter, and it is tasty in the winter. So I don't know what I've been up to, making soup without browned sausage. But Ben and Glenda are saving me from shame by providing what looks like an amazingly delicious cassoulet (let's be honest, it's a casserole. It just definitely doesn't have Fritos sprinkled on top!) for your wurst pleasure. Here we go!



Glenda writes: "Cassoulet is a traditional French dish, basically a bean and pork stew that takes three days to make and tastes like ... magic. Succulent tender sausage and duck confit, creamy beans, a crisp crust made from bread crumbs -- perfection! Following a recipe in Cooks Illustrated, we made it in four and a half hours instead of three days, and were delighted with our creation. The beans were deliciously smooth after soaking overnight in salt water (their skin shrank at first, making me afraid we'd already ruined the meal! By the morning the beans had calmed down and their skin was smooth again. Whew!). We cooked the beans with salt pork and bratwurst, which is the best substitution for fancy French sausage that we couldn't get/afford in Minnesota. Having never worked with uncooked sausage before, it was something of an adventure to cook them, especially since they were sooo slippery and weirdly water-logged after we parboiled them.
In what some may think is a sacrilegious move, we didn't include confit, because learning how to make one thing at a time seemed like a good idea. Also, the salt pork was also an experience, but not sausage related so I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say, it is sort of icky.
Finally, crucial to our success was the new Dutch oven we bought just for this dish. Thank you, Dutch oven!"

Sausage counter: Guest Photo!

Over the winter break, Matthias and Seda snapped this completely heartwarming picture of a German sausage counter. What I find shocking, having seen about 100 Polish sausage counters, is the relative sparsity of smoked sausages. Here in Poland, people tend to vary the spices but use pretty roughly ground, nasty parts of the pig. Then they dry it via smoking. Every town (it seems) has its favorite version, its favorite pig parts. But look below at all these amazing semi-processed, smoothly spreading sausages. Perfect for Abendbrot.


Then, of course, there's the sausage counter outside of the grocery store, on the street. No worries, this guy wasn't hovering in the arcades off of Krakowskie Przedmieście when the temperature hovered around -22 degrees (Celsius, of course) for 5 days. I'm pretty sure that sausage (and vodka!) freeze at that temperature.

Mmmm Naleśniki

I am eternally indebted to Michael for helping me realize the joy that is the corner crepe place. It's just about one of the best places in Warsaw. And, do you seeeeee that melted cheese. Yes, you do. And you know, that's why Poles move to Wisconsin. The salami -- not from Poland -- is incidental.

Happy New Year!

And, of course!, a digression to wish health in 2010. Here's what I was eating (to ensure my own arteries' stamina?) as the clock struck midnight:


Well, I didn't eat ALL of it.

Cabbage digression

The holidays brought much sausage into my life, for this I am very thankful. Diverse and delicious, this portioning of meat has tremendous potential.

But before I got very serious about sausage, I was very serious about cabbage. This is essential in Poland: it is the healthiest available vegetable. And it reminds me of lettuce. Of course, it's also the staple of Christmas Eve dinner in Poland, and we had to do quite the work to prepare it for the various dishes that required it. It needed to be chopped and boiled and then ground into the smoothest of textures.

To start: a four kilo (!!!!) head:


An attack:


Superfastshreddingaction:


This smells really really terrible: