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[allaboutfoodgwu]

A Food For all People: The Story of DC Sausages and the People that Buy Them

Like the offering of sausages at a cookout, all good things must come to an end. This is the end, a wrap up of five blogs on the sausages of DC. Read them if you would like, ignore them if you don't; both are equally good options. This short little paper will sum them up, more or less, so it serves as a third option for those that would take it.

The sausages of DC were, in my opinion, a very fun thing to study. With that being said, I didn't do it very well but it is what it is. The story I originally set out to tell was on gentrification in DC. This story, however, has yet to be told through sausages by me in these blogs, nor I assume, through anyone else's. It should be told.

The stores I have visited seem to cater to the same sort of people. People that have a couple of extra bucks to toss around. To tell the story of gentrification I would have had to visit markets that I would not normally go to. In this respect, I failed. I didn't even try.

Gentrification is, of course, a widely acknowledged reality in DC. How could it not be? We have Union Market, The Wharf, and every new six-story luxury-condo complex as it's billboards. Though gentrification is not a black and white issue, the rise in demand for housing and it's consequent inflation of rent has hurt many who have called DC home for generations, especially the black community. To summarize Chef Kwame Onwuachi; Harlem had it's renaissance, DC never needed one (Onwuachi, Notes From a Young Black Chef).

Though some of the shops I visited were diverse in terms of age, gender, and race, I was never once a minority within the confines of its walls or the neighborhood that it was in. I explored the expensive DC and with that, saw only the expensive sausages.

I first traveled to Whole Foods. The majority of the foods, sausage included, are displayed in the lower, basement level of the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods. Coming down the escalators directly in front of the automatic glass entrance, and taking a left at the tangerines, I found myself in one end of the meat section. To my left, the butchers counter; to my right, a row of open-faced refrigerator units filled with various offerings of meat. On the concrete floor between them is an open-faced cooler, filled with ice, displaying even more meat. The whole ordeal is lit with stark white lighting which gives a cold but clean feel. A faint smell of fish perfumes the air (the butchers and fishmonger stations are side by side) but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Compared to the rest of the store, the space is relatively barren, almost clinical. With that being said, the 15’ by 25’ space is a practical, to the point kind of place.  

Sausages are found in the butcher's display, the central coolers, and the open-faced refrigerators. The butcher display has a large variety of “made right here” pork sausage in between the thick cut steaks and fresh-ish fish; Bratwurst, German, Andouille, Habanero Green Chili, Sweet Italian, Mild Italian (with and w/o casing), Maple Breakfast, Country Breakfast, Bulk breakfast-sage (w/o casing), and Spicy Italian (with and w/o casing). They also have; Chicken Bratwurst, Mild Italian Turkey, Hot Italian Turkey,  Sweet Italian Chicken, and Spicy Italian Chicken. All are displayed in an orderly manner; the links are aligned and the patties are pretty.

Next, I went to Trader Joe's. The sausage section at Trader Joe’s sucks. First of all, it’s mostly chicken sausage, which any lover of sausages knows to be inferior to their pork filled peers. It is also right next to the “fully cooked, uncured bacon.” Anthony Bourdain once said a cook doesn't deserve garlic unless they’re willing to peel it. With this rule in mind, I hope he would approve of my following statement: if you can't cook your own bacon, you don't deserve to eat it. Besides that, the section is quite small, but it seems to get the job done (again… only if you like chicken sausage).

After that disappointment, I shipped myself off to union market. They charged 12.99 for a pound of pork sausages. That about sums it up.

Finally, I made it to the holy land; Stachowski’s Market. The sausage selection was extensive. Some were found in the butcher's case, but a majority were found in a stand-up freezer off to the side, opposite of the cash register which sat in the middle of the floor. Much of the sausage behind the counter was priced at $10.99 per pound. To be fair, they looked worth it. Portuguese Linguica, Smoked Kielbasa, Hot Italian; these were all out to be bought.

The shop itself is little but filled with people, often in groups grabbing a little lunch to eat in or take out. Most were white, many I assume, live in Georgetown. There are two tables against the windows and a couple of shelves stocked with delicious, though unaffordable goodies. The magic happens behind the counter where the meat is cut and the sandwiches are prepared.

To my sincere surprise, I found myself going back to Whole Foods for my final observance. Whole Foods, as it turns out, does some pretty decent sausages at a pretty decent price. This did not change my opinion of the place though. I opened my first blog saying that the supermarket chain is a detriment to society. I stick by these words, and you should too.

References Cited:

Onwuachi, Kwame. Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2019.

[allaboutfoodgwu]

Save Some Money for the Revolution

Whole foods… my old friend. Having traveled around, as Babaz would say, “white DC” I've got to say, you're not so bad. I am of course talking about your selection of sausages. You are still, in my opinion, a detriment to society. You should, probably, be boycotted, looted, and even burned down. It would benefit us all.

The sausage selection at Whole Foods delivers on a number of accounts. The main one being price. Stachowski's sold their sausages for around 10 dollars a pound. At Union Market, they asked for your first born child in exchange for a couple of decent links. Wholefoods charges a modest 6.99 for a pound of house-made pork bangers, 5.99 today as they were on sale.

Being a good anthropologist, I asked the butchers behind the counter if I could take some pictures. They agreed, as they tend to do, but they also asked what it was for. “A school project” was not a sufficient answer so I was forced to confront the absurdity of my writings. What was I supposed to say? What was the story I was trying to tell?

The story I originally set out to tell was on gentrification in DC. I had, last year, written a paper on Union Market within which I used sausages to show that the hypocrisy of the so-called “culture” that was being cultivated and sold. How could “culture” charge so much for a simple sausage.

Sausages, like much of the great foods in this world, are a byproduct of the bad stuff. The intensities, tendons, fat, and sinew that we tend to avoid. Grinding it up and stuffing it in a tube makes it good. Because it is from the cheap cuts though, it should be cheap! What good is it to grind up a big juicy chop... those should be left whole, untarnished, glorious.

This story of gentrification has yet to be told through sausages by me in these blogs, nor I assume, through anyone else's. This is perhaps because the stores I have visited seem to cater to the same sort of people. People that have a couple of extra bucks to toss around. To tell the story of gentrification I would have had to visit markets that I would not normally go to. In this respect, I failed. I didn't even try.

My story is a bit more simple than that. It's about who slings the best 6 inches in town. Perhaps it was Union Market, perhaps Stachowski's. I am, and I hate to say this,  thinking that it might actually be Whole Foods. I don't really feel ripped off when I buy a sausage at Whole Foods. Maybe they don't taste the best but hell, a sausage is a sausage, and I will probably feel a lil meh after eating one anyways.

Whole Foods does well with their sausages. The guy behind the counter said something like “whole foods has great sausages, we make ‘em all here.” Hard to argue with that.

The same highbrow, expensively dressed people were shopping there tonight as they were 5 weeks ago. The lighting had not changed, nor had the layout of the store. My mind, however, has changed… slightly. Get your sausages at Whole Foods, save a lil money. If they have the lamb ones, definitely grab those. They are actually good. Make sure to add a lil salt when cooking. After eating, grab your torch and pitchfork, head back to the store, and let your true mind be known.

[allaboutfoodgwu]

THE SAUSAGES OF TRADER JOE’S

I wanted to hate Trader Joe’s, I really did… but I don't, not anymore. Their food is CHEAP! I’m talking $2.99 for a frozen pasta meal or a pound of clementines cheap. Their sausage selection, however, sucks.

I wanted to hate it because their focus on frozen meals has, in my cynical mind, created a generation of people who can't cook. I live to cook. A second date?? spaghetti aglio e olio. Dinner with friends?? Korean fried chicken. A weekend with dad?? ribs, bone marrow, fresh caught trout. All homemade (hopefully in my beloved cast iron) and served fresh. I am obsessed with cooking. You want to know why? I’ll tell you.

When I was young, my wonderful, smart, and busy Mum would give my brother and I orange chicken from Trader Joe’s at least twice a week (I’m sure it was less often but everyone seems to stretch the truth a little to prove a point). It was easy and tasty. It was also limited, and eventually, I couldn't take it. Bourdain, Zimmerman, and The Mayor of Flavortown had introduced me to a new world of food, I had to try it. I had to cook it.

Back to the point… the sausage section at Trader Joe’s sucks. First of all, it’s mostly chicken sausage, which any lover of sausages knows to be inferior to their pork filled peers. It is also right next to the “fully cooked, uncured bacon.” Anthony Bourdain once said a cook doesn't deserve garlic unless they’re willing to peel it. With this rule in mind, I hope he would approve of my following statement: if you can't cook your own bacon, you don't deserve to eat it. Besides that, the section is quite small, but it seems to get the job done (again… only if you like chicken sausage).

Walking through the sliding doors, I was greeted by potted (purchasable) orchids. I don't know a lot about orchids but $6.99 for one seems like a pretty good deal. Following an immediate right and walking past the ready to go food, I found myself standing in front of the refrigerator space dedicated to sausages. It was about 9 sausage packets, or by my rough calculation, 4 ½ feet wide. “CHICKEN SAUSAGE… $3.99” was printed onto a sign at eye level. For that price you could get; sweet apple, smoked andouille, roasted garlic, spicy jalapeño, or sun-dried tomato sausages. Above them were some fully cooked “Bavarian Brats” and “Brooklyn Bangers”. Below the array of chicken sausage was a selection of bacon. “Real” sausage could not be found until one looked to the lowest level of the open-faced refrigeration. This is where the Brats, Italian pork, and raw chicken sausages resided. All the sausages were packed in plastic and covered in bright, bold labels highlighting price and ingredients.

The store itself was lit by stark fluorescent lights. At a glance, it was filled with young adults but upon further inspection, it was a rather eclectic group of shoppers. I believe the free one-hour parking and easy access to non-walkers helped with this. There was a distinct lack of backpacks (as Trader Joe’s is not on G-World, this makes sense). There also seemed to be a lot of younger couples in the frozen foods section.

I still think Trader Joe’s adds to a lack of interest in cooking but being a student, I have a newfound appreciation for cheap food and as I have mentioned, Trader Joe’s delivers. Right now I am more than happy to swipe my G-World at whole foods to purchase my birds-eye chilies, center cut bone marrow, and house-made Italian sausage... but when the time comes for me to move into the real world and spend non-subsidized money, I might be found at Trader Joe’s buying cheap clementines.

[allaboutfoodgwu]

Whole foods, love it or hate it… you should probably hate it. They seem to overcharge on everything from basics like broccoli and ground beef to organic, non-gmo, cage free, first class, private school educated, (probably vegan) eggs; all while simultaneously undercutting local restaurants through their array of annoyingly good, and remarkably cheap made-to-order food. Anyways, I’m not here to rant about supermarket chains. I’m here to talk about sausages. Whole foods, at least the one in Foggy Bottom, DC, has a good selection of sausages. 

Before I go on, I feel I must make clear my definition of a “sausage” within the parameters of this anthropological observance. First and foremost, a sausage (for all intensive purposes of this study) is made of meat. At one point, it was alive, hopefully even walking around on either four or two legs. Ideally, but not necessarily, the now ground meat of said mobile animal is enveloped in hog casing, “the scrubbed, salted intestines of a pig.” (https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_homemade_sausage/). I have not, however, chosen to discriminate against ones enveloped in synthetic casings, nor sausages without casing at all. Hotdogs, of course, are not considered and create an entirely separate culinary category.

The majority of the foods, sausage included, are displayed in the lower, basement level of the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods. Coming down the escalators directly in front of the automatic glass entrance, and taking a left at the tangerines, I found myself in one end of the meat section. To my left, the butchers counter; to my right, a row of open faced refrigerator units filled with various offerings of meat. On the concrete floor between them is an open-faced cooler, filled with ice, displaying even more meat. The whole ordeal is lit with stark white lighting which gives a cold but clean feel. A faint smell of fish perfumes the air (the butchers and fishmonger stations are side by side) but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Compared to the rest of the store, the space is relatively barren, almost clinical. With that being said, the 15’ by 25’ space is a practical, to the point kind of place.  

Sausages are found in the butcher's display, the central coolers, and the open-faced refrigerators. The butcher display has a large variety of “made right here” pork sausage in between the thick cut steaks and fresh-ish fish; Bratwurst, German, Andouille, Habanero Green Chili, Sweet Italian, Mild Italian (with and w/o casing), Maple Breakfast, Country Breakfast, Bulk breakfast-sage (w/o casing), and Spicy Italian (with and w/o casing). They also have; Chicken Bratwurst, Mild Italian Turkey, Hot Italian Turkey,  Sweet Italian Chicken, and Spicy Italian Chicken. All are displayed in an orderly manner; the links are aligned and the patties are pretty.

To buy them, one must ask the butcher and specify a weight. Almost all of them are $6.99/lb. The non-pork varieties were on sale for $5.99/lb though. Unfortunately, no one went up to the counter as I watched. To be fair, I went at 9pm and the display was about to be taken down. It seemed like they had sold a fair amount... Mild Italian was almost entirely out.  

The middle coolers had a small selection of the same sausages from the butcher's display, only packaged in cellophane and black styrofoam trays. It wasn't until I gazed my eyes upon the open-faced refrigerators that I discovered a truly diverse collection of sausage.

In contrast to the butcher's display, all of these were pre-packaged in plastic envelopes and colorful cardboard sheaths. Bilinski and Applegate branded sausages took up most of the eye level real estate. Both promoted their organic products, using phrases like “no antibiotics ever” and “humanely raised” (I wonder what the latter means). The lower levels were reserved for Kielbasa while the uppermost shelves had Bratwurst.  Again, I failed to see anyone actually picking up the sausages for a closer look. I do hope I did not scare anyone off with my excessive photo taking and keen, but perhaps obvious, observation.  

This is not to say that there were no people in the store. I can assure you that there were. Oddly, it seemed that nearly every customer in there was wearing at least one piece of designer apparel. Though the Gucci sneakers and Goyard Tote stood out. There were certainly more expensive, unrecognizable pieces walking through the aisles. These expensive garments lead me to believe that the people who wore them had both expensive taste and the financial means to see them through.

Anyways, jokes about sausages are the wurst so I’ll end it here. Remember… sausages are beautiful and whole foods is a detriment to society.