This is a post a long time coming, I had the pleasure of being on Dundas West a while ago having lunch at Hoof Cafe (a post for another time) with my uncle. After our meal Paul mentioned that there was this sausage store just down the street that has a great reputation in the neighbourhood. It’s about a 2 minute walk west from Hoof Cafe, the sausage store is called Superior Sausage specializing in Polish sausages. Has a very good variety of sausages from pepperoni, kielbasa, and bologna to mortadella, knublewurst, summer sausage. Also plenty in between. All those have variations available to taste.
I’m getting ahead of myself, when you first walk-in to this unassuming store your met with a wonderful smell of freshly made sausages, smoked, cooked, cured. Secondly a little old polish lady says to me from behind the glass counter and I’m in love. I take a look around and there are no boards to read the selection of sausages available. Everything is done with the very knowledgeable staff, Paul and I went in not knowing where to start, and we were taken care of by a incredibly patient and caring woman. She was giving us tastings of what I think was 10 different sausages that were made at the most a couple days ago. Everyone had a completely different flavour ranging from delicate to bold, savoury to spicy, sweet to salty (good salty). Paul and ended up getting 3 of everything we tasted by the end of the experience at Superior Sausage. After which i had to go to work, finishing off a couple on the way to work. Immediately i cut up and snacked on the sausage during service, everyone who was able to get a taste was thoroughly impressed.
Now to what this posting is all about, food pilgrimage, Paul and myself weren’t the only customers in the store, during our tutorial of sausages I got to talking with another customer who must have been in her 50’s, she was telling me that she has been coming to this very establishment since she could remember. Her father had been coming since he was in his early twenties, obviously introducing her to the food. Having such a dedicated connection with this store didn’t change when she moved with her husband and children to northern Ontario, about 6 hours north of Toronto. She now makes a pilgrimage to this store twice a year, travelling 6 hours in both directions. On this occasion her and her cousin were picking up food for two large families at a family reunion the next day. The amount of food they were picking up was shocking, for a total of 80 pounds of sausage and extras!!! Hearing that weight I was speechless, took a second to think about that. Couldn’t help but ask if there wasn’t a place closer to her that she could have gone to instead of coming in Toronto and deal with the traffic and stress. She just simply said there was no choice, when she wanted the best she came here, no matter the distance, or time it took.
Simply just impressed at how food, of any cuisine, can leave such a powerful mark as to invoke dedication, determination, and homage. I can only hope to find that store that impacts my life how Superior Sausage did for her.