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Sausagefest XII - Coming Soon

September 5, 2009

September 2009 is only two months away and not too soon to prepare for Sausagefest XII! 2008 Sausagefest saw very few injuries. Hardly anyone reported life threatening hangovers so we'll have to do a bigger and better party for 2009.

It's hard to believe that we're into the twelfth year of great sausages and great wine drinking. Many thanks to the cult of sausage fiends who find their way to our festival.

This year the theme is THE DAY THE SAUSAGE STOOD STILL.

With the start of 2009 we are starting re-construction on Sausagefest.com. We readily admit we were lax in the re-do but keep in mind we have regular jobs (or did have) and juggling a website with life's demands makes for a zig-zag approach to website development. Overall, Sausagefest is still in better hands than our financial system. Our focused has not changed. Unlike the TARP bailout plan, we remain committed to the best sausage and the best libations. We are after all, The Sausage Portal for the Free World. Expect to see more domestic and international coverage from us in 2009.

As we do our house re-modeling, please stop by to see the latest. We'll be doing more reporting on the sausage scene and broadening the overall website beyond our own immediate backyard.

Hungry Hill Sausage Interview

Get over to Hungry Hill Sausage in Homewood, Illinois. The Sausage

Artist at work is James Fares. His works of art are his Italian sausages. Discover his homemade Italian sausage before the rest the world discovers this place.

Read the complete interview by clicking here!

Location:
Hungry Hill Sausage Company
18217 Dixie Highway
Homewood, Ill 60430
708-799-4455
Hungry Hill Sausage Website

Sausage of the Week Contest – The World is Invited!

Now that most of the free world has put aside the arctic winter of 2008/2009, we are now ready for heavy sausage consumption time. Emerge from the dark cave, move to the outside patio, backyard grill, and tells us your favorite sausage.

Here’s the contest – send us an email to: kentantonius@yahoo.com

Tell us these simple things:

1. Name of the sausage
2. The sausage maker or store
3. Where you bought it (province, state, city, country, address, phone number, website, etc.)
4. Why do you like it?
5. Your name

What do you get? First, you become the weekly worldwide winner of Sausage of The Week. We will publish your entry and credit you for the submission. (When did you ever become a worldwide winner without coming out of your seat?)

Second, we will send you an Official Certified Sausagefest Sausagaholic certificate!!!! Each certificate will be uniquely numbered so they become a collector’s item as soon as you get it.

First winner to be announced May 1, 2009. Winners announced each Friday until September 1, 2009.

The legal stuff: Sausagefest.com does not keep any information about visitors who browse our site. The only information we may keep is the e-mail we receive. When you e-mail us we may publish those messages. If you do not wish to have your messages publicized, you are welcome to indicate that you wish your comments to be kept private. We respect all such requests. We follow a journalistic policy regarding sources: if confidentiality is requested, it is respected as far as legally permissible.

Leaving a comment on the site requires an e-mail address. We will not sell or distribute your name or email address to other parties. Please note that Sausagefest.com is not responsible for the content of other users’ comments, recommendations, suggestions or views. We retain the right to publish only those submissions we deem as worth sharing with our audience.

Your comments, suggestions or recommendations may be become part of the website and we may or may not attribute those comments, suggestions or recommendations to you.

Cancun - Sausage Update

Dateline Cancun, Mexico – Jan. 09

Treat yourself to some time in Cancun. The sea has a beautiful turquoise hue and it’s hard to think it’s the same Atlantic Ocean as the water you see in the Carolinas or anywhere northward. The geography mavens will say it’s the Caribbean but its still Atlantic water. With the economy of modern society falling quickly into an unending stream of bankruptcies and company lay-offs it seemed like a good time to cash in the Marriott points and United Points before both companies go the way of the dodo. So the search for sausages went south of the border. Here’s what we found after extensive research, well somewhat extensive.

No Sausage Shops
We couldn’t locate a single freestanding sausage shop in the immediate Cancun area. I even asked Manual who was our bar guy at the Casa Magna swim up bar. He’s been with Marriot for 15 years, lives near the airport and knows the local scene.

“Senor, I don’t think we have a shop like that in Cancun. Yes we have chorizo but jew can get that at supermarkets or Wal-Mart.”

Ok. Wal-Mart sausage – I felt my stomach turn over so I ordered another Blue Death Zombie. Maybe Manual was being cagey, saving the good stuff to the native sons. So I called over my interpreter, Kate, who has a better command of Spanish that I do. I whispered my thoughts to Kate who smiled, spoke Spanish to Manual and explained what I was looking for. Manual smiled and nodded. Manual smiled and nodded a lot when Kate was around. It was Tuesday and she had on a turquoise bikini, which made the melon bikini she wore on Monday look baggy. They chatted for a bit and Manual said in what I was beginning to hear as damn good English, “ Senor, I understand the Sausagefest idea and I didn’t think you were asking me to an all guy party. But I just don’t think we have that type of sausage place here.”

“Jew want another Zombie, senor?”

Maybe it was the Zombie – he was slipping between tourist region pidgin English and Midwest news anchor English. So I ordered uno mas and decided there was no upside to interrogate the alcohol vendor. Kate swam away, I fell into thought and Manual turned back to his blender. This research was hard work but I wasn’t minding the zombie haze. I suspect there’s a decent sausage maker in the area but nothing popped up on our radar this trip.

2. Xel-Ha – A Paradise with Sausage
About 90 minutes south of the Cancun ‘region tourista’ is a 250-acre tropical park called Xel-Ha (say shell-ha).
Amusement parks, anything Disney, and family parks are low on my priority list. Between passing a stone and going to Great America neither offer any moment of joy. My arm was twisted by Kate and Kristen (the translation team) and I found myself actually enjoying this tropical park. First, you have to highly respect any park that has an open bar ready for you from breakfast time to when you leave. We got there about 9:30. The bus ride put me to sleep and as we headed to the breakfast area I was thinking of an eye opener. Xel-Ha puts on a great spread and it’s been long time since I had breakfast with 500 people all wearing swimwear. I like the idea of breakfasting in my swim trunks. There was no shirt or tie to catch food scraps. And, you could peruse the swim suit models with a tequila laced Bloody Mary (when in roman, etc.). There was enough talent around to give Kate and Kristen some competition. Aside from the beautiful tropical setting, you also don’t want to miss breakfast at Xel-Ha because they have ‘chorizo y patat’ (potato) on the buffet table. This is rib sticking stuff and has all the flavor and carbs you need to get the day off to a better than average start. You get a second pleasurable sausage option by helping yourself to the salchicha (sausage). The breakfast sausage back home isn’t like this. It was excellent by itself but better with the huevos and the Tequila Mary. I was surprised at how lean and flavorful it was, but then again I was using my back home yardstick of breakfast sausages. In the US we’re migrating our way out of bland breakfast offerings. I’ve cruised through hundreds of breakfast buffets where the sausage offerings are grayish, fatty and far from a recognizable meat form. If you go to Xel-Ha, you’ll see that the sausage taste like meat. It sounds simple but they got it right. You would be a very rich gringo if you made a dime for every time you had an American breakfast sausage that was a little grey container of fatty fluids.

So to recap: tropical park of beautiful scenery, open bar, plenty of snorkeling good times, floating in an inner tube for the real lazy and good sausage. I should also mention that the rest of the food offerings were better than average and the wait staff was super friendly and attentive.

Slight correction – maybe its more than 90 minutes to get there. Traffic is subject to the same crap we get in the states with construction, accidents, etc. I will say that I don’t understand why the highways I travelled on in Mexico had speed bumps every ten miles or so. You get rid of those hideous things and your cruising speed will go up.

You can find out more about Xel-Ha at: www.xelha.com

Limoncello

When you feel like getting dressed again, get over to Limoncello. It’s in the hotel zone of Cancun a little south of Senor Frog’s and a little north of Plaza Flamingo. Once the sun goes down, you’ll be dining waterside at a spot with a nice sunset view. The sausage offerings you’ll want to consider are these: Gnocco fritto con salumi: This is a dish of deep fried gnocchi puffs served with Italian cured meats (Prosciutto, coppa and salami). Deep-fried pasta usually isn’t a hit with me but I threw out concern about my cholesterol level once I was south of the border. I thought my entrée was the winning one at the table. Definitely try the pappardelle with Italian sausage. The red sauce was light; the sausage was lean and flavorful. The waiter was newly from Hungary and he thought this was one f the chef’s best dishes. The translation team sampled my plate enough to chisel my portion down to appetizer level. So we had a unanimous opinion for one of the few times during the week.

The nighttime ambience was beautiful, the entrees very good, and the service staff attentive. I wish that their wine list were more moderate in price. I had a glass of white to start and a glass of red with the entrée. It was everyday stuff. If I wanted to drop more dough on a bottle they had decent selection of South American and Spanish reds. I’d recommend you slosh down a wine of your choice before you get there then settle in for whatever wine you like when you get there, if you’re watching pesos.

You can find out more about Lemoncello at: www.limoncellocancun.com/eng/index.html

La Habichuela
Although Sausagefest is about all things sausage we also enjoy a fine sausage-less meal where we find them. La Habichuela is a white tablecloth restaurant in the old city of Cancun. We took a bus from the hotel (a great way to get around Cancun and cheap) walked a few blocks and found this four star place. This is a well-run first class place. Our party of four was smiling and nodding from start to finish. The wine list had a good selection of South American offerings. The Argentinean chardonnay was crisp and un-oaked. All the entrees were very good and my grouper was the best I’ve had in a long time. Armando Pezzotti is the owner and you’re in the hands of serious host when even the breadbasket offerings are exceptional. I say try them all with the garlic butter spread they bring with the rolls. I’d say after 30 years in the business he’s got the formula down. Sure, the chips and salsa are first rate too, but try all the breads as well. I didn’t spot any sausage-based meals on this menu’s edition but let me know if you spot when you visit. In case you were wondering, La Habichuela translates into “bean”.

You can find out more about La Habichuela at: www.lahabichuela.com

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you become a regular visitor to Sausagefest.com.

Latest News Update
In the book section we have added two books for your Fall reading:

The Raw and The Cooked - Adventures of a Roving Gourmand
by Jim Harrison

I Sailed with Magellan
by Stuart Dybek

These are two of the best American writers of our generation. Dybek captures Chicago better than just about any recent writer. Food and drink are always close at hand.

Jim Harrison is a great story teller (Legends of the Fall, Dalva) but this book is devoted to dining, cooking and the good life. It's hard to find a better writer with this much gusto for eating well and often.

Read them both soon.

Important Dining Note for Chicago Area Diners:

There is a small but important restaurant you should take note of located in the northwest suburb of Mount Prospect. Since this is a sausage website I’ll make the sausage connection for you in a bit.

You should make a point to dine at Flamingo Seafood (1590 Busse Road, Mt. Prospect, Il 847-364-9988). This is a very good seafood restaurant done in the style of South American and Mexican cuisine. I don’t think it’s accurate to say it Mexican seafood. Its highly skilled cooking of fresh seafood using Latin accents to bring the fish dishes to very high levels.

Yes there are chips but the salsas are unique and not cliché. I think it’s a mark of a very good restaurant that keeps surprising you with each plate. Flamingo does this.

Now the sausage connection. The seafood and chorizo brochette was stunning. Their homemade chorizo gets my vote for the best restaurant chorizo in Chicago.

The tequila collection is extensive; the wine list is short but solid, and the margaritas full-force. Go for the seafood but get some chorizo in whatever dish they offer.

Jorge Almaraz is the inspired chef of this fine restaurant. He is a very skilled artist. Tell him Sauasgefest sent you.