Sausage is the new black here in Los Angeles, with restaurants such as Wurstkuche and Berlin Currywurst drawing crowds (rightfully so). Joining in the fun is Grindhaus, a specialty sausage shop that opened up a few months ago in Hollywood. They don’t cook sausage, but they sell it, and after having sampled some of their venison, boar, and bratwurst sausages a few weeks ago, I quickly became a convert.
That’s why over this past weekend, when Grindhaus tweeted that they were selling some fanciful chicken-fig-balsamic-bleu-cheese sausage, my friend IndianJones and I made a special detour to the shop to get in on the action. The bad news: they were already sold out. The good news: we emerged with three other promising options. Sadly, IndianJones had to skip town before he could enjoy the sausage (and yes, I’m sure he really appreciates me using that turn of phrase), but that was okay. It meant more sausage for me.
I’m really not going to be able to get out of this post without about fifteen more inadvertent innuendos.
The first contender: a beef and garlic sausage. I don’t remember what else was in this bad boy, but it was pretty amazing.
Of course, it’s hard to really screw up anything that involves beef and garlic.
Next up: pork and green chiles. For those concerned with my intake, I only ate about half of each sausage and saved the rest for the next day.
This is one of those Homer Simpson, knock your head back and drool moments. Believe it or not though, I still liked the beef one more. Also: the pork and green chiles sausage oozed a fair amount of orange oil everywhere — a vibrant reminder of how unhealthy it was.
Lastly, the duck sausage. Probably could have used more charring. I’m still learning the nuances of grilling sausages (it’s low and slow). Anyway, this sausage combines three unlikely ingredients: duck, dark cherries, and semisweet chocolate. You heard that right. Clearly, I had to purchase it.
If the other two sausages were merely awesome, this one was mind-buh-lowing. You might never think cherries, chocolate, and duck would marry so well, but in sausage form, it was perfect. I must confess that I did not ration this bad boy out. I gobbled up all of this sausage. Please get your mind out of the gutter.
For those nearby who want to sample the goods, check out the mighty sausages at Grindhaus:
Grindhaus
5634 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-462-MEAT (6328)
you ate something with cherries in it???!!! what????!!!!
i guess when enough sausage is involved you’re able to get over your berry aversion.
You need to get with T-boy because when I saw that duck sausage, all I could think of were his problems getting duck bacon for his Gwyneth blog.
I like sausage, but not that much sausage. And after typing that, I’m starting to blush, so I need to just stop. 😉
So many sausage jokes, so little time. In other words, I can’t think of a good sausage joke at the moment.
So I am assuming you didn’t accidentally tweet any of these pictures of your sausage.
excellent weiner reference.
hb
LIKE
Bets, I had cherries at your house once!
Are cherries berries?
Chocolate is actually a total win in savoury dishes, although I still have approximately zero clue how to master said win. Where’s Gwyneth when you need her?
I still remember this little Spanish restaurant around the corner from me in London which used to do Chicken in Chocolate Sauce that I pretty much ate solely because it was the most absurd thing on the menu and was literally blown away. Well, not literally, obvs.
It’s so funny sausages are ‘a thing’ in the US. In Australia, they’re like the Go To dinner staple for unimaginative household cooks since 1963.. The more you know.
Glenny, that chicken in chocolate sauce was probably mole poblano, right? It has chiles, chocolate, day-old bread and nuts in it. YUM!
I’m pretty sure cherries are a stone fruit.
I just remembered why I don’t eat sausage that much (ba-dum-bum). After reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in high school, sausage just didn’t seem very appealing anymore. Too much mystery as to what exactly is IN the sausage. And that kinda sums up a lot of other types of sausage as well (double entendre intended here).
You need to come to Texas and have some real BBQ. You have know idea what you are missing, and I’m not talking about some Real Housewives of Orange County visit San Antonio. I’m talking about the real small town Texas BBQ. Come on Bside, I’ll show you around, I don’t bite. 🙂