I bought my friend Charles a decent supply of pelmeni and I grabbed a couple hachapuri for myself. Jason wandered over to a butcher, my mom to a bakery, and I went into the Three Sisters Delicatessen, a Russian joint, since the last time I was there I came home with a can of lard with bacon. The 2 or 3 times I'd been there previously it was very crowded and this day was no different. And also like those past visits, I was by far the youngest person there and the only English speaker. There was a lengthy line comprised mostly of old women who talked amongst themselves and pointed at various things in the deli case. I ended up grabbing a few things from the shelf including another 2 liter of kvas and a bottle of this ketchup-like sauce made from plums and, of all things, mashed potatoes. When we met up on the sidewalk, Jason was clutching a bag full of goat while my mom had bought some rum balls for me.
We drove back to the Jefferson Park neighborhood, where my mother lives, and hit Andy's Deli. I've given a lengthy account of shopping there previously so I won't rehash much here.
We noticed that there were no cans of bacon & pork loaf to be had. Lots of other SPAM-like tins, but not the primo stuff. I'm not sure if this is because it's very popular and hard to keep on the shelf or whether it sells so slowly that they never bothered to restock the shelf after Jason and I bought every last can back in September. Another missing item was the Polish version of Playboy. I had told STevie that I'd get him a copy as a souvenir but, alas and alack, they too were out.
It wasn't too crowded this time and so we never had to grab a ticket for service at the meat counter which meant we were spared standing around like idiots because we have no idea how to count in Polish. Jason found about a million varieties of pickled herring and I highly suspect that his father made a glutton of himself in the recent past. Each of us bought some Slavic beer and I think we did a good job of not repeating ourselves from last trip.
Despite still being quite full from lunch, the sight of a pan full of ribs placed curiously at about eye-level still managed to get me salivating. In addition to countless pounds of sausage, I bought soups, a salad, carrot pound cake, and much more. And there's just something about 30 gallon barrels of kraut and pickles that moves the Slavic parts inside of me. The urge to try one of everything in the store becomes difficult to control.
We ended up spending quite a bit less at Andy's this time – only about $130. Still, we got our free chocolate bar the check out which was manned by two pulchritudinous Polish women and were off to our final destination.
While they didn't have raw olives as I'd been hoping, they did have pomegranates and quinces of which I availed myself.
And with that, the day was over. We'd spent about seven and a half hours trekking around town buying comestibles. My mom took the scenic route a couple times including a long haul down Belmont which took us through Polish neighborhood. I'm looking forward to our next trip, presumably a spring run.
I am told that the mettwurst was quite good as my co-worker's father gave it his seal of approval.
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