Super sized fresh kielbasa in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Determined to buy some biala kielbasa, I ventured into three of the four Polish butchers within 3 blocks of my apartment. Can you tell I live in a Polish neighborhood?
Wildly popular at Easter, biala kielbasa is a raw, non smoked pork sausage mildly seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic.
The always jam packed Polam Market didn't have any that I could see, not that I could even get a good view of the meat cases due to the line of 40-50 something year old Polish women forming a barricade and obstructing my view at 2:30 pm on a Monday afternoon.
I skulked out of similarly popular W. Nassau Market or "Kiszka" after not seeing any either.
So I ventured into uncharted territory.
Mazur Meat Market is not on anyone's top list of butchers in Greenpoint. In fact there were only three customers in the store.
Not understanding the Polish that the woman spoke to me, I panicked for a moment and forgot to say Czesc, (pronounced Chesh-ch) and blurted out Hello. Crap, I'm off to a bad start.
My slick recovery was to quickly say the words biala (pronounced biawa) kielbasa.
The woman nodded and walked over to meat case.
Success!
However, we hit another language barrier as she held the links up for me to see.
I asked, "Do you sell by the link?"
Half of a link with some stoneground mustard
She looked confused for a moment, responded in Polish, and gestured to the two links she held up.
I said OK and nodded.
I was pleased to walk out of the store with two massive pieces of fresh kielbasa - about four servings for a single woman like me. Grant total -- $5.11.
Though Mazur's kielbasa wasn't quite as good as Polam's kielbasa that I had over the summer, this was still a comforting and filling treat.
Hopefully this week, I'll write about one of the three Polish bakeries that are...you guessed it....within 3 blocks of my apartment.
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