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Every time I go to the all Spanish speaking grocery store down the street (on 24th and Harrison), I try out a local delicacy. It’s a joy. Most supermarkets that I go to have a tiny little Hispanic food section… well this market -is- a Hispanic food section.

I particularly have liked some of the sausages and cheeses that I gotten there. This time was no exception, though it did startle me a bit. I’ve gotten the longaniza sausage, yum! And it even gave me the same weird burps that I got on my trip to the Philippines.

I’ve had the Spanish sausage, that was very good but it didn’t have enough fat in it to fry well for my quesadillas. I’ve had a couple types of dried peppers, all exquisite.

I just tried El Mexicano brand Pork Chorizo. Oh yeah. At my first bite, I could tell that it was the special secret ingredient that the burrito place down the street uses to flavor their fantastic burritos. I mixed just a little bit of the sausage with a can of refried beans and… Zowie!

Getting to the point of eating this chorizo was a bit of a culinary adventure. First, the package reads, “Remove casing before cooking”. Huh? I soon realized that the sausage casing was made of plastic and that the sausage itself was… less of a sausage and more of a meat paste. Hmm, ok. As I started cooking it up, I kept reading the package label, I found the ingredients. It really is made from the tastiest part of the animal!

I was already committed to cooking this stuff but I have to admit that I was a little put off. And as it cooked, it continued to look less and less like sausage and more like… I don’t know… pork salivary glands, lymph nodes and fat (cheeks). The individual meat parts were separating just a little bit. Hmm. Ok.

As I was having my first bites, my apprehensions began to fade as my taste buds were taking control. I thought about all of the burritos that I have had with this stuff in it. The tastiest part of the animal indeed!