Monastic sausage

One of life's frustrations is when something delicious disappears from the shelves - for good.


I have seen it happen with my favourite Turkish gherkins.


With the "Texan bar" - although I have just discovered, even more frustratingly, that they were brought back for a short time in 2005: must have missed it. I remember at the age of seven asking my mother to get me a "Texas" bar. Fortunately, when presented with the "Texan", she surmised it was the right one and brought it back. I thought she was teasing at first when she said what she'd found.


I fear a similar disappearance may happen one day with Orangina when it is replaced with Fanta orange. And with Bolst's mango pickle, which I have written about elsewhere.


But these frustrations are balanced with happier moments. I discovered on a Polish stall in Waterloo a dried sausage called "Monastic sausage". The stall holders were very elusive when I asked them what it was called in Poland and where else I could find it. Eventually, the supplies dried up and they told me variously that they made it themselves and it had not proved popular or that they could not find it anywhere. They were misleading me. I wandered into a Polish shop in Dartford (of all places) and discovered piles of it stacked on the counter. In fact, it is produced commercially by a company called "Balcerzak" and is called "Kiełbasa Polska Surowa Długodojrzewająca" - translated on one website as "Long-maturing Polish Sausage". I don't know where the "Monastic sausage" bit came from. But I now appear to have a long-term supply. I commend it.

The best gherkins...

...are from Borough Market. You can buy them in tubs from a stall called "A Taste of Turkey". They are crisp and, not unexpectedly perhaps, salted rather than in vinegar. For about two years, they stopped being available and I would make a thorough nuisance of myself by asking the stallholder on every visit whether there were any prospects of their return. At last, they returned, slightly differently flavoured (a chilli in the brine gave them even more of a bite) but truly welcome. For eating with little cubes of Iberico ham.