Sichuan Sausage Season

IMG_6035, originally uploaded by zawelski.

(posted by Dave)
Ah, December, when the air turns deliciously crisp, you can see your breath outside (and in), and people’s thoughts turn to ... hanging long ropes of sausage outside their windows. (Vegetarians, my sincere apologies. You can skip to the next post now.)

Yes, up and down the streets of our campus, entire apartment blocks are festooned with hanging meat products of all sorts. Mostly sausages, but also what looks to be hunks of bacon, fatty pork, and at least one lower leg and hoof that I spied yesterday.

As we may have mentioned, our family is pretty much vegetarian at this point. Ysa and I are the late adapters, still eating some meat on occasion, so it was up to me to go out and try some for the record. I went out with Johnny and Owen, two other American teachers on our campus, and am happy to report that Chinese sausage tastes like - bacon. Or more specifically, very good Canadian bacon crossed with pepperoni. I was halfway through a dish of it stir-fried with fresh greens before I realized that that’s what I had been eating. Silly me, I had been expecting links or something, but around here, sausage is sliced almost paper thin and fried up with veggies. The sausage with hot green pepper was the best - started up some really good eyeball sweat.

This might be a good time to insert a thought or two I’ve had about meat in China. In many ways, the way the Chinese prepare it makes much more sense (if eating meat does indeed make sense, which is, of course, up for debate) than the way meat is prepared in the States and elsewhere.

Portion size, for starters. A “normal-sized” American single serving of pork, say, will here be sliced or diced or chopped into a dish that, in combination with rice and fresh vegetables, will easily feed six people. Parts are also more important here. Everything is used, not much is wasted. Entrails, feet, brains, tongues - all the stuff that is ground up into budget-brand hot dogs, or worse, fed back to feedlot cattle in the States goes straight onto the menu here.

Most noticeably, here the is meat often staring back at you. Upon reflection, I think is a good thing. You can’t keep the common American illusion that meat comes from neatly wrapped packages at the supermarket. “Throw away the head? How could you - that’s the best part!” (Did I blog about the time that I ate a big chunk of chicken only to notice that there was a beak poking into my cheek?)