Best sausage in San Diego - and a step back in time

[Geesie]

It just kills me that I only found out about San Diego's Sausage King this winter, but who would have expected an old-world sausage shop in Spanish-settled San Diego?

It's wonderful. All their meats are processed on site - the smoked ham, the blood sausage, even the liverwurst. They have bratwurst, knackwurst, bockwurst, linguicia, landjager, and many others I can't even remember right now.

When I first tried their bratwurst, I noticed something different about it. I noticed it initially while frying it up, and even more when taking a bite. Compared to what you tend to get here in the US, Sausage King's sausages are low fat and low in sodium. You actually taste the meat and the spices rather than be overwhelmed with salt and preservatives. Fantastic.

And what, you might ask, does this have to do with vintage forums?
Walking into the place is like walking back 50 years into, well, an immigrant-run sausage shop. First time I went there, I was the only person in the shop without a German accent. The cash register is a thing of beauty. Cash only, of course (who heard of going to a neighborhood deli with credit cards 50 years ago?) and is fully mechanical.
I guess what I'm saying is that nothing in the place has changed since they opened. It's a true treasure - locally made meats produced to the owner's personal recipes, great vintage interior and register... The sort of thing that should make anyone with a soul nostalgic and hate the fact that this has the capacity to produce 10,000 pounds of sausage a day but now puts out a scant fraction of that any more but you can get frozen, overprocessed, overpreserved, oversalted Johnsonville grease tubes everywhere.

A local news article on the place.

 

[Smithy]

Sounds like a great shop!

I, like most Antipodeans, love sausages. We tend to grow up with British style sausages (pork or beef) and bangers and mash, devilled sausages, curried sausages and snags on the barbie are popular dinners which 99.9% of people grow up with. Then there is the sausage roll (usually made with sausage meat) which you can buy absolutely anywhere and which is popular as a nibble at parties for kids right up to adults, and is something everybody loves with a good dollop of tomato sauce. I also picked up a taste for European sausages living over in Europe.

And as it happens, it's devilled bangers for dinner tonight

 

[Puzzicato]

I think all democracies should take a leaf out of Australia's book and have sausage sizzles at polling places on election day. It makes civic duty so much more civilised.

That butcher shop sounds amazing! I've never been to San Diego and now I am wondering whether it would be wrong to plan a trip based on sausages?

We make boerewors and droewors based on my husband's grandmother's recipe, but we've never tried making bratwurst. Must rectify that!

 

[Smithy]

I think all democracies should take a leaf out of Australia's book and have sausage sizzles at polling places on election day. It makes civic duty so much more civilised.

That butcher shop sounds amazing! I've never been to San Diego and now I am wondering whether it would be wrong to plan a trip based on sausages?

We make boerewors and droewors based on my husband's grandmother's recipe, but we've never tried making bratwurst. Must rectify that!

The good old sausage sizzle! I literally cannot ever walk past one. Fried onions and sauce and make sure that bread is thickly buttered

I'm keen on boerewors as well. Back home in NZ we have a lot of SAers who have emigrated over to the point where there are huge amounts of SA shops and even all the supermarkets stock boerewors now. But the best ones are from the small family SA shops. Speaking of SA food, I like Karringmelkbeskuit (bloody nice with a cuppa) and am addicted (and I mean properly addicted) to biltong. It beats jerky hands down. Luckily there's a couple of places here in Melbourne where you can get decent biltong.

 

[Puzzicato]

If you like biltong you really must try droewors!

 

[Smithy]

If you like biltong you really must try droewors!

I've had droewors Puzzicato and it's good but biltong (and chilli sticks) are the big ones for me.

I'm off down to the market tomorrow to pick up half kilo or so

 

[Puzzicato]

I'd need to take out a loan to buy 500g biltong in the UK! It's really, really expensive!

 

[Smithy]

I'd need to take out a loan to buy 500g biltong in the UK! It's really, really expensive!

It's still not terribly cheap here Puzzicato, ranging from around $50 to $80 Aussie a kilo but when you're an addict, what can you do I buy it about once a week, although I'd buy it everyday if I could!

I've got a SA mate here who has promised to show me how to make it and with his family's own recipe so that will be fun. He was saying that the best biltong in his opinion was made with hippo, until they made it illegal to shoot hippos in his part of SA!

 

[Puzzicato]

I haven't tried hippo... but kudu and eland make delicious biltong, so I think you should give it a go with some kangaroo fillet.

I've got plans for a drying box, but I haven't got around to making my own biltong yet. Let us know how you go with it when your friend teaches you!