If you aren't aware of my travels to Turkey, take a look. One of my favorite delicacies was a sausage known as suçuk. Its various guises and spicy oils separate into whatever dish within which its used, making for a lovely bread dipping and what became an essential for my daily lunch or more often morning egg fry up. But alas I am not in Istanbul where I so often had some of the best food of my life, including suçuk. When I returned to Sunnyside where I live, I was fortunate to have a strong Turkish community nearby, but I found the suçuk lackluster, even industrial and dry. That was until I ventured out to Astoria to visit my main salumi man, Frank at Sorriso's.

As I passed a shop of Bosnian origins (the name of which has completely vanished from my memory disk) I spotted a suçuk in the window of his shop… and decided to venture in to see what the other half was making in the Balkan style. Bosnia, you might remember, was part of the Ottoman empire. I ended up buying some suçuk. Frying up this slightly smoked specimen, I was amazed at the fat content and the semi softness of the sausage, as it seemed like the same animal I had in Istanbul, a symbiosis of meat and fat content. Taste, well the spice may vary slightly but the freshness and melting qualities of this suçuk are extraordinary. I don't have to look far now for this sausage umami. It's just a  neighborhood away. Yes!

I searched high and low for the name, found it!  Ljulhani Meat Market 44-08 30th Ave. Astoria, Queens 11103