Wonderful Polish meat market - Chicopee, MA

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I had a hankering for the brand of Polish kielbasa that my Aunt Stella served, so the weekend before Easter, a friend and I drove an hour and 3/4 out to Chickopee, MA - the home of Blue Seal kielbasa.

I researched a couple of places on the internet, and we first headed to Bernat's Deli and Meat Market.

WHAT A FIND!!!

A very small store that smelled exactly like the little butcher shop where my aunts shopped in their home town!

They had all kinds of homemade kielbasas! We bought regular kielbasa, Polish kielbasa, Easter kielbasa (less garlick-y and burp-y), horseradish kielbasa, baked liverwurst, potato-cheese pierogi, sauerkraut-mushroom pierogi, dill pickles (they had an entire 4-foot section of Polish pickles!!), assorted Polish chocolates and a hand-painted wooden egg.

My friend, Jan, couldn't wait to open the pickles so we each ate one in the parking lot while loading up our cooler.

Then we headed to a Big Y for a bunch of Blue Seal kielbasas and several loaves of Pittsfield Rye Bread (also my aunts' favorite).

Drove back home, colored some eggs, cooked up a Blue Seal, and had a feast, trying all of the homemade kielbasas.

Not much different among the homemade kielbasas, but they were all fantastic!

What a great day!

Lee
 

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Ian M.

New member
Lee - What with you being Polish and all, I can understand you having a hankering for traditional Polish food and enjoying that shop all to goodness. On Tuesday of this past week, Fallon and I were out roaming around deliberately trying to get lost and enjoy the beauty of the day and we stumbled onto a place on the border between Greenland and Portsmouth on Rt. 33 called British Aisles, Ltd that has every conceivable kind of British, Scottish and a bit of Irish food you could ever want to find. Tinned, boxed and jared , mixes and cases full of frozen meats and meat pies and pasties one could ever look for, such as steak and kidney pies, pork pies, "real" Guinness from the Dublin brewery - at a fair price, I might add, British sweets I haven't seen anywhere around here since I was a kid. And in the frozen case I saw several different kinds of sausage (bangers, we call 'em) to twit your appetite. We just had a wonderful time cruising up and down the aisles, looking and picking up a variety of things including a giant bottle of HP Fruited brown sauce such as I've never seen in markets around here and some special salad sauces, a jar of English mustard and a box of Walkers shortbread cookies shaped like Scotty dogs that Kieran simply loves! We're going back next week to check on some other things we were interested in while we were there. They did say that they aren't open on weekends, by the way.

The shop is relatively small in terms of floor space but full to the rafters with all kinds of things we just had our tongues hanging out over. If you've an interest in food from the British Isles, I'd say this is the place to check out. They have a large, gentle, totally ugly Irish Wolf Hound namked Sadie who meets you at the door and accompanies you around. The owner said they'd never had any problem with anyone shop-lifting with Sadie on guard. But she's a love, she really is. Way too sweet to do anyone any harm - she just looks as though she might, is all.

Ian M.
 
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QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Yep, sounds like my kind of place, too, Ian!

I'm half Scottish!

Lee
 

Ian M.

New member
Just so you'll know, the store is quite similar to the Union Jack in Peabody - without the clothing. We really loved it. The Union Jack is kind of a far piece for us to travel just to pick up a bottle of this or a tin of that. We really have to want something pretty badly to make the trip over to Peabody, especially while we were still up in North Conway. But that's where, up to now, Fallon's always gone to get her Lemon Curd she loves to bake with. Now she won't have to - this place is so close to us. I love mushy peas and they surely had them there............no more Union Jack for mushy peas. Yay!!
 

Ian M.

New member
Lee, in looking over what I wrote above, I suddenly realized that I virtually pirated your original thread - and for that I truly opologize! I sure didn't mean to get so carried away.

Ian
 

rocket_j_dawg

New member
That is a good find, Lee. We used to have an hour drive to the nearest European market until one opened up in town here last year. They have everything you could think of that Polish, Hungarian and German.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Lee, in looking over what I wrote above, I suddenly realized that I virtually pirated your original thread - and for that I truly opologize! I sure didn't mean to get so carried away.

Ian

Ah, not a problem, Ian. If we weren't all foodies who get carried away, we wouldn't be here, right? :smile:

But if there is more interest and conversation about places to buy food from the British Isles and the cuisine of Great Britain, we should move your excellent post to begin a new thread.

Lee
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I bought a dozen potato-cheese and a dozen sauerkraut-mushroom pierogi at this market at Easter time.

Foodsavered and froze them for Christmas Eve. Boiled them until they floated, then lightly browned them in butter and tossed them with cubes of fried out salt pork (a family tradition).

DEEE-licious! Almost as good as my family's handmade pierogi! I have never bought any better!

I will drive back up there to stock up again in the Spring!

Lee
 

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JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
I'm very spoiled in thta I have access to a unique place to shop, where there 29 meat markets under one roof... Cleveland's West Side Market. You name the sausage, and it's available here. Take a look around their website to see why I say I'm spoiled. For lots of shots all around the market, Google "Cleveland West Side Market Images."
 

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