Yesterday (Saturday), I visited the John Cook Deli Meats store up the street in search of pepperoni. The store wasn't actually labeled as a John Cook branch from the outside (there was, however, a John Cook restaurant on the second floor), but once I entered it, I saw nothing but John Cook products.
In the store, there was a section optimistically titled "Pizza Solutions," so I made a beeline for that in the hopes that I'd find some legitimate pepperoni. Nope. The "Pizza Solutions" section consisted of two tall, side-by-side vertical freezers with glass doors; the freezers were both mostly empty, and the only things in stock were some packages of bacon, some frozen, gallon-sized bags of pizza sauce, and some bags of barbecue-chicken chunks to spread atop a pizza. You'd think pepperoni would be the most prominent item in such freezers, followed by crumbled Italian sausage, but no: neither pork product was present.
So I turned away from the freezers to scan the refrigerated section. Below is a photo of some sausages, and as I'd noted long ago when first stepping into a John Cook branch, these sausages all hint at a systemic problem. Take a look (click to enlarge):
Notice anything about all the sausages? Despite being of different types (Italian, andouille, Wurst, etc.), they're all the same size and shape! So my guess is that all the sausages are made using the same equipment—maybe even the same skins. This brings up unpleasant thoughts of cross-contamination and trace bits of one type of sausage ending up in another sausage. Not a happy thought. I might still buy such sausages if I'm in a desperate place, but barring that desperation... no, thanks. Luckily, the shelves did have some legitimately prepped Italian sausage on offer, so I snatched up that package along with a bit of bacon, some whole-muscle ham, and a standard John Cook summer sausage-y thing that I generally like.
True pepperoni remains elusive, but I'm sure I'll find it if I continue searching. As Vader said to Luke: "You cannot hide forever."
In a subsequent post, I'll show you the "pizza pie" I made Saturday night.
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