a Christmas miracle comes early

In a random moment of curiosity, I made an impulse buy while I was in Itaewon:

Note how the English says the product is "beef pepperoni." I've bought enough stuff from the Foreign Food Mart to know that, when it comes to international products, you might see familiar English words, but there is no guarantee that those words denote the thing you're thinking of. Sure enough, when I got home and opened the above package, I could tell right away that, whatever this was, it wasn't pepperoni in the Italian-American sense. Still, it tasted good. In fact, it tasted familiar, and it took me a long time to figure out what it tasted like.

I eventually realized that the complex of flavors in the ground beef was a nearly exact replica of the spices and seasonings found in my beloved 7-Eleven Jamaican beef patties! I was ecstatic when I realized this because it meant I could make a standard pie crust (with some turmeric added to make it yellow) and bake my own beef patties!*

It was actually hard to tell, upon opening the package, whether the beef was raw or cooked because it was so heavily infused with spices and seasonings. I eventually decided it was precooked or at least par-cooked, so I cut the "pepperoni" into medallions, fried them up, and ate them with gusto. At a guess, the Russian term kolbasa (колбаса, doubtless related to kielbasa) on the package is probably a better descriptor for the sausage than pepperoni, but now that I've made this discovery, I'm not complaining, and I need to get right back to Itaewon to buy more meat so I can make myself a few beef patties.

I realize that the resemblance between sucuk (the other name on the package) and Jamaican beef is most likely coincidental, but once my brain mapped the mysterious flavor onto something from my own experience, it was as if the heads-up display inside the fighter cockpit of my mind lit up and showed that I had locked on target. Once the mental association formed, it became impossible to shake. Call it sucuk or kolbasa if you want, but it's definitely the Jamaican beef I've had from 7-Eleven.

Gonna buy more of this sausage, make some turmeric-infused pie crusts, and chow down on some bona fide beef patties. I've been jonesing for those since the beginning of the pandemic. Korean 7-Elevens don't sell that sort of thing (read about nasty products I miss here). Finding a close analogue makes me weep with joy.

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*You may recall that I've made beef patties before, but I was using a recipe I'd found online, and while the patties were okay, they didn't quite hit the spot.