A Romanian Butcher

Perhaps there are many Romanian butchers in the City. But this is the only one I've ever encountered. It's call Ridgewood Pork Store and it's located on a silent corner of Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. It looks very much like an old-fashioned butcher shop inside. I big wooden block. Links of sausages hanging from the ceiling. Cuts of meat everywhere. Sawdust. So quiet in there. It could be on the main street of some shtetl in Moldavia.

It's owned by one Jonel Picioane, a Romanian, who makes many different sausages, some native to homeland, others not. I tried a few and found them all good, but on the rustic side. They are unprettified sausages, gamey and a little tough, but very tasty and very real. All are made on the premises. And everything was amazingly cheap. Picioane doesn't speak much English, so he wasn't able to tell me much about the meats. About the shop's longevity, he could only say it had been there "a long time." How nice it would be to live nearby and casually make one's way through the meat inventory, getting to know each cut.