Forget “Macho Man” Randy Savage. The real Slim Jim is a kabanos, a cured and smoked pork sausage from Poland, and the best place in Orlando to get them is Stanpol Polish Deli in East Orlando. Lying in a deli case next to dozens of other encased meats (polish sausages, kielbasa and thick-sliced Danish bacon, just to name a few), the kabanos ($3.99 per pound) are a perfect afternoon snack when accompanied by one of Stanpol’s 14 imported Polish beers ($2.49 for
most bottles).
The little storefront deli, owned by a diminutive but gregarious Pole with a wisp of white hair, is also a café serving every permutation of boiled meat and cabbage imaginable. The braised pork short ribs ($6.99) are meltingly tender; when accompanied by the milder Polish version of sauerkraut, they are true comfort food. The kielbasa and cabbage ($6.99) is a combination of briny and smoky flavor sure to please any fan of stick-to-your-bones goodness. Finish off the Eastern European feast with a doughy paczki ($1.50), the traditional Polish pastry iced with sugar and perfect for
coffee-dipping.
Stanpol is also a well-stocked Polish grocery store, filled with delicacies from sheeps-milk farmer’s cheese to smoked whitefish ($8.99 per pound) to an impressive spread of Polish and other European varieties of cookies and candies.
And now we’re officially in sweltering summer, Polish meats are classic grill fodder. The snap of a kielbasa and the soft meat of a butterflied Polish sausage are indulgent and elegant choices for the carnophile. Stanpol’s reasonable prices and abundant variety will keep your grill pit, and your stomach, full indefinitely.
