May 25--"I know Chicagoans are so particular about their sausages and hotdogs," said Lucky Peach Editor in Chief Chris Ying in understatement.
Ying, who traveled the world to rigorously research and write the new book "The Wurst of Lucky Peach: A Treasury of Encased Meat" (Clarkson Potter, $26), stopped in Chicago recently for a Ferris Bueller-themed sausage and karaoke book launch party at Publican Quality Meats.
You may remember the film's sausage link, but if you don't (spoiler alert!), Ferris claims he is the Sausage King of Chicago, Abe Froman, to steal Froman's reservation at the fictional French restaurant Chez Quis. June 11 is the 30th anniversary of the film's premiere.
I spoke with Ying before the party, and caught up at PQM over party-size jalapeno cheddar brats and to karaoke "Danke Schoen."
Q What inspired the book?
A The direct inspiration for "The Wurst of Lucky Peach," if I'm being really honest, was just that we thought the name was really funny. I mean you come up with a funny name and you've written half the book.
Q But seriously.
A We liked the idea of riffing on best of compilations and the more we sat with it, we realized we do really like sausages and have a lot to say about them. What started as a joke became less of a joke and a serious thing.
Our book is not the end-all be-all last word on sausages. We try to cover just the most interesting ones, the ones that really caught our attention.
Q What was the best of the wurst in the world?
A In Austria and Germany, they have this Kasekrainer which are these cheese stuffed sausages. In my experience a cheese stuffed sausage in America is kind of useless, the cheese never makes an appearance. But I remember cutting into this sausage in Munich and thinking, "this is a bummer, nothing is happening," and then miraculously one second later out of seemingly nowhere this molten cheese started oozing out of invisible pores in the sausage and I was just so excited. It was shocking but really really tasty.
And then in Bangkok, the Sai Krok Isan (Thai sour sausage). You see these beautiful little tiny orbs, gemlike, hanging all over the streets, and so packed with flavor with just a little bit of tang from fermentation. And then there's the whole process of eating them where you kind of spike them with a little bird's-eye chili and them put them in your mouth with a knob of ginger and some herbs. It was really just eye-opening.
Q Speaking of Asian recipes, the magazine's first book was "Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes," released last fall. It's the first in a series. What inspired it?
A The inspiration for the series of these kind of single subject cookbooks are the Time-Life series of books that examined the individual cuisines and ingredients. Those hold a really special place for us. But these are books for how we live now.
I keep describing this as the kind of book that you would find entertaining to read in the bathroom but useful to you in the kitchen, So hopefully that's a new type of book that people appreciate.
lchu@tribpub.com
