Best Non-Red Meat Sausage for Gumbo and Other Gumbo Secrets

First secret to a really good gumbo? Grill the meat ahead of time. Put some cajun spice from the Atlantic Spice Company on two chicken breasts and grill them up.

Also for the grill, some al fersco chicken sausages. Spicy Food Guy recommends two each of the roasted garlic and spicy jalapeno varieties.

Then set the meat aside.

But first an explanation. Beautiful Spouse of Spicy Food Guy (BSOSFG) is a non-eater of red meat, but she is a gumbo lover, and a hot one at that. So Spicy Food Guy does his gumbos with veggies, poultry, and seafood. And when it comes to chicken sausages, no one beats the folks at al fresco. And Spicy Food Guy means no one.

Back to the gumbo. Set the grilled meat off to the side, and then make a roux with about 3/4 cup of veggie oil and a cup of flour. Stir the roux for the time it takes to drink two Yuenglings.

When the roux looks like a Hersheys Bar, add the holy trinity: onions (2 cups), bell pepper (1 cup mixed red and green), and celery (1 cup).

Add in about 8 to 10 cups of chicken stock, a few bay leaves, and whatever creole or cajun spices suit your fancy (a couple of tablespoons). Shake in some hot sauce. Toss in all the chicken meat and simmer for the length of time it takes to watch a Steelers game.

After the Steelers win, add in a pound of shrimp and some green onion. Simmer another 20 minutes.

And here is another huge secret: serve gumbo in a bowl around a small ball of steamed bismati rice. Bismati rice has a popcorn like sweetness that offsets the cajun spices of the gumbo.

To die for. You heard it here from Spicy Food Guy.

Best Place to get Spicy Summer Sausage

This one is out of the way, rather.

Drive to Michigan , turn north. Drive all the way up the State, about 8 hours (300 years in car time). Marvel at the lack of geography. Ask yourself what rolling pin of a glacier flattened this State millions of years ago.

Cross into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. Stay on route 17 as it follows the coast of Lake Superior. Spicy Food Guy reckons that mile for mile (or kilometer for kilometer), the coast of Lake Superior may be one of the most underrated natural beauties in North America. Kid you not.

Stay on Route 17 until you get to Wawa, Ontario . Turn right at the statue of the giant goose (the sausage part is coming up, Spicy Food Guy promises). After a couple of kilometers, you'll see Young's General Store to your right. Park near the stuffed moose (that's right -- the moose). Get out of the car. Stretch a bit. Slap at mosquitoes.

Walk in, go past the pickle barrel, though Spicy Food Guy certainly understands if you want to give a pickle a go. Right across from the homemade fudge (that's right, fudge), are the summer sausages. That is, if you're lucky and they are not out of stock.

Packed tightly in a burlap sack, these sausages are quite simply tasty beyond measure. The clerk will ask you if you have had one before, and will provide instructions to novices (i.e. store in a paper bag). The clerk won't tell you your car will smell like a summer sausage for a month, but Spicy Food Guy thinks the odor actually adds to resale values.

If you are particularly lucky, you'll get to keep your sausage for the next week in a rustic fishing cabin accessible only by air. On about three days into the trip, you'll come in to the cabin with a sun burnt nose, sore lower back, and a stringer full of walleye from a day spent on a tin boat. Walk over to the table, cut off a slab of the summer sausage and a hunk of cheddar cheese. Eat them together without a plate or napkin, wipe your hands on your shirt. If Almost Deaf Father of Spicy food Guy (ADFOSFG) spots you, he'll ask if you'll cut up some for him too. Go ahead and do it. There may be finer things in life than munching on a tangy and spicy summer sausage while sharing a week with your Dad in an old fly-in fishing cabin in Canada, but Spicy Food Guy thinks those things are few and far between.

Also, if ADFOSFG claims he caught 30 fish that day, divide by two. ADFOSFG counts a big bite as a fish. "I had it by the boat," fibs ADFOSG, "I saw it. I'm counting it." Spicy food Guy just nods.