Marion Warhaft, Winnipeg Free Press, May 29, 2009

My recent North End column was about three eat-in institutions, but knowledgeable Winnipeggers know that some of the neighbourhood's finest foods are for home consumption only. Notably, the marvellous East European cured meats, in which this part of the city is particularly rich. One that tends to be overlooked is Metro Meats, partly because it is much smaller than many of the others, and partly because it is tucked away in Point Douglas. It's a tiny, cramped little corner grocery, and if there are more than a few customers the space can become tight. And there often are more than a few customers, since its cured meats (mostly Polish style) are the equal of any.

Metro, and some of its fans, claim the coarse-cut kielbasa is the city's best. Without a side-by-side test of all of them, I would never dare name a single best (if then), but it is certainly way up there -- moist, fragrant, even elegant, one might say. Equally elegant are the superb ham sausage and the fine, pale krakowska salami. The skinny kabanosy meat stick and its plumper cousin, the mysliweska hunter sausage, are both drier and smokier than the above, and if you're open to head cheese that is heady with garlic, the glittery, meaty aspic comes either in slices or blocks.

If you don't mind doing a few minutes cooking, you'll find hints of marjoram and allspice in the buckwheat sausage, and the relatively lean, house-cured bacon is marvellously flavourful.