Kielbasa Challenge: Are You Game?

Call it kielbasi, klobase or kolbassi - But what's in a name? So patrons of the ninth-annual Kielbasa Challenge might say.

The contest began years ago with two brothers crazy for kielbasa and a couple of links, and has since found its way into a sort of local tradition where friends and family of festival founders Mark and Jack Gentilesco gather to deliberate the area's best of the Polish treat.

Tossing around terms like "full-bodied," "nicely spiced" and "lingering flavor," a group of 27 judges rated the appearance, taste and texture of 23 local varieties at this year's meeting.

Lending an atmosphere more like a wine room than a kielbasa hut, participants young and old put their tastebuds to the test, eating grapes and crackers between bites to cleanse and neutralize the palate.

The Challenge is split into four tasting phases with the first three an overall sampling and the final a "lightening round" of the top five. Below, you'll find some photos and a recording of co-founder Mark Gentilesco announcing the Top 5.

Since this sausage fest just happens to be held in my home (yep, Jack is my dad,) I thought I'd finally partake and see what this kielbasa hype was all about. I know, I know - we're so not a normal family. And you wonder why I can't stop blabbing about food.

P.S. My favorites #10 and #11 didn't rank so highly with the connoisseurs of the bunch. Apparently my taste in kielbasa is that of the "too porous" lot, and chock-full of oregano.

Honorable comments from the festival include:

“The elusive number five.” -- On a scale of 1-5, the elusive #5 is a rating granted only to truly worthy links

“There are some places oregano just doesn’t belong. Trust me, I'm Polish.” -- Of #10, a kielbasa with identity crisis

“The cats won’t even eat this. They do eat dog food, though.” -- Kielbasa #19 came in way, way last

“Is 3 a rating? I just put "tastes like soggy waffles.” -- My little cousin Josh, a first timer