Wawa, Ontario: Young’s General Store

There is one good reason to stop in the town of Wawa, Ontario (population 3204): Young’s General Store (located just past the giant goose along that desolate stretch of the Trans-Canada highway between Sault-Sainte-Marie and Thunder Bay). Actually there are two: the pickle barrel and the summer sausage. The store, filled to the brim with knick-knacks, novelty items, bulk and specialty foods and fishing gear, houses a pickle barrel with some of the juiciest, fattest, briniest pickles you could imagine. Go for the pickles, but stay for the sausage. Their summer sausage, a locally made burlap-wrapped monster, is one of the best dry sausages I’ve ever eaten. A bit spicy, a bit sour, a bit tangy, a lot tasty. My only regret is only buying one because that giant sausage got devoured upon contact with my roommates.