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| - What happens when a hardcore vegetarian strolls into a jerky store? Seriously, it's like a bad joke setup. My husband even tried to stop me from going in. But I just had a feeling about this place. I love cooking and something compelled me to open the door and walk in. Boy, am I glad I did!
JoJo's Jerky is a small but well organized store in the adorable and fun Container Park. In addition to jerky, JoJo's sells a well curated selection of house roasted nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, and others), dry spice rubs, marinades, and hot sauces. There's probably other stuff I'm forgetting, too.
Most importantly, they sell VEGAN JERKY! It's made of cactus pads (nopales), and it comes in several flavors. I've had soy jerky in the past, but I've never tasted or even heard of cactus pad jerky. What a great idea!
While we were deciding what to get, we started chatting with the store owner, Hans. He offered us samples of jerky (unfortunately he didn't have samples of the vegan jerky, but my husband said the meat jerky was delicious), roasted peanuts, and tastes of various marinades. FYI, they sell drinks and you'll probably need one after trying these spicy samples. Hans is really friendly and into everything spicy, and we ended up talking for a while about hot peppers, ethnic cuisine, and cooking. He's a wealth of information and is happy to share it with anyone interested.
Since I couldn't sample the vegan jerky, I went with Hans' recommendation and purchased the carne asada cacus jerky. We also bought a bottle of Caribbean jerk marinade. I really liked that everything was made with real ingredients like juices for acidity and high quality spices for seasoning. You can really taste the difference. The cactus jerky is delicious: salty, spicy, bright, and a bit chewy. We've used the marinade for grilled tempeh and it too is excellent! You can really tell that each product is made with lots of care and love.
I'm looking forward to returning for more goodies the next time I'm in the area. 5 stars!
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