The County Line

http://www.countyline.com/

A familiar Austin entry, The County Line is famous for the views at their Bee Caves location and for the Lake side placement of their 2222 locale.  For their offering at the Barbeque Festival, The County Line offers up their spicy jalapeno sausage doused with their spicy Barbeque sauce.  In a different take than the rest of  Sausage Alley, County Line serves its sausage san tortilla or bread. 

They aren't kidding when they say this sausage is spicy.  The County Line spicy sausage make the other spicy sausages at the Festival seem relatively mild.  The burn lasts for a good while after each bite and is a strong accent in the flavor.  The skin differs from the others in that it is crisp and thin and easily separated.  The sauce is tangy with a strong hit of heat.  The actual jalapeno pepper flavor of both the sausage and sauce is relatively light and does not contribute significantly to the flavor.

Southside Market & BBQ

http://www.southsidemarket.com/

Southside Market & BBQ is the grandfather of all of the local sausage vendors.  As the original vendor of the now famous Elgin Sausage, Southside has a high standard to live up to.  So far, all the sausages sampled from the other vendors have been good in their own way, but nothing has been exceptional.   As the Southside Market stall on Sausage Alley is the last stop of the day, the prospects of topping everything else from the day would seem remote.

In addition to their sausage, Southside Market also has their chopped beef for the waiting crowds.  Unfortunately, just when we reach the front of the line, they completely run out and only have sausage left to offer.  The disappointment in the line is palatable, but fortunately, all is not lost.   There's still plenty of smoking hot sausage to go around.

The Southside Market sausage is served on bread with a squirt of their barbeque sauce and onions and pickles.  The first bite is transcendental.  For the first time I understand what Elgin sausage is all about.  The sausage has an incredible burst of flavor that completely redefines my concept of what sausage should be.  The skin is not too firm and not too thin, but just right.  When combined with the savory flavorful sauce, the flavor combination is simply incredible.   This is damned good eats.   The Southside Market sausage gives a delightful feeling similar to that of a decadent pint of superpremium ice cream.  I have a sneaking suspicion that a secret ingredient is a healthy helping of pork fat, or in other words lard.  Lard, our magical friend that makes things taste divine.  So bad for us, yet so sinfully good.  In this case, it equals incredible flavor.   In no time, the first helping is gone and I'm in line for a second...  And a third - before calling a day and promising myself to visit the actual Southside Market & BBQ in Elgin and give it a proper Foodquest.  If the food is this good from a stand at a barbeque festival, the actual location promises to be absolutely amazing.  Platinum worthy perhaps?  Only time will tell...

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