I went to the Bavarian Brathaus in Cary last night, drawn by reviews of their sausages. Yes, yes, there's a voice in my head grumbling about how Bavaria is not representative of all of Germany, and I understand that not everyone has lederhosen hanging from their ceiling, but I also really, really love bratwurst, and these folks make theirs in-house.
And spaetzle. And sauerkraut. (I first had sauerkraut at Karsten's farm salon last July and was terribly confused by the unadulterated sourness until Sebastian informed me that one was supposed to eat it warm, as an accompaniment to other foods, instead of chowing down on the jar straight out of the fridge as I was doing.) Anyhow, my dinner. Bowl of sauerkraut in the back, spaetzle in the plate on the right, and then from left to right, we have the regular, spinach, spicy, curry, cheese, and garlic bratwurst. I couldn't decide which one to order, and asked some of my Red Hat teammates, and the unanimous decision was "all of them."
In hindsight, it may not have been the brightest idea to eat 3 slices of pizza before heading out for brats, because I was ultimately unable to finish everything (which means I have a giant breakfast waiting for me now). But you can see that I do indeed like sauerkraut and spaetzle, and which sausages were my favorites (garlic, currywurst, and spicy).
The garlic bratwurst is fantastically garlickly, just redolent
with pungency, and I'm always a sucker for curry (especially after being
introduced to the Chancellor Plate in Hannover this January). The spicy sausage (despite large red text warning of "FIRE!!!") had a nice mild heat, further confirming my theory that the German (or really, European - or really, Western) calibration for incredibly spicy! HOT! HOT! corresponds to the Chinese calibration for pleasant and faintly detectable spicy aftertaste. If I ain't cryin', it ain't spicy.
For breakfast this morning, I'm finishing my favorite 3 brats and the remaining spaetzle and sauerkraut, then freezing the remaining sausage for use in pizza, stir-fry, or something of the sort later on. Omnom!