In case my adoring fans thought the title of this entry is misspelled, it is not. Last weekend, my husband and I went to Hermann, Missouri for the Wurstfest. It was a two-day celebration of Hermann's 160-year history of sausage making and German culture. It sure was the best Wurst Festival!
For a very reasonable cost of $6.00 per person, we were invited to sample various sausages made by local sausage makers. There were products available to purchase after the sampling. There were also wine tasting, guided tours at the many wineries, German music and dancing and of course, demonstrations of sausage making the old traditional way. We purchased jalapeno & cheddar (spicy), Smoked Kielbasa (Polish) for my husband, Sweet Lebanon Bologna, Smoked Polynesian (also sweet) for me and a small package of snack sticks.
The town of Hermann is about an hour from St. Louis. According to the tourism brochure, Hermann was founded in 1836 by the German winegrowers in search of the ideal location for their vineyards. They found a site bounded by hills and bluffs on three sides and the Missouri River on the north which was similar to the Rhine River region in Germany. In addition to the famous family-owned wineries, there are many bed & breakfast inns with the view of the Missouri River, many fine restaurants with authentic local cookings, gift shops and antiques places.
While sampling the sausages, I learned a bit of history about different kinds of bratwursts. I learned that summer sausage is a general term for the kind of sausage that was made using extra dried salty ingredient to keep for a long time since a hundred years ago there was no refrigeration to store the meat. Actually the Hawaiian bratwurst tasted almost like the Chinese sausage. We called it "lap xuong" in Vietnamese. I think my Mom still puts "lap xuong" in her famous fried rice. There are also jerky but I did not care much because the western jerky are tough and hard, unlike the jerky found in Chinese grocery shops, tender, sweet and juicy.
I sure came a long way when I was a newly arrival Vietnamese refugee learning about the American fastfood. There was a Burger King near Magda K. Company (my first job in America). Once a week, instead to bringing lunch, I would go to Burger King, pointed at an item such as Whopper, ordered it, ate it to learned what a whopper was and asked someone at work how to pronounce "whopper". Later I tried "Big Mac" at McDonnald, learned about french fries and no longer questioned how anyone could eat so much meat or food in one meal.
It was a beautiful day when we were in town. After the tasting of sausage, we went down to the park by the river, with a bag of fresh kettle korn, we watched the trains went by, waved at the conductors and exchanged friendly greetings - what a relaxing day in the old charming American town.
For someone who does not appreciate or collect recipes and do not enjoy drinking, I sure had a great time in Hermann. We plan to go back in June (8-10) when "A Taste for the Arts" festival takes place.
No comments:
Post a Comment