‘German’
Oh Hofbrauhaus, how you manage to put items on a menu like “Kartoffelpfannkuchen” amazes me considering the size of your beer steins. I can’t pronounce things like that without beer in me, and it doesn’t get much better afterwards. Nonetheless, at least in Pittsburgh (as opposed to Germany) I can get a good explanation of what each dish is.
Buffalo is not a new city. In fact, it’s so old that they have a place called Ulrich’s 1868 Tavern. The 1868 means it first opened in 1868, you know, three years after the Civil War concluded and the first year of the Meiji Restoration. So the place is old, and despite some recent renovations, Ulrich’s definitely maintains the old world charm that makes it easy to picture old shipmen in the 1800s hanging out with Buffalo wenches.
Since the US is a big mishmash of immigrants, it’s no secret that just about all of our food is “ethnic” in some way. Yet, there are some types of food that aren’t exactly easy to find. Hungarian is one of these and it’s really no surprise, considering that only .5% of the US population is Hungarian American. I’m not part of that .5%, but definitely feel a connection to Hungary through my Hungarian step-mom. So when I learned that there was a Hungarian restaurant called Maximillian’s quite literally a couple blocks from my office, I made my way there at my first opportunity.
Sausages are all the rage these days, and why shouldn’t they be? Who can turn down a good old fashioned tube and a nice brewski? For once, I could. You see, while I headed to Wirtshaus in Mid-City fully intending to tackle some sort of “wurst,” I surprised myself by going in a different direction. This direction was that of pretzel and schnitzel (and never fear, for I made sure to take down a brewski as well).
In a clear trend of awesome, Brats Brothers is one of the newest gourmet/exotic sausage/bratwurst places to hit LA (okay, they’ve been around since 2007, but just moved to a new location). Within 48 hours of learning of its existence, I made my way out to Sherman Oaks for lunch to see how it stacked up against its brethren. Made up to look all German-like and with a hostess/waitress that was also decidedly German (accent and all), Brats Brothers seemed a little more authentic than hipster-loving joints like Wurstkuche.
You know what’s great? Sausage. You know what goes great with sausage? Beer. So what does Steingarten, a recently opened restaurant/bar in West LA, have to offer? That’s right, sausage and beer. But not just any sausage and beer, sure they have your generic bratwurst, buckwurst, Polish and Italian sausages, but similar to Wurstkuche, they like to get exotic. With rabbit, venison, alligator and elk, these are truly some sausages to be reckoned with and not for those with a weak stomach.
As an unvegan I always like to be on the forefront of any sausage happenings around LA. Fortunately I have my friend DCo1 to keep in the know and he informed me of some new sausage popping up in Silver Lake called Berlin Currywurst. I am not the most knowledgeable about food from Germany, but I figured I am a fan of curry and a fan of bratwurst, so a place that combined the two sounded great in my book.