Sausage: The 6th Food Group

Last week was spent hanging around inside, learning German and starting some art projects.  Why, you ask?  Because it is now officially fall and fall in German equals cold rainy weather.  So, for the most part, last week was cold and rainy.  Luckily, it takes a while for the full effect to set in, so this week should be nice out, but I came prepared, with boxes and boxes of art supplies.  In fact, I'm even looking forward to endless days of sitting in my cosy apartment with paints and markers and colored pencils while it is drizzly, cold and grey.

The lovely fall weather let up a little over the weekend and we were able to do a few fun things outside.  Sunday was "Reunification Day" which, of course, meant festival.  (Big surprise.)  And along with the festival atmosphere and the cool crisp weather came lots of hungry Germans.  And what do hungry Germans eat?  Bratwurst.  



I've eaten sausage on occasion.  This delicious food is great alongside some pancakes or mixed into a spaghetti sauce or as a topping on pizza, but they way they eat it here, I swear its the 6th food group.  

I've seen construction workers eating them for breakfast, kids eating them for lunch, the often show up on German dinner menus, and people eat them at all hours of the day as a snack.  These giant sausages (the most popular being the Thüringer Rostbratwurst) are served in itty-bitty bun "handles" and are often topped with mustard.  

As I've mentioned before, bratwurst stands are not lacking on the streets of Dresden.  Occasionally you might see 3 or 4 lined up right next to each other.  There are always hoards of people standing around eating their Bratwursts out of their bun-handles.  No matter how often I see it, I'm still amazed at the amount of Bratwurst consumed here.

During festivals there are many of these giant hanging meat grills

all these people are or were just eating Bratwurst

We wandered around the Bürgerfest (which sounds like a festival for burgers, and given this post's topic, that would be appropriate, but its really just what they call the Reunification festival), watching the sausage eaters and listening to music.  Bob even joined in with a Bratwurst of his own (I prefer the awesome ham and cheese filled rolls- like a hot pocket but a zillion times better).

We were glad to enjoy the nice weather while we could!