Searching for the Wurst

I haven't posted in ages -- the sign of a busy life, but also one with a lot of fun, experimental, and inventive cooking that went unphotographed and undocumented. However, I am planning to return with recipe ideas and food experiences soon. Until then, I'll share the news that an essay of mine on culinary fusion in Texas will appear in the literary journal The Southwest Review.

I'll post more once I know the date of publication, but I will say that I recount my experiences of attending the New Braunfels Wurstfest. And, strangely, wurst has lately become a bit of an obsession of mine. Not culinarily, because I can take or leave meat these days, but culturally. I'm starting to think that if you want to know a culture, you need to figure out what they grind up and put in their pigs' intestines. Recent bedtime reading has included Uwe Timm's novel Die Entdeckung Der Currywurst (translated into English as The Invention of Curried Sausage), Petra Boden's business history of Berliner currywurst sellers called Die Berliner Currywurst, and now Wiglaf Droste's Wurst.