Wurstsalat

Friday a guy from work (Paul) and I went to lunch at the German “cantina/cafeteria” near work. They have display plates of all of the food they are serving that day near the entrance. Much of the time the displays are fairly recognizable; however, sometimes they can trick you. The previous two days nothing has looked very tantalizing (on Thursday a couple of us just turned around and went down the street for Döners). This 2-day stretch came as a surprise to me, because it had generally been pretty good in the past. So on Friday we are looking at the display plates and I see some type of salad on the top shelf. It looks like some kind of washed out pasta salad or something. It did not have much color to it, just a bland, pale, off-tan color. I might have mentioned how it didn’t look appetizing. Then I saw the name, “Wurstsalat”. It may have been the very same instant that Paul asked me if I liked bologna. He told me that Wurstsalat is a traditional Bavarian meal. I knew that I had to try it.

When I got it to the table, I looked at it again. What had looked like washed out pasta was actually gleamingly unctuous, delicious strips of wurst (OK, it was bologna, but they don’t call it that here). The wurst was cut into strips approximately 1/8” X 1/8” X 2”. Into this delicious looking base went some peppers, olives, onions, herbs, and an oil & vinegar dressing. It also had some lighter colored mystery meat-like-substance, but I was not able to identify it. It was served cold, and was really quite good.

Here’s a picture I got off the internet. It came from a site that may actually be dedicated to Wurstsalat, but as it is in German, I can’t verify that. The picture looks quite close to the lunch I had Friday. Just take away the bread and tomato.