German Sauerkraut
   with Ham Slices and Bratwurst

Lauren Wilson

I remember it was Thanksgiving, and as always, I was very excited to go to my Aunt Tina's house. This was a special Thanksgiving in particular because my family from Germany came over for a visit. They always introduce us to new things, especially new flavors of food that we all jump for joy over.

This time, my great grandmother, Siska Oma, began making Sauerkraut. She added ham slices to it, which made it fabulous, and she put a piece of classic German Bratwurst on the side of the dish. Everybody kept peering over her shoulder to see what smelled so good. I remember that, when she brought out the meal, everyone's mouths dropped. That was the first thing that everybody wanted to try.

Usually I am not into trying new things, so I was not as enthused as everyone else, but of course my family forced me to take a bite. And it turned out better than I could have imagined. I don't know why, but I'll never forget taking the first bite with the intent to hate it, already having that look of disgust on my face before I ate it. But after I swallowed it, I couldn't do anything but smile. It was great!

There's nothing that bothered me about eating it, like most German foods. The Bratwurst was the best. It tasted different than any other meat I had tasted. I looked around and felt like I was part of the crowd, enjoying something new and different.

Now, every time Thanksgiving rolls around, although my relatives can't always be around, we still make the dish in honor of what they taught us. Otherwise, if we didn't make it, we would probably hear some complaints.