Gibt mir dein Wurst

In Basel and Freiburg and Stegen in the Schwarzwald, I've had three varieties of wurst so far this vacation, all of them excellent, worlds beyond anything like the hot dogs, sausages, kielbasa and bratwurst I've eaten in the States.

I wonder if it's the lack of nitrates or other preservatives, but H says the meat is just probably a higher quality - not so much the leavings of an industrial food system.

The beer is excellent here, too, but you can get beer this good on the east coast of the United States. Just not on the west coast, which is plagued by hyper-carbonated "micro-brews."

We do have salmon in the Pacific Northwest. That alone justifies a decision to headquarter there.