Sanctuary from The Mad World
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch. - Orson Welles

Despite its rather Germanic origin (famous in South Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), this dish is a Swiss staple, normally found in beer halls or just any restaurant selling typical swiss food.

My first encounter of this salad was in Hasenburg, a notorious beer hall in the city.  Reading the name, I thought it was something of a cobb salad, a salad with chunks of veggies and bits of sausages.  Little did I know that it was chunks of sausages, cheese, and onion with bits of veggies drenched in either Italian or French dressing.  It is normally served as einfach (or simple) as an appetizer or with pommes frites (or french fries) as a heavier main course.
The sausage used is cervelat, a Swiss national sausages made of finely minced beef, pork, bacon, spices and additives encased in intestines.  Its texture is very smooth and crunchy to the bite.  The sausages are staples for barbecues as they are great roasted in open fire or in ovens until it splits without any seasoning or oil.  It is a common sights in Switzerland’s market or fairs to see people standing around little tall round tables with a cervelat dotted with mustard on one hand and a brown bread on the other.  The sausages can be eaten ‘raw’ too as in this wurstsalat.  The only difference is that when eaten raw, the sausages are skinned prior to slicing therefore eliminating the crunch.  Raw is in quotation because the sausages are lightly smoked and boiled at the point of sale.  While great on grills and in stews or soup (I use this very often in my soupy ramen), cervelat is rather heavy for breakfast or in omelet.

The sausage casing comes from Brazil after producers determine that a locally-produced casing is too expensive.  A recent ban by the European Union on bovine products from Brazil due to possible mad-cow disease throws the Swiss into a panic.  A special task-force was created to find substitute to no avail, forcing the parliament to discuss this matter in a session in order to seek special permission from the EU to save their national food item.  Even the Swiss agree that sometimes, their country’s priorities are a little skewed.

Sadly, wurstsalat may not be popular anymore among young Swiss but outing with my older Swiss colleagues on sunny Friday afternoon to a dingy beer hall where there is no single foreigner or young person in sight, well, except me, a plate of wurstsalat and a Stange (a small glass of beer) are always in order.