I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WÜRST NÜRSE-Hot Hot Hot (2018).

I wanted to find a soundtrack that would go with a book about wurst.  I found this fantastic Australian band with a hilariously appropriate name who also happen to be a band that rails against sexism.

In fact, one of the members of the band is in the fantastic feminist band Camp Cope!

Their story:

In 2016, five nurses with a sick-of-your-shit attitude put down their scalpels to pick up their instruments and Würst Nürse was born!  Würst Nürse are ripping out the stitches of the patriarchy with their dominating & satirical lyrics.  The band consists of Georgia McDonald (Camp Cope) as singing nurse, Anna Stein & Stephanie Butigan as guitar nurses, Morgan Sterley as bass nurse & Abbie Laderman as drummer nurse. Since Würst Nürse’s Fürst Rehürsal they have been administrating sludgey fever-inducing riffs & a power pop energy hot enough to send you into heart block.

This EP has four songs and is 13 minutes long.

It is musically brash with catchy melodies and sing-along choruses.  But its the biting lyrics that are so much fun

Like on “Hot Doctor” which is three chords and a sing along chorus of:
Hot Doctor
Hot Doctor
He’s gonna pay my bills
He’s gonna pay my rent
Hot Doctor
Hot Doctor
Gonna quit my job
Never have to work again

Although the verses are a bit more subversive

I give the wrong meds to get your attention
I want your hot beef injection
Hot Doctor
So, it turns out I didn’t even need that bachelor’s degree anyway
When I saw you walking down the hallway
Oh, Hot Doctor are you coming back to my place?
Your blue scrubs they rub up the right way

“Hot Surgeon” is very different from “Hot Doctor.”  There’s no big chanting chorus, but the lyrics are very different:

I wanna drill into your head
You’re such a hot surgeon
I bet you give great head
I know you’ve got your doctorate
Hot Surgeon
Know your way around a woman
I could help you out in theatre
You could help me put in a catheter
You, me and the Hot Doctor could get it on after hours

Okay maybe not that different.  But it turns out that they are connected:

I wanna get with the hot surgeon
Nobody tell the hot doctor
I don’t wanna ruin my chances

“Hot Brown Rain” is very different from the other “hot” songs because it is a hilariously revolting song about, well, being “number 8 on the Bristol stool chart” [The chart only goes up to 7, ew].  “from your underwear, how did it get in my hair?”  The chorus is surprisingly catching or catchy.

“Dedication Doesn’t Pay The Rent” has big stomping verses and much more pointed lyrics:

Knowledge learnt
Is money spent
And I still owe
The government
And they cut
My pay again
Those suit wearing white men

The chorus is very satisfying too:

No dedication don’t pay the rent
If you cut my pay
I’ll cut your oxygen

Of course I don’t want to see Camp Cope end, but I sure hope Würst Nürse releases more music.

[READ: Summer 2019] The Wurst of Lucky Peach

I really enjoyed Lucky Peach magazine.  It was often exhausting to read them since they were so packed with content (not unlike a sausage).  I was bummed when the magazine folded.  But in addition to several great issues, they also left behind some of these really fun and interesting cookbook-type collections.

This book is more than a series of recipes that I will likely never make or eat.  It is a fun history of the sausage that travels from Europe to the Americas to Australia and beyond.

Chris Ying says he loves sausage.  He says he might be in the world’s best lobster restaurant, but if there’s sausage on the menu that’s what he’s getting.  This book is fill of sausage history, sausage based humor (they tried to limit the number of dirty jokes, but failed often and with gusto).

“Sausage Quest” promises that “wherever there is meat there is sausage.”  They travel to  Germany, Thailand, the UK and the US where sausage has been refined into high art.  But wherever you are in the world you can find meat in tube form.

Europe:
Covers 46 sausages from Portugal, France, UK, Switzerland and more with ingredients of pork, chicken, beef and even horse, offal and blood.  Everything from currywurst to kielbasa to white pudding and beyond.

Peter Meehan rants about Mustard and Chris Ying rants against homemade ketchup [it always tastes worse than the bottled stuff even in fancy restaurants]

Gideon Lewis-Kraus talks about German’s history with sausages and his adventuress in Mitteleuropa.  This includes a photo essay called Euro Trip as they went from Frankfurt to Strasbourg to Munch to Nuremberg and beyond.

Lisa Abend talks about Sweden.

Then a list of African sausages.  There’s only 8 made from boerewors (beef and pork) in South Africa while Osban is made of lamb offal and found in Libya and Tunisia.  African sausages are diverse and delicious.

Asia is much more diverse with “dazzling feats of whole-animal usage” and “an almost religious devotion to American-style hot dogs.”  25 sausage styles are presented from Thailand (Chris Ying travels through Thailand) to Vietnam and both Koreas.  Including street sausages and Waffle Hot Dogs.

Then a look at Australian sausages.  By their own admission, Australians love crappy sausages.   Kanga Bangas are made of kangaroo and the Sausage Sizzle is the cheapest, thinnest sausage sold at the supermarket, grilled on a griddle and served on white bread under chopped onions and ketchup and it’s delicious.

Chris Ying then explicitly rants that there should be No Beans In The Chili.  By which he means hot dog chili.  There follows a hilarious explanation why to remove them from hit dog chili

Then its back to North America where most sausages assumed new identities when immigrants brought them here.

The 22 sausage list starts with the relatively unknown Ach’ii’ a Navajo sausage to the discussion of the Chicago style hot dog.  Of course, they cover andouille and chorizo, corn dogs and Coney Island Dogs and of course pigs in a blanket.  It even gives reasonable coverage of Taylor Pork Roll.

Jonathan Gold tells Peter Meehan that you need cheap sausage if you are making red beans and rice.

Amelia Gray tours Texas and Adam Leith Gollner covers sausages in Canada (where he found an old Mennonite style of making sausage that is somewhat illicit).

South America specializes in remixing Spanish and Portuguese imports in their list of 11 sausages.

Then comes part Two: “Sausage Rest: Let Your Sausage Loose: Dipping your toes in sausage making.”

It has recipes for making your own chorizo and Italian sausages.  There’s a whole section with recipes for making your own sausage in the casings including lobster sausage and pizza sausage.

The Play With Your Weiner chapter shows how to decorate sausages in anything but mustard (including a beanless chili and hot dogs covered in avocado, bacon, and huitlacoche (a fungus that grows on corn).

The International Sausage Cafe features recipes from around the world, most of which are reasonably easy to make.  Sausage and Peppers with Onions, jambalaya, pigs in a blanket, little smokies (with grape jelly and Heinz chili sauce??).  There’s the mysterious Toad in the Hole and even a recipe for franks and beans.  There’s even a recipe for Vietnamese Nem Nuong

The final section tells you everything you’re doing wrong when you’re grilling, smoking , braising sausage.

I don’t really care about the recipes all that much, but I do love the writing from Lucky Peach.  Both the essays and even in the recipes–the writing is fun and funny with snide comments but also really good ideas.

RIP Lucky Peach, but long live the wurst.