Working Class Mustard

Ruhr Area – April 2005

A drive through the industrial belt, Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Dortmund, it was Easter Sunday and therefore practically no big wagons on the road which, while it made the journey smoother no doubt, lent an unreal air to the roads (literally). We stopped in a service station of which the region has fewer than elsewhere, and ate Frankfurter sausages with senf alongside the natives. Actually, we didn’t, we had something else, but the natives certainly were eating little else but sausage and mustard, great mounds of mustard which, once their sausage was consumed, they spread liberally on their bread and chomped down heartily. Personally, I don’t like German senf, I find it too sweet and too vinegary. Why is it that ‘working class’ people love sweet, vinegary things so? Not like me, I’m privileged middle class you know.