Recipe: Spätzle and Sausage + a trip to Old World Village

Back in our first trip to Seattle, Minh and I stumbled across a German restaurant on the edge of town. I can’t remember what it was called or where exactly it was located.. all I really remember from that day was being extremely tired (from a flight, only a few hours of sleep in the car, an early hike at the base of Mount Rainier, and lots of driving around and arguing with Minh… I was pretty cranky)…. and I vaguely remember our meal. And this was when I first discovered that Minh (and I) was IN LOVE with beer, sausage… and spätzle!!!

For a long time, we didn’t know what to call this dish because it came as a side on our sausage plate, and we just referred to it as the cheesy side. Minh SWORE that it was some sort of mac’n'cheese, while I thought it was more like a doughy “rice” with cheese. Eventually, we determined that it was spätzle, and we went on a mission to find some nearby.

Which brings us to… OLD WORLD VILLAGE in Huntington Beach. I’ve only been to Old World a handful of times, but we new that there was supposed to be a “good” German market and deli there, so we stopped by in search of good sausage. Imagine our delight when we found out that they were selling spätzle! The woman who helped us (the owner maybe), was a little bit weirded out by the fact that we wanted to buy a pound to take home (since they were serving it in the dining area), but she was very helpful in telling us how to prepare it at home. It came already boiled, so we just had to saute it with some butter and melt some cheese into it. We also bought a pound of dry “hot’n'spicy” sausage and headed home to make dinner.

Hot'n'Spicy SAUSAGE!!! (dry and cooked)

Delicious grated mix of cheeses...

Saute that spätzle in HOT BUTTER!!!

It turned out pretty good… I went a little crazy with the butter, so it was a bit “greasier” than perfect, but the balance of the cheese and the spice of the sausage made it a pretty good dinner for two. We even had some German beer to round out the meal.

Dinner and a movie...

Review: Valhalla Table

Last Sunday (January 30) was Minh’s Birthday. For whatever reason, I made NO PLANS to celebrate his birthday. We went to church in the morning.. had breakfast.. watched some TV.. had lunch.. hung out at Barnes and Noble for HOURS (one of our FAVORITE activities) .. and then planned to go to dinner.. this is where the “no plans” went horrible awry… Ends up that at some point between paying for lunch (at Boudin’s) and hanging out at B&N for hours, my wallet went mysteriously misplaced. It must have fallen out of my purse when I was pulling out my phone or something.. either way, we didn’t realize that it was gone until we went to pay and I had no wallet (note.. this is the third time I’ve lost my wallet.. it really sucks). The one thing I did plan for the night was where to have dinner.. We were going to try out Valhalla Table at the CAMP since Minh and I LOVE LOVE LOVE sausage and beer… but since I was now totally bummed out, we decided to just go home and call the necessary banks and such and order pizza….

Fast forward to this past weekend.. we were originally going to get dinner at the Tet Festival in Garden Grove, but Minh didn’t want to deal with the parking and the crowds and the noise.. so we headed to Valhalla Table for dinner (side note.. the streets were absolutely DEAD because people were inside watching the Superbowl). The place was DEAD.. we were the only customers in the place for a while (but people started showing up later).

We ordered three sausages (served in french baguette) and an order of Belgium fries with garlic aioli… The fries were DELICIOUS, as was the garlic aioli. They were pretty much fried perfectly (with a nice golden color, crunchy outer, and soft inner) and lightly salted.

Sausages (top to bottom): Wild Boar Balinese, Traditional Bratwurst, Veal with Basil and Parmesan

Sausage #1: Traditional Bratwurst with Homemade Sauerkraut

There wasn’t anything special about the bratwurst. It was a good sausage, though a little bland.. definitely needs ketchup and a little brown mustard. The homemade sauerkraut is good, but nothing to write home about. It’s good if you want a traditional bratwurst and don’t know where else to go to get one.

Sausage #2: Veal with Basil and Parmesan with Sweet Peppers

The veal sausage was actually pretty good. I think it had a great flavor, probably from the crumbled bacon on top and mixed in Parmesan. It was better with less sweet peppers, since the peppers tend to overpower the sausage. It doesn’t need any extra condiments, but if you have some extra garlic aioli from the fries, it doesn’t hurt to spread some on the bun. It actually tastes very good.

Sausage #3: Wild Boar Balinese with Caramelized Onions

I don’t know why, but I was surprised at how “wild” this sausage tasted… it had an earthy taste to it, like goat meat or lamb. I’m not complaining, the sausage was good. But like the bratwurst, it was a little bland, so needed the addition of ketchup.

And.. of course.. you can’t have sausage without beer. Minh got a bottle of Palm and I got a bottle of Mad River Brewing Co. Steelhead Scotch Porter.

Overall, Valhalla Table isn’t awesome, but it isn’t bad either. It’s a good place to go if you’re craving sausage, and it’s reasonable priced. The menu is simple, the staff is nice, the decor is clean… I would definitely come back to try something different on their menu… maybe the duck, buffalo, or Texas BBQ.

Valhalla Table
2981 Bristol Street (the CAMP)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 549-2960
http://www.valhallatable.com