Mattern Sausage in Orange, Ja, ist das gut.

[Priscilla]

What can one say?

One can't really say too much about Mattern Sausage & Meats. Meaning, there is too too much to be said about the greatness that is Mattern.

In the 1980s at the Orange street fair we were gobsmacked by HOW GOOD were the grilled bratwurst sold by the Phoenix Club. A friend goes well ya, they're from Mattern.

And we were like, wait, Mattern? And she goes, I don't know why you don't go there yourselves, you live right near them. (Hills of E. Orange, at the time.)

So we are like we are SO going there.

And so we did.

And continue to, all this time. When the Dauphin came along and got big enough to be a babe in arms the nice Mattern ladies would give him a slice of tender, perfect garlic bologna to eat... to paraphrase Calvin Trillin writing about Russ & Daughters, I believe it was, in NYC, they know how to treat adorable babies in Mattern. (Also in the Tustin Claro's, I can attest.)

Today, at 6'2" and growing his favorite thing at Mattern is fleischsalat, meat salad. Salad, made of meat. Why mess around?

So, everything is good here. Try the dry cured farmer's ham sliced very very thin w/melon. Don't miss the bockwurst, my personal fave. Bratwurst either raw or smoked, exemplary isn't even the word, and the perfect rolls and mustard of course. Be sure to specify cooked sauerkraut if you want a slightly reduced caramelized version with bits of meat in there and I think you do. Smoked liverwurst, major yum. Double-smoked bacon, perfection. Too much to list. Go look in the case.

I love to buy a smoked pork shop and cook it in a big pot of beans. Oh my goodness. Used to be able to buy lovely veal, made many many a blanquette with it; sadly no more veal in the case. But luckily it's still in the sausages that call for it.

Sandwiches? Fugeddaboutit. Just get a bunch of 'em. Call ahead if it's anywhere like 2 hours on either side of noon. You will not regret this, either the sandwiches or the calling ahead during the lunch rush. It's not unpleasant to wait around in the bustling cheery fray but if you are the slightest bit hungry the sights and sounds and smells will excruciate you.

Conveniently, we kept our E. Orange dentist and hygenist and we can combine our regular teeth cleaning w/Mattern visits now that we no longer live nearby.

How often does one have the good fortune to find such important things as a good dentist and a stellar German sausage shop that stay the same, improve, even, over more or less 20 years of patronage?

[Priscilla]

And the latest after-dentist haul, just yesterday: Bockwurst, potato salade (German; they also have a mayonnaise-dressed one, also good), cooked sauerkraut, meat salade, kielbasa (not-hot; also have hot) for upcoming lentil soup, knackwurst for the freezer for future Mattern emergency meal, 3 lbs. double-smoked bacon, also for the freezer.

Couple of cute German chocolate foil-wrapped Christmas ornaments, one for the Dauphin and one for our niece, which they will find on the tree. Holiday traditional unbelievably cute potato-shaped marzipan for Ivan, I can always count on Mattern for these, too. A new-to-me Ritter Sport in a chartreuse wrapper -- Madagascar cacao? Fahncy!

Some sliced rye from up there on the top of the counter and a jar of the sweet whole-grain mustard with the green lid.

Lots of cheeriness and good eavesdropping -- the usual Mattern bonus.

[Priscilla]

Dan Garion says Mattern does bangers!

HOW in the WORLD did I miss that, all these 20 years or so???

Can't wait to try!

[DanGarion]

Dan Garion says Mattern does bangers!

HOW in the WORLD did I miss that, all these 20 years or so???

Can't wait to try!

They are in the freezer.

[Priscilla]

Yay! I had to go to the dentist today! Well really the hygienist for a cleaning. Yes, all was well, all the way back to the wisdoms. And I did say hello to the dentist.

But of course the real reason for elation is that a visit to the dentist, who along with our hygienist we love and adore and have kept lo these many years since we moved from the neighborhood, means I'm a hop skip & c. from Mattern.

Bockwurst for dinner!

Double-smoked bacon restocked. We'll all be able to sleep better now.

Mustards, 2 neu Ritter Sport varieties, rye bread (I like the large-scale sliced one on top of the counter), fleischsalat, German potato salade, cooked sauerkraut. Pickles. Smoked liverwurst... how long has it been? Suffice to say, too long. Knackwurst, for which I have plans.

Brought Le Mangeur a Mattern Poor Boy san for lunch. Have I mentioned the Poor Boy san? Srsly. WHAT a good san. Get it with everything.

AND saw a cute little blondiehead, not as cute as MY little blondiehead, but cute, sitting in a chair carefully eating his traditional baby treat, the tender mild perfect garlic bologna. Ya, I cried a little. I was on my way out and my sunglasses gave me cover.

Good to see little ones of today continue to be treated appropriately. Good to see we ALL are treated appropriately, at Mattern!

[Priscilla]

Lovely Matternage this a.m. ... wasn't as zooey as I'd feared, but then too there were more people working behind the counter than ever before seen so that helped move 'em out.

But entirely pleasant just to be in there, as usual, Willy himself wie gehtin' right and left, as is his custom.

Le Mangeur had his brezel, as has been traditional since, oh, 1992 or so. No one offered him a slice of tender garlic bologna to hold in his little hand and eat, but then his hand, nor the rest of him, are any too small any more, but everyone was glad to see him just the same.

Course I bought him his fleishsalat as part of our general Mattern provisioning, and a couple Ritter Sports in flavors not found at our usual Ritter Sport source, Mission Ranch Market.

Mattern has always been a very Merry Christmas sort of place, and today was beautifully more of the same.