01x02 - The All American Weiner

[bunniefuu]

[CROWD CHATTER]

[INSTRUMENTAL
NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS]

♪ ♪

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

♪ ♪

Mmm.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

I came to America
when I was four.

I'm an immigrant,
and I'm not alone.

I've spent my life writing
about food

and tasting the world.

Now, I wanna explore who we
are through the food we eat.

My game is strong.

What exactly is American food?

And what makes us American?

I'm Padma Lakshmi.

Come with me
as we taste the nation.

♪ ♪

[UPLIFTING MUSIC]

♪ ♪

How long have you been driving
the Weinermobile, Alex?

I've been driving for
about two months,

so I'm still
pretty new to the job.

Yep, I'm riding around
in a giant Weinermobile.

And my seven‐year‐old self
is very happy right now.

CHRISTINA:
Which one are we singing?

PADMA: We can do the wiener one.
ALEX: Okay.

ALL: ♪ Oh, I wish I was
an Oscar Mayer Wiener ♪

♪ That is what
I'd truly like to be ♪

♪ 'Cause if I was
an Oscar Mayer Wiener ♪

♪ Everyone would be in love
with me ♪

[LAUGHTER]

PADMA: One thing a lot of people

probably don't know about me,

is that my love
of the frankfurter runs deep.

I came here to New York
when I was four,

and we lived in the city,

and there were hot dog stands
everywhere.

And, you know,
because of my religion,

I was, uh, vegetarian,
and so I couldn't eat the meat.

So my mother and I,

we'd just ask for a hot dog
with everything

the bun, and all of
the sauerkraut, and onions,

and mustard, but not the dog.

I loved the hot dog
before I ever had it.

CHRISTINA: Because it represented
what America is. PADMA: Yeah.

[EXCITING MUSIC]

I've eaten a lot of amazing food

from around the world
in my life,

but I gotta admit,
sometimes nothing beats

a good old American hot dog.

But is that hot dog
really American?

No, it's not.

The hot dog actually
originated in Germany,

and the fact
that it's a mystery to some

is at the heart
of this immigration story.

German immigrants have
assimilated so deeply

that their cuisine has
essentially been absorbed

into American culture.

Is that how it works?

If you're here long enough,

assimilation essentially
overrides your roots?

Or can communities
find a way to be

both quintessentially American

and still keep
their culture alive?

Maybe Milwaukee is just
the place to find out.

♪ ♪

When the Germans
started coming here,

uh, they brought a lot
of their cuisine.

Uh, from their beer,
their sausage making.

It's all a European
tradition here.

The architecture here‐‐
it's an old city.

German culture? Whoa.

Well, it is so imbedded
in the city of Milwaukee.

Right around the turn
of the century,

there were three newspapers.

Of the three,
two were printed in German.

So that gives you an idea
of the bandwidth

of immigrants that came
directly from Germany

in the late 1800s.

[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]

♪ ♪

PADMA: This is local
culinary writer

and food historian
Christina Ward.

She knows everything about
the Milwaukee food scene.

We grow up thinking, like,

all this German type food
is American food.

That's always been our pathway
to becoming an American

is through our stomachs.
Through our food.

PADMA: In the mid‐19th century,

America was expanding,

and Germans started to
emigrate to the Midwest.

CHRISTINA: There was
a civil w*r in Germany,

and it wasn't always just
the poorest of people.

It was the intellectual classes
being driven out,

searching for a new home.

It's incredible how, you
know, these people came here

they're willing to till the land

and make a life here and settle

clear and settle
this virtual frontier.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

♪ ♪

PADMA: Alex? ALEX: Yeah?

PADMA: I hear that Oscar Mayer
was started by an immigrant.

Yeah, no, it absolutely was.

Um, so Oscar Mayer was actually
a German immigrant,

and he emigrated here
when he was 14

and started Oscar Mayer in 1883.

So there's a lot of German
history with Oscar Mayer.

The Oscar Mayer company

was the first company with,
uh, food processing

to actually do
the plastic packaging.

So where before
you'd have to go to

your local neighborhood butcher,

they were able to store
it longer,

ship it out to different
grocery stores,

and that's how Oscar Mayer

helped take over
the United States.

- Wow.
- And make 'em so popular.

PADMA: Oscar made
the hot dog popular,

but it wouldn't exist at all

if the traditional sausage
hadn't paved the way first.

The sausage in Milwaukee
is the best in the world.

Come on.
It's a sausage culture here.

Some people don't realize the
history behind the sausage.

They just know it's delicious,

and that's all
that really matters.

WOMAN: Sausage is such an
important part

of German culture.

Pair it off with an incredibly
frothy beer,

that's tasty, tasty meal.

MAN: Everybody in Milwaukee
eats sausage.

I mean, if you don't,

you're obviously a vegetarian
or something,

but you know that's not
the case most of the time.

I mean, everybody has sausage,

and if you want the best,
you go to Usinger's.

PADMA: You can't have sausage
in Milwaukee

without hearing
the Usinger name.

They are 125‐that's right

125 varieties of sausage here.

Sold to restaurants
around the country.

And it all started with
another German immigrant.

Fredrick Usinger came
to the U. S. In 1870

with $400 and a handful
of sausage recipes.

He worked at a local Milwaukee
butcher shop,

and eventually bought
the business from his boss,

and he started his own
American dream.

♪ ♪

Four generations later,

Fritz Usinger oversees
that same dream.

FRITZ: So welcome to
our retail store.

This my great grandmother
ran the store.

She managed the store.

My great grandfather made
the sausage in the back.

And we've preserved it.
It's like our philosophy

on preserving the way
we make our sausage.

PADMA: So keeping this cultural
landmark alive‐.

- Right.
- Keeping the old product

exactly the way it was made,
traditionally.

- It's a tall order.
- Well, it's‐‐you know,

it's what we do. [LAUGHS]

Just how you make the sausage.

It's just how we do it.

PADMA: So how do you
make sausage?

♪ ♪

Most traditional sausage is
made with finely chopped pork,

beef, or veal,
and seasoned with salt,

pepper, nutmeg,
and other regional spices

then put into a casing.

And by the way, that casing
is an animal intestine.

What goes into Usinger Sausage
is a tightly guarded secret,

but it's what happens next

that really creates
that sausage flavor.

- Let you have one of those.
- Ooh, nice.

FRITZ: So these are
the smoke houses.

So the product is actually
smoked over an open fire.

This used to be the way it
was done generations ago,

but this is very unique
in the industry nowadays.

And now you get to be
junior pyro.

PADMA: Okay.

FRITZ: Take a little bit
of sawdust.

PADMA: At Usinger's, this very
traditional smoking technique

hasn't changed in 130 years.

FRITZ: Perfect.

Okay, excellent.

Whoo.

- That is hearty work.
- [LAUGHS]

PADMA: Kinda scary down here.

It reminds you of, like, the
oven in "Hansel and Gretel."

[LAUGHS]

PADMA: Wow, those are beautiful.

FRITZ: Mm‐hmm.
Now, that's summer sausage.

That's pork and beef.

PADMA: They look gorgeous.

It's lovely to see something
done in such an elemental way.

You know, the fact that you
have this big industry,

and yet you get it as close
to being homemade as possible.

[BASS MUSIC]

♪ ♪

Hi. Thank you.

That looks delicious.

This is the quintessential
German food, right?

Correct. Right. Bratwurst?

I kind of have own way
of sort of eating them.

- Okay.
- You wanna experience that?

- Yes, yes.
- So I just take my sausage

roll, and I take a
little bit of the inside out

- I do that with a bagel.
- A little bit

I take one of these.

Looks like a hot dog.
You know that.

Yeah, sorta.
So a little bit of diced

raw onions I'm gonna‐‐I'm gonna
put in the pocket here.

Garden tomato. Great.

- I like‐‐I like that too.
- Me too.

Enjoy. Thank you.

Mmm!

That's delicious. Mm‐hmm.

That's a Wisconsin product.
Fresh brats.

Now, we call them wieners.
We don't call them hot dogs.

In the hot dog biz,
you don't say hot dogs?

Eh, we don't
call 'em hot dogs.

FRITZ: The lore goes
that that came about

somewhere, maybe, I think

during a New York
World's Fair at some point.

I know the story
you're gonna tell.

Mm‐hmm. Please tell it.

Because I love it so much.

Oh, I‐‐I‐‐I don't know
all the details, but‐‐but‐.

Okay, let's compare notes.
Here's what I know.

There was this guy who came
over from Frankfurt.

It was some kind of county fair,

and he was handing out
these sausages‐.

Wienerwursts. Or wieners.

You know, they were so hot
that people couldn't...

BOTH: Hold them.

So he bought some really
simple cheap buns.

- Put a knife through it.
- Yeah.

And used it as a holder‐‐
Right.

For the sausage. Right.

- Is that the story you know?
- Yeah, basically.

[WARM MUSIC]

You cannot separate the
bratwurst in this country

from German roots in Milwaukee.

I know it's a family business,

but is this the way
that you connect

most to your German culture?

Without a doubt.

We were caretakers of
our great grandfather's dream,

that his dream was to come to
the United States,

apply his craft,
and we've kept his dream alive.

♪ ♪

[UPBEAT ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC]

CHRISTINA: In Milwaukee,

the beer culture
was so predominant.

We're coming into the district
of the Milwaukee legacy.

Over to your left a little
bit, you see the breweries.

PADMA: What would a sausage be
without a cold beer?

That too, is part of
Milwaukee's heritage.

In a town that is made
with 25% Germans,

you have to have a lot of beer.

Have you noticed
how beer gardens

are popping up everywhere?

This whole culture resonates
with our Germanic roots.

The perfect German lager
that you might find

of course, it has to be cold.

It's a golden color,
and it's just smooth.

Very refreshing.

PADMA: Germans brought
the lager to America.

Light, crispy, bubbly,

on these hallowed grounds,
and from this local water,

some of the most iconic
American beers

got their start‐‐.

Pabst Blue Ribbon,
Miller, Schlitz.

These brands were created
by German immigrants.

Then they were Americanized

and turned into mega industries.

But some people are returning
beer back to its roots.

And Josh Strupp has gone deep.

Beer is more than a drink
for Josh.

It's a way for him to connect
to his heritage.

His lagers are how he celebrates

a culture and pastime

that's a little bit American
and a whole lot German.

I actually have no clue
how beer is made,

but in Josh's garage,
I'm about to find out.

- All right.
- Ready for some beer?

I think so.

A fairly simple setup,
this is‐.

- Fairly simple, huh?
- It‐‐actually it is.

It's very simple. [LAUGHS]

This is our mash tun.
So what this is is just

basically there's heated water
in here.

And once we add the grains,

we can filter this out
into the boil kettle.

And that cooks the beer.

That's what cooks the wort,
yeah.

What is a wort?

Wort is actually, um,
unfermented, uh, beer.

And what makes beer beer

is exactly what you see
in the flask.

Yeast. With yeast.

It's what converts your
unfermented sugars

into alcohol and CO2.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

♪ ♪

We need to crack 40 pounds
of grain today.

- Okay.
- If you wanna taste this,

it's actually pretty delicious.

So that's German Munich.
You'll get a lot of bre‐.

And that's the name
of the grain?

Yeah, it's continental
Munich malt.

It's something you're not
gonna find in the States.

Wow, it is good!

It's got a little bit
of breadiness to it.

That's really what makes
a good, uh,

traditional German beer.

All right. All of it?

Okay, let me turn it on.

It smells like
a malted milk ball.

- Yeah, absolutely.
- It really does.

I think he's making me
work hard on purpose.

Is there some beer baron ritual
where you haze newcomers?

JOSH: Yeah, you have to do
the hard work.

Now, so we're gonna hydrate
the grain

in our mash tun. Yup.

- Pour it all in?
- Pour it all in.

[DRUM MUSIC]

Take the mash paddle
and stir it up.

♪ ♪

What we're actually doing now

is we're converting starches
into fermentable sugars.

At an hour almost every,
uh, malted grain

will fully convert.

So how'd you get
into beer making?

JOSH: I spent some time
in Vienna.

When I got back,
I really embraced

my Austrian‐German heritage.

And this is one of the ways

that I can sort of convey that.

My father‐in‐law has been
brewing for 30 years or so,

and he happened to have
all the equipment,

so we started on the stove.

This is something that we as
a family do for Christmas‐,

for all the holidays.

Rather than sit, you know,
in front of a TV

and watch a baseball game,
football game,

we sit over a brew kettle.

So it's a pretty important
thing for our family.

Well, it's a nice way to bond.

PADMA: How am I doing?
JOSH: You're doing great.

And we're done‐‐we're all mixed
up and ready to go.

- Oh, you are hazing me.
- You're good.

I just had you go an extra


because you never brewed before.

All right, fine, thank you.
That was exciting.

So‐‐okay.
No problem, no problem.

So the recipe is German,
the grain is German,

but it's an American‐made
product.

So it's really
German‐American beer.

Absolutely.
It's all things German

coming to a garage in
Southwestern Milwaukee County.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

So 60 minutes in the mash tun,

we've converted all our sugars.

And now we're adding
to the boil kettle.

Okay, I'm pulling this valve?

JOSH: There it is.

We get the wort into
the brew kettle,

and we'll
try to get this to a boil.

And once we add yeast,
the yeast is going to ferment,

uh, all the fermentable sugars
in there.

Yeah, you can get a good

you can actually sample it
if you like.

[PLAYFUL MUSIC]

So, it should be fairly sweet.

I'm trying to think
of what it tastes like.

It tastes like corn.

Don't you think so? Try that.

Sure.

Mm‐hmm, it's definitely got
a graininess to it.

So it's just like cooking.

You have to cook
with your sense of smell,

your sense of taste.

Absolutely.

This is what guys do.

Now I know why it's so much fun.

[LAUGHS]

Okay, so after this...

We're gonna try
to get this to a boil,

and once we start
a rolling boil,

we're gonna add some hops.

These are bittering hops
that are typically, um, used

in, uh, German‐style lagers.

Go ahead and add 'em in,

and you'll notice
when you smell 'em,

how you get
this citrus‐y character.

It's just absolutely delicious.

It went from, when it was dry,

smelling a little like
mown grass

- that's kind of dried out.
- Yeah.

And then it started smelling
a little fishy as well,

like seaweed.

Should be a beer judge.

Oh, I think I would burp
my way to Hell if I did.

[LAUGHS]

I take one sip of beer,
and I burp four times.

You just burp and then go out
the nose with it, so then

I tried that.
That does not work at all.

It works great!
It's a filter too.

No, it doesn't.
No, it doesn't.

When you burp‐‐
I tried that.

My lips kind of‐[PUFFS]

burst open with the force
of my burp.

You just need more experience
with it, I'm telling you.

You burp out through the nose,
no one will ever know.

Once we chill it, we'll put it
into a fermentation vessel

and then it'll ferment
for about two weeks.

All right, so I feel like
I've worked really hard

- over a steaming cauldron.
- Yes.

Can I taste some of this beer?

Do you have any‐‐
Oh, I suppose.

- Couple around here somewhere.
- I'm‐‐yeah, I'm figuring

you have some cold beer.

You're never out of beer, right?

I do‐‐in fact, I was hoping
you'd ask me a long time ago.

[LAUGHS] All right.

Well, I don't like to drink
while I work, but cheers.

All right, cheers.
Cheers to you.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

So if you notice on‐Ah.

Yeah, it's good, huh? [LAUGHS]

- It's downright effervescent.
- It's pretty good.

Thank you. It's very crisp.

- That's a good beer.
- Thank you.

Especially on a hot day
like this.

- Yeah, yeah.
- Thank you so much.

- Absolutely, absolutely.
- I'm gonna make beer

- and think of you.
- That sounds good.

- Making me burp a little.
- [LAUGHS]

[UPBEAT FOLKSY MUSIC]

♪ ♪

MAN: Our food has some history
to it,

and this is the history
that the Germans brought here

that made a big difference
on the culture

of not only Milwaukee,
but the United States.

♪ ♪

What is the unsung hero,
culinarily speaking,

um, of Milwaukee?

Like, I'm trying to get
to the nitty‐gritty.

Where should I absolutely go
to have X?

For, like, German food,
I think, you know,

going to Kegel's,
which is I think third,

or fourth‐generation
German‐owned,

and they're still doing
very traditional German food,

and doing it well.

PADMA: When most of us think
of where to dine

or what cuisine to order in,

we often forget
about German food,

in part because
only the greatest hits have,

well, become American.

But Kegel's reminds us

that these old‐school classics
are actually German.

It's food that is both foreign
yet familiar,

and keeping that balance
is the responsibility,

and maybe even the burden,
of Julian Kegel,

who took over five years ago.

So your family has owned
this building since the '20s.

JULIAN: Yes.

So in this one, we have John T.,

the original founder,
my great‐grandpa,

and then he let it go
to George, who is my grandpa.

It was supposed to be
a gathering place.

It was supposed to be a place

where the family
met the community.

Beer gardens
were on every corner,

drinking was part
of the social fabric

of Sunday after church, right?

We'd have beer and‐‐
Bratwurst.

Yeah, brats, and anything
that was German

felt good here in Milwaukee.

[PLANE ENGINE ROARING]

PADMA: But those good times
were interrupted

by the World Wars.

When Americans fought
against Germans over there,

back here, German immigrants
had to hide their origins,

or worse.

11,000 were put
in internment camps

in World w*r II.

If you're German
and you have this beautiful,

uh, what they call
gemuetlichkeit, right?

This, like, convivial nature

of, like, togetherness
and whatnot,

now all of a sudden,
you're labeled as an enemy.

You could get beat up or k*lled

for speaking German
to your neighbor,

so we had to pretend
to not be German.

PADMA: Restaurants and all
signs of Germanic culture

slowly disappeared.

Germans began to cloak
themselves in plain sight,

right into American society.

They had to assimilate

in order to avoid
being targeted.

And let's face it,

it didn't hurt that Germans
were predominantly white.

For the most part,

I think Germans
have assimilated so much that‐.

That they've disappeared or‐.

Well, that the German culture

has just kind of been washed
into American culture.

Yeah.
When you eat a hamburger,

you don't recognize its roots,
right?

Like, that's‐‐that's how‐‐
how far down

the rabbit hole we've got

in terms of losing our culture,
right?

- Yeah.
- So maybe the w*r effort

and hiding as a German,
it went too far.

PADMA: Can a simple dish help
reconnect those roots?

I have two words:

Wiener schnitzel.

[FUNKY MUSIC]

Look at how worn this is.

There's a big dip here.
Is that from


of pounding schnitzel to order.

Right here, huh? Yeah.

PADMA: Schnitzel is a thin,
boneless cutlet of meat

that's coated in breadcrumbs
and served with a lemon wedge.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

So this is veal. Yep.

Let's see how you pound
this baby.

Gentle, but yet firm,

so it's really gonna spread.

We want it nice and thin,

and that's gonna cook
really evenly,

and when we look at it,

we don't want to see
any holes through it,

but it's definitely
translucent, right?

Mm‐hmm.

- Get out all my aggression.
- [LAUGHS]

So what is the key to the
best schnitzel in the world?

Breadcrumbs. Okay, what's in

- your breadcrumb mix?
- That's secret.

[BOTH LAUGH]

It's a traditional batch

that my great‐grandma made
for the restaurant

and it's been the same
ever since.

- Okay, so first, the flour.
- Yep.

And that's gonna give the veal
a nice sticking power.

Mm‐hmm.

Stir it
into the pre‐dip batter.

Now we've got
a really gluey substance

for those breadcrumbs
to adhere well to.

Part of the traditional sense
of our restaurant

is that you can tell
it's made by hand.

There's a lot of character
in it.

Well,
this is definitely handmade.

[BOTH LAUGH]

Everybody's got it
their own way.

There's not a lot of restaurants

that actually specialize
in German cooking.

There was 30 German restaurants


Now how many are there, right?

What does Kegel's mean
in Milwaukee?

Because we've seen
such a disappearance

of all the other restaurants

that now it's not just saving
the Kegel name,

but it's saving German heritage.

You cannot build
a new restaurant

that looks or feels or acts
the same way.

Tarnished with 100 years
of smoke

and voices and laughter.

And memories. And memories.

♪ ♪

One order will be two pieces
of veal.

- Am I supposed to pierce it?
- Yep.

Okay, I'm gonna try
not to drop this.

♪ ♪

Oh, look at that.
That looks great.

And we're gonna fit
two pieces in that same pot.

Together? Yep.

Are you sure?

Over here? Yep.

I want you to know this is
going against everything

I've ever been taught
about not crowding the pan.

Yeah. I believe ya.

♪ ♪

- It looks yummy.
- It does look‐.

Yeah. Yeah, it's really

yeah, we can pull those.

So this is a very traditional
plating.

It's à la holstein,

which means it's a poached egg.

Perfect.

Part of it's gotta fall off
the plate,

or else it wouldn't be
schnitzel, right?

Yeah.

You know, we take great pride
in having my great‐grandma

pass these recipes down,

and they keep us in business
every day.

- Can I try it?
- Please do, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

[LAUGHS]

Oh, my God. Right?

It's so decadent. Oh, my God.

- You're making me hungry.
- You can have some.

- Okay, all right.
- You can check my work.

Totally. Yeah, absolutely.

You gotta act fast.

- Otherwise, I'll eat it all.
- Yeah.

'Cause I'm
a professional eater, Julian.

It's so simple,
but it's so refined

in the process of 90 years,
right?

Yum. Delicious.

Can I ask you another question

which has been burning
inside my head

for the last two days?

- Yeah.
- Are you related to Dr. Kegel?

[BOTH LAUGH]

- Of the Kegel exercises?
- The exercises, right.

You betcha.

I want you to know I've been
doing them this whole time.

- Totally, of course.
- Even in the kitchen.

It's the best part
about being a Kegel.

I can't be the first person
who asked you this.

No, no, not at all. Okay.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Or else I'd be
really blushing, you know?

You're a little pink
right now.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

♪ ♪

How in touch with their roots

are the current generation
or two generations

of German Americans
in Milwaukee?

CHRISTINA: Maybe they don't
have a personal connection,

but where they grew up,
their city sure does.

[GERMAN POLKA MUSIC]

PADMA: German culture is evident

everywhere
around you in Milwaukee.

Even though many traditional
foods seem to be intertwined

with American culture,

this city takes a giant leap
back to its roots

with German Fest.

When you grow up
in Milwaukee, you realize

that the history
that the Germans brought here

is very embedded
into local culture.

Milwaukee has a lot
of ethnic flavor still to it

because of the German heritage.

WOMAN:
Wearing dirndls and lederhosen

surrounded by Wiener schnitzel,

sausage, and beer steins,

there's appreciation
for just how

unbelievably Germanic
this community is.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

HOST: Thanks for coming down
to German Fest.

Great day for it.

Prost. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

PADMA: Every summer
for the past 39 years,

nearly 80,000 people gather here

to eat, drink, and party
like the Germans.

It's basically Oktoberfest,
but in July.

I talk a lot about hot dogs,

but my first love as a young,
immigrant kid in New York

was the humble pushcart pretzel.

What makes this
an authentic German pretzel?

It's the ingredients
that go into the pretzel.

We're using, um, water, flour,
salt, yeast,

and then the solution
that we put on top

of our product,
it is a food‐grade lye.

It's exactly what they're doing
in Germany.

So it gives that pretzel
that dark color on the outside,

and it also gives it, uh,
its tangy, pretzel‐y flavor.

- This is just incredible.
- Thank you.

This is the best pretzel
I've ever had in my life.

Thank you. I'm serious.

And I have eaten
a lot of pretzels in my day.

Thank you. Thank you.

I'm gonna eat
this whole pounder.

This is a 1 pound pretzel?
I could take this down.

Your belly will be very happy
after this.

I know‐‐Well, my thighs
won't, but I don't care.

♪ ♪

So much of German heritage

has been integrated
into American culture.

It's hard to believe that we
actually need a festival,

but perhaps that's the point.

If I didn't realize

I'd been eating German food
all this time,

maybe it still takes effort
to keep your culture alive.

Whoa. So what is this?

COOK: This is Spanferkel.

♪ ♪

Span refers to the woodchips
that are cooking,

and ferkel refers to baby pig.

So this is very traditional
German food?

- Very traditional.
- I'll have some.

I'll try it.

[GERMAN MUSIC]

How much does a pig head cost?

- I believe it's $15.
- That's pretty cheap.

- I think so.
- For someone's head.

Yeah. Ooh, that's fatty.

ROASTER: Yeah,
you got the meat inside there.

- Mmm.
- It's delicious, isn't it?

So tender.

And then the skin's nice
and crispy.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.
I'll see you guys later.

It's hard to believe
I was once a vegetarian.

I mean, I just ate a pig's face.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

♪ ♪

Someone told me that your
recipe for potato pancakes

are the best.

Mm‐hmm.

Mm‐hmm.

Okay.

Okay.

I feel like
you're leaving something out.

Well...

PADMA: Man, these Milwaukeeans
and their secret ingredients.

Secrets aside,
what I've learned here

is that assimilation
is complicated.

While many people fight
to be accepted,

others work to hold on
to what might get lost,

and that push and pull,
my friends, is America.

What assimilation really means

is we're taking
all the best of everybody...

- Mm‐hmm.
- And putting it together.

And that's how we become
American.

And that's why we've got
hot dogs and hamburgers

and people who like
beer gardens so much.

They may not even be
of German extraction,

but, you know, who doesn't like
sitting outside

drinking a beer?

PADMA: Nothing could be
more American, right?

CHRISTINA: Right.

[GERMAN MUSIC]

PADMA: Now, when I bite
into that juicy hot dog,

I taste the history

that generations
of German immigrants brought

to one of my favorite foods.

Germans assimilated
in such a way

that they've seamlessly become
part of the American fabric.

As their cuisine continues
to thrive in Milwaukee,

the German community
will always maintain its roots

right here where it all began.

♪ ♪

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

♪ ♪