"Special" chicken nuggets & Beer Mustard Sauce

Only as good as what sits next to it.

My eldest ate schnitzel last night, though he believes he ate “special chicken nuggets”. The word “special” did all the heavy lifting.
 
Call a food special and a four-year-old eats it like a marooned sailor who's just discovered there's a McDonalds on the other side of the island.
 
Start off introducing it as a schnitzel and it goes back to the kitchen with a one-star review.
 
I'm thinking of starting a series titled, “German Food vs Toddler.” Consider it an ongoing experiment in how many German dishes I can smuggle past my son before he files a complaint with the parental management.
 
Schnitzel was the trial run, and I suspect I've already peaked. I cut it into bite-sized pieces so it wouldn't arrive as a slab of breaded chicken with hidden ambitions.
 
The nugget disguise held.
 
As it happens, the size and shape was incidental, which tells you everything about how marketing works. I took a page from American food producers who once relabeled sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage" to make it more amenable. 
 
Plus, his Welsh accent having a go at "schnitzel" is also worth the entire experiment on its own. I can't wait to get him to try and pronounce kartoffelpuffer next. 
Personally, schnitzel is only ever as good as what sits next to it. I'm partial to a beer mustard sauce, which also works wonders as a dipping sauce with a warm pretzel.
 
Here's the recipe for that: Beer Mustard Sauce

He asked for schnitzel again with dinner tonight. I'm taking the win before he discovers my ulterior motive.
 
If you'd rather something light and fresh… sauerkraut salad goes with most summer dinners and is a refreshing end to warm days. 
 
And here's that one: Sauerkraut Salad
 
I'm not pushing my luck with sauerkraut salad for my son quite yet. And calling it special might just blow my cover.