Do you know what ウィンナー is? Is it a “winner”?

No, you can buy ウィンナー in a butcher. Yes, ウィンナー is a shortened word for ウィンナーソーセージ and according to JAS (Japanese Agricultural Standards) ウィンナーソーセージ is defined as sausages made with sheep casing (thinner than 20 mm).  ウィンナー is the transliteration of the German word, Wiener, which is “Viennese” in English. Apparently those thin sausages originate in Vienna, so they are Viennese sausages! That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Are you wondering why I used the photo of coffee when I talk about sausages? That is because that type of coffee with whipped cream, which is called Vienna coffee here in Australia, is called ウィンナーコーヒー in Japanese, although in ウィーン (Wien, Vienna), it does not have the word “Wien” in it!