As a child, one of my favorite dinners was hot dogs and sauerkraut, so it should be no surprise to anyone that I order choucroute whenever I see it on a restaurant menu. I've tried it in many brasseries in Paris, and have always loved what was served to me. Last night however, I reached choucroute nirvana, dining out at the Central Kitchen in Cambridge. It was just on the appetizer menu, but that didn't stop me from making it my meal. No ham or sausage for this plate. Instead it had a leg of duck confit, resting on top of mild, but perfectly-flavored choucroute, with several slices of baked apples alongside. One bite, containing a bit of each, was perfection on the tongue. Being reminded of just how much I love this hearty dish, I might now be willing, on my next trip to France, to venture outside of Paris and follow the choucroute route in Alsace, where you can guess what the specialty always is. Fortunately I've got an old newspaper article listing the stops by town, because there doesn't seem to be any such write up on the web, or at least not in English. Until then, I'll be a Central Square regular, thinking globally but eating locally.