Zu Esse, Kochen, Und Lernen (To eat, cook, and learn)

 So as promised, here is a blog about German Food.

First off, you already know that I can eat ice cream here as the fruit ice cream is made with water!!! Although I am extremely excited and thankful for that, it is difficult seeing the specialty ice cream dishes that the Italians can make here knowing that I can’t eat that, the side effects are not worth it. There are many ice cream shops, but I have been informed that the Italian shops make the best ice cream. In Wurttenburg, the ice cream shops that are run by Italians are only open in the summer, as they go back to Italy during the winter. That is an interesting concept.

There are many interesting things about getting food in Germany. In some places, like up at Gesche’s house-there is an ice cream truck that goes through each day. Here there is not an ice cream truck, but instead every Samstag there is a Backerei (Bakery)  truck that comes through and sells brot (bread), brotchen (rolls), pretzel, and other pastries/desserts. It is quite nice that the people can get fresh bread each week instead of having to drive into a city to find a backerei.  I stupidly did not take my camera this morning though, so sorry-no picture. Maybe I’ll remember to do so next week. I will also miss the Brot and Pastries here, they are so good!

Purchasing meat: Meat can be found in the market/store, but people can also get their meat from local butchers. Which is really not that different than in the USA either.

A lot of the village people here in Kleinansbach have large gardens with various produce-including erdbeer! Aka Strawberries! I am getting very spoiled by eating fresh strawberries multiple times a week, going back and not getting fresh strawberries will be very tough.

Ok onto the meals: breakfast I have already learned varies from family to family, just like in the USA. Some have more, some less-but in all it is good. At Gesche’s we had a full breakfast with brot, brotchen, jam, fleish, kase, tea, kaffee, milch, saft, wasser,  and maybe veggies (bread, rolls, jam, meat, cheese, tea, coffee, milk, juice, water). Here at Hollenbach’s breakfast is simple: brot, jam/miel (honey), or kuchen-yes cake. Most mornings, I go in the kitchen make my tea, and eat a piece of brot and a piece of kuchen. (FYI-kuchen may be eaten at breakfast, for mid-morning snack, and afternoon snack-very easy for a person to gain weight! Luckily for me, gaining weight is very difficult).

Unlike in the USA, lunch is the big meal of the day. On the farm, we typically also have workers who also come to eat lunch. A few of the workers are here on a very regular basis and so I have gotten to know some of them over time. It is really fun that a couple of our regular guys are from Poland, and regardless of the language barrier, we are able to communicate. One speaks only a few words English, very rough German, and I speak only a little German but we have worked to teach each other words-mainly by pointing. So at lunch it is a two course meal. First-you eat soup. Then the rest of the meal consists of salat (salad), fleish(meat), and noodles or potatoes. Typcially the fleish is either wurst(sausage), ham, or turkey meat. I think I have only had beef a couple times in Germany (granted this may be more normal for being on a Turkey farm). For my friends with cattle and heavy beef eaters-I can only imagine how much you would miss beef, as I have started to miss beef again as I did when I was in Israel. I do not mean that I need beef by any means or am unhappy with the meat we eat, only that I also miss beef as that is what I am used to. Instead being on a turkey farm, we eat a lot of turkey. But the turkey steaks that we have, they are quite good!

Supper then is usually a very light meal. Sometimes it is leftovers reheated, sometimes it is sausages, or currywurst (ketchup over German sausage with curry sprinkled on top), or fleish, kase, und brot (meat, cheese, and bread.  

A couple interesting things:

Weinachten (Christmas)-instead of eating a big turkey or ham with all the fixings, they eat geese! The geese are raised in a farm and they are white. (At least in this part of Deutschland)

A friend apparently makes very good hamburgers-but they are not made with hamburger, instead they are made with sausage! I decided to call it a Sausageburger, lol.

So the refrigerators in Germany are probably only ¾ the size of just the refrigerator in the USA (not including the freezer). This means there is not much room to store food. It is not unusual to see food left in the pots on the stove throughout the afternoon. Especially as students come home at random times from school to the middle of the afternoon it stays on the stove to be reheated. And no-it is not kept warm at all, no two hour rule here of putting meat in the fridge. And yes I have eaten a meal hours later-it still tastes good, and I have not gotten sick at all-so its all good. I’m starting to wonder if in the USA we are too worried about our food, or maybe it has to do with the way the meat is processed in the USA that makes us so concerned, I don’t really know.

Kochen: So cooking-I have learned how to make several dishes:

Southern German Kartuffel Salat (Potato Salad). Instead of making it with mayo, pickles, onions, and eggs like we do-here it is made with vinegar and seasonings and you slice the kartuffel instead of chunks or mashed.

Deutsch Shokolade Kuchen (German Chocolate Cake): So I got to make real German Chocolate Cake, the recipes we have in the USA are not true German Chocolate Cake. But I think the chocolate sheet cake that my Grandma Funk makes, and in turn we make sometimes, is a very similar consistency to these cakes.

Within so many of the desserts, hazelnut is used. It is kinda crazy how much hazelnut I have probably eaten when I have never eaten hazelnut before coming to Germany. And if you know me, you know I do not like nuts in my desserts especially in chocolate-ok, I have to say I think I’ve changed my mind. Here the hazelnut is finely chopped/minced into little pieces and adds so slight a crunch to the cakes/desserts that you barely even notice.

I have also learned to make Spatzle. There are apparently two different ways to make this-one very difficult with brot and a knife; the other with dough and a spatzle tool-I learned with the tool and was very proud to learn to make it. It is tough though to press the tool all the way-builds good muscle in your arms!

Snowballs-this is a dessert that I am going to learn how to make from Ute yet. And then I may need to buy a snowball press (that’s what I’m going to call it anyway) to bring home with me, and I can make them for all of you!

I have also made something similar to dumplings. It is dough and two spoons-you go back and forth between the two spoons to round the dough before dropping it into the boiling water to cook and turn into a soup.

As far as American dishes: I have made and showed Anna how to make French Toast. She has tried it without me, and decided she is not very good at it. But I said we will try it again, this time she can make it while I am there to help, and I’m sure it will go better. As I have learned, it takes time to perfect making French toast, and a lot of butter! Lol.

I also plan to make a barbecue dish this week for my family. We have been trying to find a time for me to cook, but stuff keeps getting in the way, but I hope to do so soon. I’m also going to make one of my favorite desserts-Choco Mallow Bars, and if you’ve had them, you know why I’m making them!

 

I hope you are all enjoying summer and had a wonderful 4^th of July! To those of you at the conference in Phoenix, I hope you have a great time and that you are able to make many connections and see God at work around you and can be open to him working in you also. Take care, Tchus!