Das Essen

Food! It's what I normally want to know about and talk about when discussing other countries. I actually should be better about documenting food-related experiences here, but here are a few random photos I found on my phone, with explanations.

This is some stuff I bought at the grocery store one day. From L-R: Bonne Maman "Maronen-Crème" (chestnut cream). This is obviously a French brand that we also have in the U.S., but I don't think I've ever seen chestnut cream in the states. It doesn't literally have cream in it; it's just a sweetened purée of chestnuts--the consistency of which is akin to that of "apple butter." It was sooo delicious. Rewe Bio Weizenvollkorn-Toastbrot. I'm not impressed with the sliced bread selection here, and it's mainly because sliced bread just sucks anyway in comparison to fresh, hearty bread, of which the Germans have plenty. But the kids still like their sandwiches on American-style bread. So oftentimes I buy the "toast" bread, which is in a perfectly sized, uniform loaf with no end parts (heels). This particular loaf is the organic (Bio) store brand (Rewe). Rinder Fond. Ok, so I was making pho one night and wanted to find beef broth. This is the best I could come up with. I believe they might have had dry bouillon cubes or powders but I wanted to get something a little more "natural." I'm still not confident about my understanding of German broth. Schmelzflocken. This is baby cereal that I got for Zinnia. It's a spelt-oat (Dinkel-Hafer) variety. I didn't seem to find rice cereal, but I wasn't looking for a really long time. Pilztopf. Pilz is mushroom, Topf is literally "pot." I don't really know what that compound word implies (I've also seen Topf used to describe a stew type thing, so maybe you can use these in a stew?). I just bought them because I actually like to put canned mushrooms on a salad sometimes. Ja! Tomaten. "Ja!" is the discount brand here. Spargel Abschnitte. From what I hear, asparagus is a big deal here when it's in season, especially white asparagus. The white kind isn't that common in the U.S. so I bought this jar. I love asparagus. Brasiliens Rind. Again, another stock/broth thing that I got for experimenting with the pho recipe.

We went to Königstein one day and ate at a little pizzeria. This was the first time we tried Schwip Schwap, a cola/orange soda mix. Germans seem to enjoy mixing their beverages into various concoctions. I didn't try it, but Simon and Jasmine liked it.

As an English speaker, I just thought it was cute to see Italian words translated into German.

I made lasagna one day. I did use ricotta (surprisingly, I only found one brand/size in the expansive dairy section), but I also put a little cottage cheese in to stretch out the more expensive ricotta. I took a picture of it for some reason. Also pictured is a tube of tomato paste (tubes of paste are much more common here than in the U.S., where tomato paste comes in cans). Oh, also, the lasagna noodles here are more to my liking. They seem thinner than the American kind, and they don't have the frilly edge like they do in the U.S.

They do sell cartons of eggs here (usually in 10, not 12), but I noticed that they were also selling these eggs in bags at the store. Doesn't seem like a very sturdy way to keep eggs. I think these were "local" eggs or maybe from free-roaming hens or something. There's a section of the store where they seem to have local/farm-y products, and these eggs were there.

I got such a huge kick out of these American products in the "international" aisle of the grocery store. Nacho cheese sauce, peanut butter, Pop Tarts, maple syrup, marshmallows...what more could you want for your American hankerings?

I have a European bread maker that I actually got in Guyana (long story), but it is perfect here because it works with the European electrical outlets. It didn't have a manual, but I found a French version online and figured out how to make bread. It was tasty!

The kids have been consuming lots of Haribo treats here. I have never seen so many varieties of Haribo gummies. These are special "Schlümpfe" ones. :)

A cold carrot feels good on sore gums! I just included this photo in the post because it has an element of food in it. :) Oh, and also, one thing about carrots--I've seen them called Karroten and Möhren here. I think they both mean "carrot," but I don't know why there are two different words.

We went to the Museum für Kommunikation and had to get a treat to appease the older, turning-into-teenager children who are already becoming annoyed with family activities. I loved the selection that Jasmine made (who is thankfully not hormonal yet).

The Aldi store here has a very hygienic way of handling bread selection. You just push a button and your choice slides down! And if they're out of something, a female voice tells you something in German that I haven't quite figured out yet. :)

A fancy automated ice cream machine at Ikea.