Germans have a proud tradition of getting their bread directly from the bakery in the morning, and eating it that day, or in the next couple days before it goes bad, because there are no preservatives. Horses eat a lot of bread here, I think because of this high turnover.
I will be doing a few posts on the variety of shops that I must visit as opposed to the one-stop American style. This is the bread I got today. It's called Mouse Bread. I'm not sure why, and the baker can't tell me either. Come on, someone tell me! It's full of seeds, and even carrots.
This morning J and I went to the bakery to get a loaf of bread, and somehow that didn't work out. I was busy looking at the Easter chocolates so I wasn't paying attention, but before he left for work, he asked that I go back this afternoon and get bread. He said they couldn't slice it, so I assumed the slicer was broken, and J refuses to cut his own bread.
(Lately I'm not so into the German bread, because it has such an overpowering flavor, it's so rich, it can't be used for things like BLTs, where the bread should simply be the platform for the other flavors. German bread is very, very good - I cannot leave the bakery without it pressed against my face, breathing it in. In my opinion, it doesn't make the best sandwich. Funnily, Sonya in the Netherlands totally agrees with me!)
So after a hard day removing all my pasture division fences, because the hay farmer is coming tomorrow to drag/seed/fertilize/whatever, I was exhausted but went up to the bakery, yet again.
I asked if the cutter is working again and she looked at me quizzically. I said, "Well I assume it was broken this morning...." and she said, "Oh, if you were here very early, the bread was too fresh to cut."
What huh? Too fresh to cut? OK now I know I'm bread ignorant.
I said to her, "Well, in America we never have this problem."
She laughed, "Cuz the bread's never fresh?": )
The customer in line behind me started giggling.
I paid my 3,35Euro (4 bucks?), pressed my bread against my face and said Tschuess! (goodbye/God be with you)
This is the German life I'm muddling through after 7 years. Next in this little series I'll explain the store that exists only to sell beverages. Seriously. And the burden of Pfand (bringing it all back to the store).
But I cannot resist...here are a few pics of my yard today. I am pleased that I've got the heather growing in orderly round shapes! Maybe you can see the Easter eggs on a bush in the last photo? A neighbor has eggs on almost every bush in his garden, including one bush full of only shades of purple. I must know where he got them!
When I moved to Germany, I thought putting plastic eggs out in your yard before Spring really begins was silly. Now I've complied to this whimsy. I need the purple ones....
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| Can you tell a woman lives here? Or maybe George Takei? |
My husband came home from work and saw the eggs on our bush and said, "I see you did not wait when I said that it's not yet time for the Easter eggs." I said, "Well, everytime I asked you, you said 'No', so I just did it." (But hey, I've learned the Christmas lights rule! Not until after the Day of the Dead, in order to respect those grieving in November.)
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17 comments:
I've never commented on your blog but have been reading for years! I love all your horse stories of course but just had to comment on how lovely it is to see green grass and plants! I live in the Northeast US and we still have so much snow and no leaves on the trees. It's so depressing. Your cute house and yard are a sight for sore eyes!
I've never commented on your blog but have been reading for years! I love all your horse stories of course but just had to comment on how lovely it is to see green grass and plants! I live in the Northeast US and we still have so much snow and no leaves on the trees. It's so depressing. Your cute house and yard are a sight for sore eyes!
PURPLE!!!! It looks awesome.
But I'm not putting eggs on our trees, sorry. Bird treats, maybe, although the returning spring birds look plenty fat to me....
Clearly you need to learn to make your own bread so you can have some "platform" for sandwiches. Super easy, very cheap. I'll do a post on it for you this week.
When I lived in Sweden, I was so taken back by shopping for groceries. We had to buy bread and milk every other day. And my first trip to the grocery store I was wondering why my host family took me to a health food store. Everything was so fresh. And when I moved back home it was reverse culture shock and couldn't believe how processed everything was.
When my other exchange student friends and I would get especially homesick, we would travel to a tiny "American Food Store" and load up on junk food... Doritos, Skittles, Mt. Dew, etc. But it was a pain to get to, so we just adapted to live without those things LOL. I do miss having such fresh foods all the time, but I don't miss going to the store every single day.
Not fair! We do have some fresh bread in the US, if you're lucky enough to live near a real bakery. They're getting harder to find.
Thank you for sharing about your training with your mare and your life in Germany. After reading your blog this morning, I noticed this story of a German couple who decorates their tree with 10,000 eggs and thought I'd share the link
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/50-year-tradition-couple-trims-tree-10-000-easter-eggs-n56841
Of late, we've become addicted to Panera baguettes. This is still the essentially white bread I guess compared to bread that's could be qualified as "rich" and is as such definitely sandwichable (as well as dippable and butterable and just straight up nom nom gnawable plain).. but it similar I guess in that we basically have to get it the day of and eat it that day (as if we could do otherwise).
(I don't think it's $4 though.. but it might be. I rarely pay attention to $. I just hand over the plastic and sign any little piece of paper put before me if the transaction results in one. Not at all sensible, but very very me...)
Eggs in trees.. slightly kinda a little pagan but I like it. Looks cool. Decorating eggs sounds fun.. I haven't done that in ever.
The little German village my son lives in has all the shops but it also has a German grocery store with a meat department, lots of bread, produce and just about anything else you need. The produce is really good. We can walk to everything we need in the village.
I love your spring pictures! Everything here in the midwest is still under snow:( About the fresh bread - I worked in a bakery in high school and we had to let the bread cool down before we could cut it. Fresh bread (warm bread) through the cutter gummed it up pretty quick.
oooh, i wish this was a Scratch N Sniff post!
- The Equestrian Vagabond
Your home and yard are so tidy and beautiful. Agreeing with the other East Coasters about how nice it is to see green things and blooming things - even if only in pictures.
Bread loaves do need to cool completely before being sliced. It's not like you can't physically do it, but moist, warm bread will squish under the weight and pressure of the knife - even that stout German kind - which will ruin the "platform" quality even more! ;D
I love these posts about your every day German life. I learn so much!
You know how much I love these stories! I adore hearing about your German experiences, and your house is beyond cute!!!!!!!! I lived in Spain for a year and was frequently sent to buy bread, sliced cheese, and sliced meat for our "bocadillos" (Spanish style sandwiches).
How cool about the Easter eggs.
Yes, bread that is fresh is difficult to cut. It literally falls apart or smushes up. This coming from someone who can make rolls, but not bread. I'm bread challenged. :(
Hi ! I've been reading your blog for some time now, as well as Sonya's and for the first time I think I might be of help on your US / EU food issue :-)
I am a Belgian and lived in a number of countries here in the EU, but also traveled through the US and since I discovered the glorious BLT, I've had the same problem as you have; i.e. EU bread is simply too rich (tasty ?) to make a proper sandwich. I do however found a number of solutions for this: Lidl and Aldi both sell Sandwich Toast Brot / Brood that will do the trick, lightly toasted will make it even better. M&S also sells decent white sandwich bread, but I don't know if they still have stores on the continent.
Sorry for the long comment, I do enjoy your blog so much and look forward to more Deutschland posts ;-) How are those cats BTW ?
Greetings from the Netherlands, Lou
Mary, this is really abnormal here to have Spring so early, and the months of snow just didn't happen for the first time since I moved here.
Aarene, in Normandy Park a German family puts eggs in their yard, I was pretty surprised.
KK, I'm at the store every 1-2 days. I hate that but haven't figured out how to get around it. I'm gonna do a food post soon, I'm sure you'll remember the eggs.
Redhorse, I guess learning to bake would be worthwhile, when I move back.
Lisa, holysmokes! Those are the individually handpainted ones, not the plastic cheapos I have! I hope it doesn't snow on their fancy eggs.
Fletch, now you have me thinking I want to do colored Easter crosses or something to make it less pagan.
Ellie, I can drive to a bigger store that does have most of what I need in one stop, but it's not a fun drive: (
jVO, I had no idea about that warm bread thing. Why don't they just uh..bake it early enough to cut it by opening? Hm.
Merri, I guess you've had the bread!
C, F, S, hope you get some color and warmth soon where you live.
Melissa, I'm working on more! I'm afraid the next one is kind of bitchy.
Karen, Spain has some awesome food. Tapas!
C&J, I have to learn too. I'm scared of yeast, making things get bigger, it just seems wrong.
Offshore, Wonderful that you are local : ) The bacon here is such a disappointment - it's paper thin: ( But what can I do, I should be thankful I can get it at all. Your tip about the toastbrot - you're so right, I've bought it a few times lately and my husband is appalled but really, it makes greata toasted sandwiches (and I buy the "wheat" kind, even though I'm dubious about how much whole wheat is in there). I just taught my man what French Toast is, and of course we have to have Aldi Toastbrot for that. German bread would never work! I'll try to get a photo of our (one) cat if she holds still long enough. Probably will have to be of her sleeping I guess. I think it's hilarioius that Sonya in NL also finds German bread inappropriate for sandwiches.
Your yard is so pretty!!
I was going to explain about the bread, but other people beat me to it. My mom used to bake fresh bread so that was something I actually knew lol.
You'll probably think I'm weird but I think thin bacon.... it's crispier when cooked... I'm weird I guess hehe.
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