What I miss about Germany…

I was born here in El Paso, spent most of my childhood here, and I’ve lived in the following cities: Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles, Calif.; San Diego, Calif.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Cloudcroft, N.M.; and Wellfleet, Mass. And although I can’t say I officially lived in Rohr, Niederbayern, Deutschland, I did spend months at a time there, staying with my husband and his family, last year.
Out of all of those places, none has stricken me so much as Rohr, with a population of about 5,000, a small community that has one grocery store, two bakeries, two butchers, one community pool, and miles upon miles of rolling hills of corn and rapeseed fields. It’s about one hour northeast of Munich, and a world away from crime, pollution, gangs or stress. And it IS where I call home.
Although we can’t live there again, yet, I can still look forward to the day when we can, along with our new addition, Hannah, who I want to grow up with both American and German customs, culture and language. And even if we don’t live in Rohr (most likely Abensberg, Regensburg or Munich), it will always be the place I idealize for how it changed me so profoundly and was so instrumental in turning me into who I am today. And I want Hannah to have that, always.

I order a lot of food and German products from Germandeli.com, a business that is actually based here in Texas, but carries all the products I used and adored while staying in Bavaria. Fa bath gels and lotions, Almdudler drinks, Knorr and Maggi fixes and spice mixes, breads made in Germany, REAL cheese (unfortunately all pasteurized, but still more real than what’s available here), semmelknodel mix, German DVDs and books, German tableware, etc. All the things I just adored when living in Rohr, right at my keyboard! And the site has a great link called “What I Miss About Germany,” where all German ex-pats living here in the U.S. can reminisce about their lives in Germany.
But there are some things I miss about Germany (from my perspective, being an American married to a German, and not having a good grasp of the language…yet). And they are:

1. The common sense of courtesy and decency shown to everyone, even strangers on the street.
2. The fact that it is a GIVEN that families will dine together every meal possible, without question.
3. The fog rolling over the hops fields early in the morning, with foxes, hares and deer in abundance.
4. The smell of the bakery from a mile away, each and every morning. AND walking home with a freshly-made loaf of rye bread or broetchen for the day.
5. How HOUSEPROUD all Germans are, with their lace valances on their windows, their orchids proudly blooming for all passers-by to see.
6. Kaffee und Kuchen promtly at 3 p.m.
7. German TV, with almost no commercials in sight.
8. German newspapers. Actually full of information. Actually taking a while to read and to digest the info. Actually not full of ads.
9. Biking to the next town to enjoy a beer or Schwip Schwap in a biergarten by a babbling brook.
10. Going to the thermal spas to soak in the mineral waters, and it being covered by insurance!
11. The Munich Airport. God, I could LIVE there. Neat, tidy, easy to navigate, the best hotel ever (The Kempinski), wonderful shops and cafes…
12. The clean streets, fresh air and courtesy, even in the Marienplatz in central Munich.
13. The on-time trains.
14. The obsession with bio-foods and organics, no matter what income level.
15. Homemade food being preferred to a restaurant, any time, any day.

What are the things YOU miss most about Germany??

If you can’t take the heat…

… I can’t stay out of the kitchen, since we live in a studio apartment. It’s a sweltering 95 degrees outside, and our apt. faces west, so we’re getting slammed by the sun at the moment. And to think just weeks ago we were WISHING for this! How naive!
I’d do anything to be in 45 degree F Munich right now.
Dinner doesn’t sound too appetizing right now. That’s one good thing about the heat… makes me less prone to over-cook and over-eat! Sushi (or a peanut butter frozen yogurt!) would be great, but since we’re really trying to stick to our out-to-eat-just-twice-a-week promise to each other, it’ll have to be an innie-dinner. I’ve got romaine, one tomato, two cucumbers, one green onion, some pasta, rice and chorizo. Oh, and lots of eggs. Thinking of making a cold rice salad, perhaps with a curry or mint flavoring.
We had our leftover tuna helper pasta and salad for lunch today, outside in the park by the library. And I must say it really was filling. i didn’t think so little would go such a long way. And it was still decent, even at room temperature. Leftovers are very nice when it’s al fresco and I’m with Christian. Otherwise I’d be very depressed about it, lol. But, having been a serial restaurant-goer before I got married, it makes going out that much more “exciting” and special.
For instance, tomorrow night is an “outie” night. Before going to see a screening of “The White Ribbon,” we’ll hit Sinbad’s for some Schwarma and lamb kebabs, and then perhaps a Nutella dessert crepe at Kinley’s. BTW, Kinley’s rocks. The dessert crepes are huge, authentic and reasonable. And the frozen yogurt Kinley’s serves I could LIVE on, forever. I want a machine like that one in my apartment. I’d just stand there with my mouth under the spout 24/7.
The afternoon walk in the arroyo was nice, before the highest temps of the day. The cacti are now in full bloom (not PhotoShopped! That’s their real color unadulterated). Got a nice color myself, with my shoulders competing with the pink cactus blossom.
This is one of those days…the heat makes me lethargic and moody, which is further enhanced by receiving a bill from AT&T for a wrong account number (LONG story, but suffice it to say AT&T created 6 accounts in our name and every time we tried to delete one, they created another. So we keep on getting billed for bogus accounts! Anyone else face this problem with RUNAROUND at AT&T?). Ans I miss New York and Bavaria. And I feel like I really didn’t need to have dessert at lunch or a third Americano today. AND our new neighbors are loud… lol … I’ll fake it until I make it!
And how was YOUR day?

Travels, real and imagined

I am a nomad. Even when I’m not traveling, I’m thinking about traveling, planning my next adventure, scouring Expedia.com or Orbitz.com for deals, maybe not being able to afford it but at least “planning,” anyway.
If I go more than four months without traveling, even if it’s just to my little cabin in New Mexico (only 2 hours away by car), I go stir crazy.
Last year I traveled to Bavaria about 5 times, two of those times staying more than a month. It became second nature to me to make the reservations, maneuver the airports, exchange currency, live out of a suitcase, etc. Many people dread airports: the crowds, security, lack of seating, disorganization and canceled flights. But I love airports. I LOVE them. Even Charles de Gaulle, just for the people watching.
My favorite airport in all of my travels has been Atlanta Hartsfield, by far. And it’s the most busy airport in the WORLD! Little ole southern Atlanta! It’s just so well organized, beautiful, has LOTS of distractions like food courts, bookstores, duty free shops, beauty counters and “sleep pods,” oh, and it has smoking rooms
Even little El Paso has a decent airport, and I make it a habit to get to the airport two hours before my flights, at least, just to sit at the Starbucks there, read the paper, and watch people say their goodbyes or hellos. It’s especially endearing when it’s military.
I also really enjoy Munich’s Franz Josef Strauss airport. It’s modern, hip, and has great cafes and biergartens. And my favorite hotel I’ve ever stayed at: the Kempinski, where the dinner buffet has got to be the most extensive (and expensive) in all of Bavaria. But SOOOOO worth it. Stay there. Even if you think you’re saving money by staying in Munich, you still have to pay to get to the airport, and you might as well get out of bed and be in the terminal at the same time!
Least favorite airport? Charles de Gaulle, bar none. The name “Gaulle” says it all. Just morbid, stuck in the 1970s, and chaotic. So lucky I’ve only had to deal with it once.
My next trip is a while off. Just a few more paychecks, a few less dinners out, and I think we’ll be on our way. But we’ve always got a suitcase half packed and one foot out the door.
•••
I enter contests all the time. I play those grocery store Monopoly games, the scratch-off lotto, office pools. Never win. Never.
Well, my dry streak ended yesterday when I found out my husband and I had won a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant that opened recently downtown. Although in the past, I’ve always cringed at using coupons or gift certificates, I’m older and much less prone to embarrassment I’ve got a question, however, to those who may have used gift certificates in the past: do you order and wait for the bill before you mention you have a gift certificate (thereby ensuring great service, or at least regular service) or do you tell them straight off the bat? Do “coupon clippers” get equal service? Just wondered about that.
•••
Yesterday I met my husband for lunch at the El Paso Public Library, which has a nice little cafe inside that serves a decent coffee, sandwiches and pastries. I’d packed lunch for us and carried it over there, but when I ordered the coffees, I couldn’t resist buying a croissant sandwich (see my previous blog entry. I am not progressing in my healthy endeavors!) filled with chicken salad. It had diced apples and pecans, and just the right amount of mayonnaise, without being gloppy and gross. The picture doesn’t do the cellophane-wrapped sandwich justice, but trust me, it was great and cheap! Gotta find me that recipe, because for a LIBRARY cafe, it was top-notch! Get me with coffee, good food, books AND with my husband, and you get me happy! But what I really want to know is where the library got their croissants. They tasted like the real deal, not mass-produced and dry at all. If you work downtown, give the library a shot for lunch. Oh, and check out their “free books” cart near the checkout area. I found about five yesterday. Good books, too. Not Harlequin romance novels or Commodore computer programming manuals.

Fungi Sunday

It wasn’t easy returning from a dream trip to Manhattan back home to El Paso, but this morning’s sunrise reminded me of how fortunate I am to live in a place that has such amazing sunrises and sunsets, quiet neighborhoods where the honking of a horn turns heads, where most things are affordable, and people are very friendly and un-rushed.
Having said that, both Christian and I agree that we absolutely feel at home when we’re on the road. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we met for the first time on vacation in Munich, then again in Paris, and then again traveled together all over the Southwest USA, Bavaria and now New York. We are constantly seeking the NEW and unexplored and going off the beaten path.
So, it was difficult knowing when we got home Friday night that the NY trip would be the last trip for a while (I do have a Louis Vuitton satchel purse, a Steven Sprouse Louis Vuitton and a Fendi purse for sale if you’re interested. All used, all REAL. Please, fund our trip!!!)
If I had my passport with me in NY, I kid you not when I say that I would easily have expanded the trip by booking us directly to Munich. But unfortunately I left it at home, in the safety deposit box.
At least coming home had its advantages, however. After staying at the West Side YWCA near Columbus Circle in Manhattan, our little, little but PRIVATE bathroom at home seemed like a first-class spa. AND with HOT WATER!!! AND a door that locked! And no paralyzing jabs of scalding water if a nearby toilet flushed! I felt like I was at the Peninsula Hotel Spa with my $1 bath bubbles and rubber ducky when I got my first bath in four days (I am a bath girl, and there were only showers at the Y…not that I would have taken a bath there, anyway).
Also, getting to go online without having to get dressed, go down 11 floors to a busy hotel lobby and sitting Indian style on the floor… not paying $8 for an iceberg lettuce salad or $10 for a pack of cigarettes…walking with my husband early in the morning without a cold, chafing rush of wind or doing the “don’t step on the dog poop” dance…No 1/2 hour lines at Starbucks (I couldn’t believe the fact that there were lines at every Starbucks in NY, and there was one on almost every block!)… Well, maybe I’m just trying to convince myself, but you have to fake it till you make it, right?
I was very much looking forward to a delivery that was waiting for us when we arrived home. We’d won a blog contest and were shipped a great supply of dried mushrooms from MarxFoods.com. Justin from the company sent me the following: dried Northwest Mix mushrooms, dried Lobster Mushrooms, Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Dried Matsutake Mushrooms, Dried Porcinis and Dried Chanterelles. I am so excited to test these babies out, and that starts tonight. We’d already planned on roast chicken that we found on sale at Albertson’s (just $3 for three huge legs!), so I’ll make a sider of porcini creamed potatoes. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? I would be so tempted to add major spices like garlic, red pepper flakes or my new obsession, Vietnamese hot sauce. BUT I do want to taste the mushrooms and let their musky aroma penetrate through the potatoes.
Tomorrow night I’ll be creating an über-rich mushroom sauce to go with some penne. That will incorporate the black trumpets and some German spices and techniques passed on to me by Christian’s family. Maybe Tuesday night we’ll make Semmelknödel with dried lobster mushroom sauce. If you are from Bavaria and have an awesome mushroom sauce recipe, I would love to swap recipes with you, and post all the different recipes from the “homeland.” It will be interesting to see the subtle and the drastic differences!
And now, I will peruse the many takeout menus I grabbed in New York and posted on my finally-full fridge and see if I can come up with something tasty for lunch, inspired by our travels. A little bit of Chinatown, a pinch of Mulberry and Mott, a dollop of deli delish and a bissel of Bavaria.

‘Bottom of the Barrel’ Bolognese

What a crazy, crazy day, with this weather just not letting up at all. It really felt like I was back in Munich at Christmas-time, bundled up like the Michelin Man. Although no Christkindlmarkt to look forward to. But this is late April in El Paso, for godssake.
Well, I figured it had to be a warm, comfy, spicy dinner tonight, further using the perishables that were precariously close to being trashed in preparation of our NYC trip on Monday.
We had some jalapenos, Bob Evans breakfast sausage, heavy whipping cream and green onions that really needed to go this weekend. And the last of a box of thin spaghetti. Hmmmm. It was my turn to cook, and I was feeling a bit naughty. Christian was scared. Should he have been? You be the judge. Here’s the sauce for the spaghetti:

“Bottom of the Barrel” Bolognese sauce (for 4 servings):
• One pint heavy whipping cream
• Half a chub of breakfast sausage
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup ketchup
• Four tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Two jalapenos, sliced
• 4 sliced green onions (white and green parts)
•1 teaspoon Garam Masala
• 4 tablespoons hot chile powder
• 4 shakes of dried powdered thyme

Crumble the raw sausage in a sauce pan and cook until just browned. Then add the rest. Stir constantly. That’s it. That is absolutely it. Pour it over warm pasta (we used spaghetti, but I bet it rocks on penne). Serve. Watch spouse’s reaction. See how he/she goes for seconds. Smile. Success!!!!!
Tomorrow is a German potluck we’re attending. So, while I played wizard with the pasta, Christian made his mother’s recipe kartoffelsalat for the potluck. I cannot wait until tomorrow. Really, I cannot wait. I’m sneaking a few bites right now…
And I leave you with a few random photos I took today of my German sprouts and corn that are growing quite nicely. A piece of my hubby’s homeland, literally, growing right on our doorstep. Oh, and the gray kitty is not mine. He hangs out at our apartment complex, and I think he’s a human stuck in a cat’s body. He knows how to manipulate me and to make me stop anything to pet him and to shower attention on him. He also knows when we’re cooking wursts. And he lets us know he knows.

‘Clean’ food?

Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble to have a coffee and (yes, we are one of “those”) flip through magazines we really had no intention of purchasing. One I came across is called “Clean Food.” Eh? What exactly is “clean” food? Food that has passed the Five-Second Rule? Hermetically sealed in shrink wrap? Kosher?
Some of the best food I’ve ever eaten has by no means been “Clean Food.” Some of the best food I’ve ever eaten has been painstakingly prepared with hands, utensils and ingredients that have most city food inspectors chomping at the bit. Much has been street food served by vendors with no license. You know, the ones who pack up and scurry down an alley when the cops drive by.
For those of you who partied in Juarez, Mexico, as teens…before Juarez became a globally-known word for “drug wars,” there was the infamous Fred’s Sandwich served at Fred’s Bar. Bolillos filled with questionable ham, avocado, jalapeno and mayonnaise. One of the best damn sandwiches ever, and I don’t want to know the sanitary conditions of the bar, thankyouverymuch.
Near the San Jacinto Plaza in Downtown El Paso, vendors sell tamarind paste, pork skins (some still with hair on them), and chunks of papaya with lime and chile powder. I eat them, even though they’ve been baking in the sun and sitting near the exhaust fumes of the many cars that pass by. I’m healthy and I’ve never become ill from ingesting the cheap, convenient and good snacks.
Currywurst served on the street in Munich, or at storefronts that also serve as belly-dancing costume vendors? Just great. There’s nothing like eating a Döner out on the street, facing the Hauptbahnhoff, people watching. Beats a window seat at a three-star restaurant for me. A three-star restaurant that serves the same clean food as the three-star restaurant down the block, and costs the same as a week’s worth of Döner.
If I had to define “clean food,” I guess it would be a plate of sashimi or sushi, or a bento box meal, with perfect symmetry, small portions, and a series of rituals surrounding the meal. I’m all for that. But getting dirty” with food means to see what a true culture is like. Not some white-washed version of it meant to appease the timid.
And what is YOUR “dirty sin” in terms of street food?

German food on the Mexican border

It’s not easy to find authentic German food in El Paso. Not easy at all. I can only think of four places, no, five, that claim to serve “authentic” German food. They are: Eva’s Old Heidelberg, Marina’s Bakery, Döner Kebab, Günther’s Eidelweiss and the Deutsches Soldatenstube at Fort Bliss.

Today, my hubby and I tried Döner Kebab on Dyer, near Ft. Bliss. I had first tried a Döner in Paris, of all places, not Munich. I simply adored the Turkish treat, eating the messy sandwich in an alley, with a grateful cat in attendance. Döners are the quintessential street food in Germany, up there with Currywurst and Brats. I wish they were as ubiquitous here. Soooo much more healthy than McD’s, and much more satisfying.

If you are a German ex-pat living in the US (or married to one and find you’ve crossed that culinary line and can’t go back to your old American diet), how do you get your fix, other than home meals with substitute ingredients?