Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

When we hosted our first German student 24 years ago (Yes, that makes us old. I'll just cut through the suspense and say that i am 55 and my husband is 53!), it was difficult to find a German cookbook. Mind you, that was back in the dark ages before the internet (before cell phones, but after dinosaurs) and we did not have large bookstores in our small town. I finally found (probably in Seattle) a german cookbook, and, just for good measure, an International Cookbook.

Sidebar: It is an interesting cookbook. Sometimes my students don't recognize food from their country. And sometimes the choice of foods is ridiculous, like 3 whole recipes from "West Africa." This is a country that does not exist, but the area encompasses a whole lot of territory!

Anyway, I picked several recipes from the German cookbook and discovered that German cooking is very much like US cooking.

Well, we are descended from them.

Breakfast was bread and toppings: cheese, meat, Nutella (of course!) and jams. I tried liverwurst for the first time. It was great, and doesn't taste like liver at all -- and this is a good thing. Although I still object to eating waste organ meats. Dinner was also bread and toppings. Lunch was the variety meal. Most everything was familiar.

Anyway, I did not expect great culinary adventures, like in Taiwan. At one restaurant I ordered "Matjes Hausfrau Art." I found out a week later that, yes indeed, the fish was not cooked. At a reception I thought I was reaching for bread with salami toppings; when I went to eat it I discovered I had instead gotten the one with raw pork sausage.

I think I prefer my meat cooked.

Everyone seemed to be worried that I did not have enough to eat. I felt sure I was going to gain weight. Instead, I lost 6 pounds over the month.

I need to visit Germany more often.

Especially because I still haven't had currywurst, and this time I had NO SAUSAGE!