Time Lapse Photography

We linked to a teriffic video ad for Google, and found this not long after.  It's a video of time-lapse photography, in this case city scenes.  Very cool.

As with the Google video, it's interesting to note the huge impact that music has.  A single photograph stands alone fine, but moving pictures benefit tremendously (and you could say are transformed by) the accompanying music.

In this time-lapse video from Dominic Boudreault, you might recognize the music:  "Time", from the musical score to the movie Inception, composed by Hans Zimmer.

Cities included are Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, New York City (Manhattan), and Chicago.

Vacation Treats

I can't speak for everyone, but for me vacation is also a time of free indulgence....beer or wine with lunch, dessert...truly a time to relax and not worry about anything - including what you eat.

That approach led me to a couple amazing discoveries....luckily they are things not readily available here in Munich, or else I'd be in big trouble!

Vienna: 

In Vienna, we tried the authentic Sacher Torte. And I highly recommend anyone do so - the Sacher Torte in Vienna is far better than outside Vienna. But I also urge you to try some of the other many Viennese tortes on offer.  What we often forget is that Vienna is not just a city, it was the capital of an empire. And they brought the best from the wide reaches of the empire home for the aristocracy to enjoy.

It's exactly these forgotten days of empire (I doubt the grand Viennese have forgotten....just the rest of us!) that have integrated wonderful Hungarian dishes into the Viennese repertoire. However, I did not know that extended to cakes!

My big Vienna discovery was the Esterházy Torte, named for Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy de Galantha, who was an imperial foreign minister in the Austro-Hungarian empire.  The family was loyal to the Habsburgs while most of Hungary was fighting against them.  The Esterházy family has quite a few dishes named for it, but this may be my favorite!

Initially a 19th century traditional Hungarian cake, it has become a beloved Austrian cake and supposedly is loved by Germans as well (I'm on the lookout for somewhere serving it!). It's a sweet cake, but not overly so, and light. Most of the sweetness comes from the thin fondant frosting on the top.

The several thin layers of sponge cake are made mostly from egg whites and almonds, with a little flour, butter, and spices. A cognac buttercream frosting (often with a little chocolate mixed in, as here) brings the layers together. There is supposed to be very thin layers of apricot jam (popular in most Viennese tortes) but I could not taste it at all - perhaps the tastes blends in and just keeps the cake moist? While many places show it with buttercream topped with almond slivers around the edges, everywhere we saw it in Vienna used a thin crust of fine chocolate.  And it is always topped with the thin fondant frostin layer, with chocolate "spiderwebs" drawn across the top. A very delicate and well-balanced cake. Most of the sweetness is in the fondant, while the buttercream is not too rich.

Helsinki:

In Helsinki, we made a different discovery. After a delicious Nepalese meal, we went in search of some ice cream. Perhaps it was the spices, or just that vacation feels like ice cream, but we wanted some. The weekend before, we had had the pleasure of stopping in Helsinki's Ben and Jerry's store! And while Finland has Sunday shopping hours, theirs are seasonal. Finding something open at 8pm on a Sunday when it's dark and there's snow everywhere....not an easy feat.  So we tried the train station, our old standby in Germany. We didn't find an ice cream store, but we did find a little supermarket in the basement. As we were perusing the ice cream cooler, we saw these and had to try them.

I had previously been a big fan of the Magnum bars that are so popular in SE Asia. These destroy them! There is no competition.

It's hard to describe how wonderful these bars are, so I just recommend you find one and try it for yourself. The vanilla ice cream is a perfect balance to the chocolate and peanut butter - anything else would have been too sweet. The peanut butter cookie dough is enhanced by the swirls of peanut butter running through the mix. And the chocolate coating uses a great blend of chocolate. But embedded in the chocolate coating are little crispy chocolate cookie bits that give it an amazing texture. The whole package is just chocolatey peanut butter perfection.

I'm so glad I haven't found anywhere here that sells Ben & Jerry's bars. They could be addictive!

Chocolate (Bunnies) in Germany

What good is living in Germany amid all this great chocolate without learning a bit more? It's all in the name of cultural research, right?  

    

So we gathered up chocolate bunnies from the major German chocolate producers, as well as a few Belgian and Swiss producers, to see what was out there. And, as with the beer tasting, we learned quite a bit about the history of the local chocolatiers!

Lindt Goldhasen (Switzerland)Lindt

We begin, of course, with the famous Lindt Goldhasen.  Lindt & Sprüngli AG is widely available, good quality Swiss chocolate and has stores throughout Europe and the US.  It began in 1845, with a history quite common for many European companies. A father and son began the Sprüngli business by opening a café in Zurich making the new style bars of chocolate that were becoming popular in Italy.  Upon the son's retirement, he split the business between his two sons, giving one the two stores and the other the chocolate factory.  The store continues today as a Swiss institution (and of course expanded into other Swiss cities) and is the famous Confiserie Sprüngli known for the past 50 years for it's heavenly  "Luxemburgerli" macarons.

The other son took his chocolate factory public to finance expansion and bought Rodolphe Lindt's factory and its secrets of making superior soft chocolate, giving birth to the Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate company. Almost 15 years ago, Lindt bought chocolatier Ghirardelli and has transformed it into an international brand. Sadly, it isn't available here...I love the dark chocolate bars with mint filling!

Lindt is best known for its Goldhasen and Lindor Truffels, both of which were invented in the 1950s.  Unfortunately for Herr J and I, they don't make the peanut butter ones in Europe.  But if you love peanut butter and chocolate, I highly encourage you to try one - they're the orange ones.  The Lindor balls began as seasonal Christmas chocolates but were so popular they now are available in many flavors year round. The Goldhasen still are only for Easter. For more history, check out Lindt's Secrets of Chocolate Book.

Belfine chocolate bunny and chick (Belgium)Belfine

Next up, we have the super adorable bunny and chick from Belgian chocolatier Belfine.  In addition to being really great chocolate, they had some of the cutest Easter figures of rabbits, chicks, and lambs, also utilizing colored chocolates. They specialize in cuteness, and looking at both the selection in the store and on their website, I say they achieve this goal well. The Christmas penguin metronomes on their website header are over the top in cuteness. 

None of this is a surprise, once we learn that Belfine is owned by ChocDecor, a company blending technology and Belgian chocolate-making tradition to sculpt chocolate into beautiful figures. Both are fairly new entrants into the chocolate market, founded only in 1995.  I appreciate their mission statement of "Make People Happy" - it just seems appropriate for a chocolate company!

        Friedel chocolate rabbit 

Friedel

For the past 10 years, Friedel has been part of the Rübezahl Schokoladen company, which also makes the tasty Sun Rice snacks and these odd chocolate-gummibear bars.  This is their brand that covers the Christmas and Easter chocolates. Though Rübezahl is another typical mid-sized family company formed after the war (based near Stuttgart), Friedel comes from Wernigerode, home of the Hasseröder pils that went far in our beer tournament.

Riegelein chocolate rabbitRiegelein Confiserie

This company prides itself on tempting you with "creative chocolate" and a variety of seasonal, special-occasion products.  Based near Nuremberg since 1953, they do export worldwide, but sell 70% of their product domestically so they might not be familiar outside the German-speaking area.  The company remains a family-held enterprise, focusing on chocolate figurines (over 750 varieties are available, largely in their 33% cocoa milk chocolate blend). They do, however, make some gummi and fondant products for a bit of variety, and these awesome bittersweet chocolate cups you can easily fill for impressive desserts. The fondant fried eggs in our Easter basket are Riegelein.  While adhering to the German values of quality ingredients and workmanship, they also like to reflect through their figures the changing times.

Nestlé Smarties Klapper Hase

Smarties

Though it's not quite fine or German chocolate, we had to include one of the many candy chocolate bunnies you see in stores here. Kit Kat, After Eight, and others make these, filled with some candies or Kit Kat bits. Not to be confused with American Smarties (the sweet/tart rolls), these are Nestlé's version of M&Ms.  So, here we try not only Nestlé rabbit, but also mini-Smarties.  They're a bit more brightly colored than M&Ms, have thicker shells, and come in tubes rather than bags. In general, they're pretty good (especially in a McFlurry), as they should be having been in production since the 1880s (the were originally called "Chocolate Beans" in England)! Most Smarties are produced in Germany now (except the Canadian ones made locally), and interestingly only use natural dyes. 

Reber Alpenmilch HaseReber

Paul Reber is best known for their Mozart truffels (the “Genuine Reber Mozart Kugeln®“), which feature a hazelnut nougat center, surrounded by pistacchio marzipan, and dipped in chocolate.  For Easter, they feature a wide variety of filled chocolate eggs, as well as this cute milk chocolate rabbit wrapped in their signature red, white, and gold packaging.  Reber has been making chocolate since 1865, in Bad Reichenhall, a spa/vacation area in the Bayerisch Gmain.  It looks to be a beautiful old town set in the mountains, just on the border with Austria. Similar to Salzburg, they played a major part in the old salt trade, dating back before the Romans.  Looks like it might be a great option for a weekend trip, of course with a stop at the Reber Cafe!

Milka Alpenmilch Hase

Milka

One of the most recognizeable German chocolates, Milka grew out of a Swissman's chocolate company, becoming the German Milka in 1901.  Though they'd always had the Milka cow on the label, it was only 40 years ago that the cow became the famous purple Milka cow. (It's a Simmental cow, by the way.) Milka makes only milk chocolate, mostly in Lörrach, and with a WIDE variety of fruits, nuts, and candies in it.  I don't know why it isn't sold outside of Europe, but you can order it from German Deli in the US. Milka strives to maintain its Alpine connections, including sponsoring a women's downhill skiing team and a booth at the World Cup.  But I'm most happy about their new product line, Milka & Daim - Daim basically is the Swedish version of a Skor or Heath bar, so imagine bits of buttery toffee in Milka products. Yum!

Feodora rabbit

Feodora

Feodora was established in 1910 in Tangermünde - a middle ages town around 2 hours west of Berlin, at the intersection of the Elbe and Tanger rivers.  When the factory was expropriated and dismantled after the Second World War, they reestablished production in Bremen and have remained there since.  Named after Princess Feodora (sister of the last empress of Germany), the company is known for its finely decorated pralines (pralines being chocolates with some kind of filling, not the equally good American-style buttery nut pralines).  But of course, everyone needs to make a chocolate bunny - Feodora's maintains its traditional packaging with the coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein hanging on the bunny's collar.

Heilemann Knickohr-Hase 

Heilemann

Like Feodora, Heilemann is best known for its truffles and pralines.  I love them for making the most adorable chocolate bunny I've seen. I've had one the past 2 Easters - though he looks too cute to eat, you need to do it...the chocolate is great! Heilemann hails from the Allgäu Region, in the foothills of the Alps. Interestingly, they became a subsidiary of Freidel for about 20 years (after the founder Heilemann's death), but today again are an independent chocolatier. 

Asbach liqueur praline rabbits

Asbach

A bit unusual for the usual Easter bunny, but Asbach only makes one kind of chocolate....the kind filled with Asbach Uralt ("Asbach Ancient"). Asbach basically is German cognac, except that they had to stop calling it cognac after the Treaty of Versailles declared that only French products could be called cognac.  Hugo Asbach displayed great marketing savvy by creating the Asbach pralines in 1924 - it was aimed at women (as female public drinking was looked down upon), but also became quite popular among men. It has a very thin sugar crust separating the chocolate from the brandy, also giving it a bit of sweetness. The Asbach pralines are popular year-round, but for Easter are wrapped in bunny foil rather than the foil printed with a picture of a bottle.

 Schwermer rabbit

Schwermer

One of the oldest chocolatiers here, Schwermer began as a confisserie/café in Königsberg, East Prussia, which today is Kaliningrad, Russia.  Not suprisinlgy, Schwermer had to relocate after the Second World War, and chose Bad Wörishofen (also in the Allgäu region) as their new location.  Among their claims to fame, Schwermer pralines have been to the MIR space station and onboard the Columbia space shuttle (taken by German astronauts, of course!).  More meaningful to me...if you have a craving for baumkuchen, Schwermer makes these year round, not just at Christmas!

Kinder friend

Kinder

This guy is basically a Kinder Egg, with no suprise inside. It's the same soft, two-layered chocolate - milk chocolate outside, a white milk layer inside.  We were actually disappointed that there was no surprise inside.  I really like most Kinder products, but it's their fillings and their toys that are the reason, not as much the chocolate on its own. We included it, because it was one of the classic German chocolate brands, but I'd recommend sticking with the other chocolate brands if you want a plain Easter bunny. Nothing against Kinder, its just not their strength when it's compared to all of these rich chocolates. If there were a Kinder Hippo type or Bueno or some of the refrigerated treats....then I'd definitely be raving about it. Or if there were a cool toy inside.

Storz crazy bunny heads

Storz

While Storz is not a luxury chocolate, it's still a good quality and tasting one.  The family business began in 1884 in Tuttlingen (Baden Württemberg) and weathered the wars and crises by finally focusing on "Ideas moulded into chocolate."  Basically their niche is to make small foil wrapped chocolates in cute and creative wrapping (using not only printed foils but also cardboard cutouts).  They also make these to order for companies, hotels, and conventions, so have really stuck with what works. They had a huge variety of fun Easter shapes, but I picked these slightly crazy looking bunnies.

Reber Glückskäfer

Reber again...At first I couldn't find a Reber bunny, so I got one of their lucky ladybugs. Too cute not to include!

Sadly, I couldn't find any Ritter Easter bunnies, but we'll have to save Ritter for another day! 

Glückskäfer on Easter holiday

Eurovision Song Contest

This week is an important week in Europe, and a good example of another pan-European love that is a mystery to most Americans. Yep, it's the 56th annual Eurovision Song Contest.  This is something that, unless we've had the fortune to have British friends, most of us never hear of in the US.  However, it's the most viewed non-sports broadcast on earth - EBU estimates 125 million viewers per year, with more watching worldwide online.

This week in Düsseldorf, musical acts from 43 European countries will compete for the coveted title, decided by a combination of experts and the voting public.  The whole week is a festival of parties, rehearsals, and performances, with all of the national delegations, journalists, and fans coming into town for the festivities.

On each broadcast, the contests will perform live (recommended 3-3:30 minutes). An interval act will perform after the contestants, while the votes are being tallied. The winners (or 10 advancing to the Finals) will be announced, but the actual scores and rankings will not be released until after the Finals are complete.

Eurovision is fun...it's usually mainline pop (think modern schlager music), with glitzy costumes, choreography, and wind and smoke machines. Celine Dion launched her international career with a 1988 win, and ABBA has been Eurovision's biggest success story. (Yes, think ABBA when you think of what's popular in Eurovision!).

And yet sometimes there are surprises...Germany's schlager hit Dschinghis Khan won the 1979 contest and we LOVE the 2006 winner, Finnish heavy metal band Lordi. It's hard to describe, but it's a little bit like KISS meets the aliens that you'd find in a bar on Star Trek DS9

For the most part, the entries are more along the lines of well-produced, formulaic pop that will appeal widely and are fun....a lot like this

The rules are somewhat complex and often changing, but the current key rules are:

Entrants:

• Each member of the European Broadcasting Union may submit 1 song to represent its country (the number of competitors varies per year)
• Member countries can select the entry by any method - Sweden hosts the Meolodiefestivalen extravaganza competition; others have reality shows to select the candidate; and yet others just recieve an invitation from the national broadcasting company
• The song cannot have been previously commercially released
• Performances are broadcast live with no recorded vocals permitted
• Unless it cannot, the winning country always hosts the next year's competition

Rounds:

• The "Big Five" Germany, France, UK, Spain, and (recent addition) Italy plus the host country automatically qualify for the final.
• The other entrants compete in one of two semi-final rounds, with the top 10 from each Semi-final going on to the Final
• It's determined by draw who will be in which Semi-final

Voting: (this one is complex)

• Each country casts a single "vote" which ranks the other acts in the round.
• This "vote" awards 12 points to the favorite act, 11 to the second favorite, and so on down to 1 point
• The points awarded to the countries are tallied to come up with the winners
• Each country's vote is determined 50% by the public and 50% by a professional jury in that country. Public voting is by phone and SMS - each person can vote a max of 20 times, but not for his/her own country
• In the Semi-Finals, only the participants from that round can vote, plus the designated 2 or 3 from the Big Five (this year Spain & UK vote in 1st Semi, the others in the 2nd)
• In the Finals, all 43 nations can vote, with the same voting system

Voting often is controversial (even more so than in the Olympics), with accusations that countries often vote in blocs to ensure their positions relative to others. But the system of awarding a fixed number of points does now ensure that the large countries don't have an unfair advantage due to larger populations voting.

Being something so loved in the UK, there of course are bookmakers and odds on Eurovision results....

So who do I predict to win the first rounds? 

It could all change with the live performance, but based on their video submissions, my predictions for who will go on to the Finals are:

1st  Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway.
2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova

Finals: We'll see who makes it to the final, but the UK will be a tough one to beat. Italy and France seem too slow and classical to win; Spain is fun and makes you want to dance but isn't outstanding; and sorry, but Germany's entry is too much a pale shadow of last year's Eurovision winner (the beats are strangely similar, but Taken by a Stranger doesn't quite work as well as last year's hit Satellite):
 

 And this year's German entry (also by Lena):

This years entrants....a mix of pop, rock, classical, folk, and seventies....Click on the country name to see their official video for this year's entry:

First Semi-final (10 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
Albania	Aurela Grace	Feel The Passion
Armenia	Emmy	Boom Boom
Finland	Pardise Oskar	Da Da Dam
Georgia	Eldrine	One More Day
Norway	Stella Mwangi	Haba Haba
Poland	Magdalena Tul	Jestem
Russia	Alexj Vorobjov	Get You
Serbia	Nina	Čaroban
Switzerland	Anna Rossinelli	In Love For A While
Turkey	Yüksek Sadakat	Live It Up
Azerbaijan	Ell and Nikki	Running Scared
Croatia	Daria	Celebrate
Greece	Loukas Giorkas feat. Stereo Mike	Watch My Dance
Hungary	Kati Wolf	What About My Dreams
Iceland	Sjonni’s Friends	Coming Home
Lithuania	Evelina Sašenko	C'est Ma Vie
Malta	Glen Vella	One Life
Portugal	Homens da Luta	Luta É Alegria
San Marino	Senit	Stand By

Second Semi-final (12 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
Austria	Nadine Beiler	The Secret Is Love
Belgium	Witloof Bay	With Love Baby
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Dino Merlin	Love In Rewind
Cyprus	Christos Mylordos	San Aggelo S'agapisa
Moldova	Zdob și Zdub	So Lucky
The Netherlands	3JS	Never Alone
Slovakia	TWiiNS	I'm Still Alive
Sweden	Eric Saade	Popular
Ukraine	Mika Newton	Angel
Belarus	Anastasiya Vinnikova	I Love Belarus
Bulgaria	Poli Genova	Na Inat
Denmark	A Friend In London	New Tomorrow
Estonia	Getter Jaani	Rockefeller Street
Ireland	Jedward	Lipstick
Israel	Dana International	Ding Dong
Latvia	Musiqq	Angel In Disguise
F.Y.R. Macedonia	Vlatko Ilievski	Rusinka
Romania	Hotel FM	Change
Slovenia	Maja Keuc	No One

Final (14 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
France	Amaury Vassili	Sognu
Germany	Lena Meyer	Taken By A Stranger
Italy	Raphael Gualazzi	Madness of Love
Spain	Lucía Pérez	Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao
United Kingdom	Blue	I Can
Top 10 scorers from 1st Semi-final
Top 10 scorers from 2nd Semi-final

After seeing videos from some of this week's rehearsals, I have high hopes for lots of glitter, dancing, and wind machines! We'll post some of the best videos from the semi-finals and give you our picks for the finals this weekend.

I'm curious to see how it's presented. There are a lot of interesting stories behind the songs and performers, and if this were an American show, I'd expect the focus to be on the story behind the scenes...Norway's entry by a Kenyan immigrant inspired by her grandmother's words (put into a song that makes you want dance).....How Iceland's entry is being sung by "Sjonni's Friends," after Sjonni himself died suddenly this year....Israel's beautiful transgender diva (and 1998 Eurovision Winner)...or Finland's cute, simple entry by a guy who just wanted to get some feedback on his music, not win a competition.....  I'm imagining it will mostly be about the performances, but the stories behind them often are equally interesting.

Update on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 11:58 by Frau A

So, we've made it through the Semi-Finals. I had a very surreal feeling as I watched German presenters on German TV speaking in English. It was a nice change of pace, but very very strange.

I was again impressed by their ability to switch between English, German, and French (well, the two ladies could. Stefan Raab switched effortlessly between English and German, leaving the French to the ladies).

As for our predictions (finalists are in bold), we were 5/10 in the 1st Semi and 7/10 in the 2nd:

1st  Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway.
2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova

Moving on to the finals are (click on the link to go to their Eurovision page):

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Lithuania

Moldova

Romania

Russia

Serbia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Nothing too crazy or shocking so far. There's a lot more rock and use of hip hop interludes than I expected.

These shows generally also are a giant tourism ad for the host country. I really like how Germany did its ads. Before each performance there's a short video of some site in Germany following someone who is from the country about to perform. They talk a little about the person and then conclude with the Eurovision 2011 motto "Feel Your Heart Beat" written or said in the native language. Additionally, the videos are mostly shot in the tilt-shift type of mode that makes it look like a cute little diorama in motion. Also a very subtle but good way to promote diversity in Germany. The Slovakian surfer at Munich's Eisbach was a nice touch!

German Ads (Part 4)

There were a few German ads we found that did not fit into the previous posts but deserve mention.  Here they are, mostly self-explanatory. 

Some of you might even have Henckels/Zwilling knives - they want you to know the knives are sharp.

Most of you probably have tried Toblerone too. 

Sixt is one of the largest car rental companies in Germany, and known for their witty ads (and low prices).  Here they can't resist a jab at the French:

"Do what Madame [Carla] Bruni did:  get yourself a small Frenchman."

Google Doodles Quiz - Part 2...Authors

In this prior post we briefly described Google Doodles and had a quiz.

Now it's time to guess the Authors whose birthdays were recognized with a Doodle:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

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Answers below:

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#1    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
#2    Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
#3    Antoine de Saint Exupery (The Little Prince)
#4    Jane Austen (Pride & Prejudice)
#5    Beatrix Potter (The Tale of Peter Rabbit)
#6    Hans Christian Andersen (Thumbelina)

Happy Mothers' Day!

Wishing a very happy Mothers' Day to both our moms, and all the others out there.

This good duck mother in the English Garten teaches us the true meaning of "take you under my wing."