Living in Deutschland

From our Schnitzelbahn guest-blogger, BB:

I arrived for the first time March 8th 2004. Ops, take that back, Jan 6^th1966 was the first arrival. And that should explain this short preamble. After an 11 day adventure across the North Atlantic in a major winter storm on a WWII vintage rust bucket troop transport we (860 soldiers and a few families including my 4 month pregnant wife) docked. Bremerhaven was cold and dreary and we boarded a bus to catch a train to Schweinfurt. Bench seats and no heat. 10 hours later a Lieutenant met us at the train station in a jeep and took us to the BOQ. I met my commanding office the next day and was told to report to my unit and the next morning we left for a two week training exercise at Hoenfels. He said the officer wives would take care of her. (My wife). Nevertheless she was hysterical. Bless her heart; the hysteria lasted well into my son’s first year.

Truth be known, I loved Germany, the US Army, the beer, camaraderie, my shiny new Beetle, Tanks, and playing war games, assuming command of a tank company and generally feeling like I was 24 year old hot stuff!

So when the business opportunity arose, I was excited about returning to live and in the intervening years, I had traveled back several times on holidays and Army reunions. I was no stranger! So I have a different perspective about the Fatherland than some of my colleagues. I saw the development miracle over a period of 44 years.  Most of my colleagues are not yet 40!

I saw this country for the first time exactly 20 years after the end of WWII. They were climbing back but it was a slow climb. Restoration was complete or in progress for many partially destroyed buildings and there was a housing boom for multifamily houses in the cities that lacked any attempt at architectural creativity. It was simply a provide shelter exercise.  There were many, many vacant spaces that were evidence of once rubble piles.

This country went from a scientific and industrial power to a destroyed nation in a few years.  There were few young men, many widows and orphans, virtually no infrastructure, services, jobs, an unsympathetic foreign government and military occupation. Add in humiliation, shame, poverty and low morale.

Ok the US and the Allies did provide some leadership and lots of cash--- but what you see today in modern Germany is a testament to the human spirit coupled with an economic miracle! And three generations hence, the guilt is waning. Perhaps the seniors have learned from history, and the young—well they are the young.

We Americans can argue about high taxes, socialism, big brother, rules, holidays, business culture, high costs and more. I will now return to a country that I love above all after God and Family. But I will also be wary of crime, drugs, drunk drivers, the criminal tort system, unusually bad politics, huge disconnect with minorities, a dysfunctional health care system and economic malaise.

Yes, I will miss the calm, safe, ordered society and of course its beauty and its autobahns! I am not embarrassed or sad to return to my beloved America but I wonder sometimes if the answer between our two very diverse systems lies somewhere in the middle.

Advent Calendars for Everyone

Yesterday was the beginning of one of my favorite holiday traditions. Advent Calendars are great for everyone....for kids, it helps pass the time and count down the days till Christmas and for adults, it helps limit us to a piece of chocolate per day. Or is an excuse to eat some chocolate every day. Not sure which, but both are good ideas.   

The Germans have take Advent Calendars to new heights. They are everywhere, beginning in October. But be warned, if you wait until December, you may not find any! 

It's not just chocolate anymore - there really is something for everyone these days. Chocolate advent calendars still are by far the most popular ones, but there are plenty of non-candy calendars or manly calendars on offer. 

My Advent Calendar Guide: 

For Mom:
(probably you should give her a chocolate one, too)

The Tea Party Advent Calendar, which includes tea bags and holders in the shape of famous politicians, artists, and Biblical characters (Queen Elizabeth, Baby Jesus, Rudolph, Sarkozy, Mozart, and Merkel).  

   

For the Hello Kitty fan in your life:
(it's ok to admit it, you know you have one...or are one!)

For Father/Husband/Boyfriend:
The Handyman Advent Calendar. I got Herr J one so we could see what goodies are inside!  

  

For those who don't like chocolate:
(yes, i have met one or two in life...I both envy and pity them) 

Gummi Bear Advent Calendar, from the neighborhood Bears and Friends.    

For the younger brother:
Unfortunately, I really couldn't find a justification to buy one. But there are a few varieties out there of Lego Advent Calendars.  

For the teenage daughter/sister:
The Body Shop here has an advent calendar full of small-sized products.  

They seem to be out of them, so I'll just show an even more fun one...the famous Selfridge's advent calendar. Similar idea and cost, just the Body Shop uses their own products.  

Selfridge's Advent Calendar

For the Music Lover:
Or also good for parents who don't want to give more candy to the kids... The Musical Advent Calendar, with a new song each day (38 minutes in total).  

 

For children of all ages, or also for yourself:
The Kinder Surprise Egg Advent Calendar. Full of Kinder Eggs, with Christmas toys and ornaments inside. Also it opens up to have a nice 3D scene and a sleigh to hold a Kinder Egg.  

In the interest of full disclosure....I got one for myself. I love Kinder Eggs and am looking forward to hanging some of the ornaments on my Christmas tree.  Will post later pictures of what suprises are inside.

Kinder has a variety of advent calendars on offer...     Kinder Friends - with Bueno, Bons, Country and Chocolate 

Kinder Mix - with Happy Hippos, Bons, Suprise Eggs, and Chocolate

Or if Kinder is not your favorite, all of the major German and Swiss chocolatiers have at least one calendar on the market....

Ritter Sport

       Milka   Mozart

Niederegger (Marzipan and Chocolate) Lindt, as usual, has a wide variety of advent calendars...dark, light, spiced chocolates, kid's chocolates, pralines, and mini-truffels.

  

And, finally, we have my awesome, homemade Advent Calendar. What's in it? We'll see tomorrow....

A Guide to Vacation Blogging

The Correct Way:

Outdoor bathtub, champagne, candles, wi-fi. Thank you Conrad hotel!

Not the Correct Way:

but I was highly amused by the snarky, slightly passive-aggressive tone of this error message as we tried to log on and kill time during our 5 hours in the Doha airport:

Internet Explorer 6 is not supported.

Squarespace is an advanced web application that can not be deployed to web browsers that were released almost 7 years ago (IE6 was released in 2001).

Please install any modern web browser in order to use our editor. This includes Internet Explorer 7+, Safari 3+, Firefox 2+, or Opera 9+.

 

Trying to log on (and stay warm) in the Doha Airport

German Beer Wars - Starkbier (the Dark & Dangerous Round)

In the German Beer Wars, we've had The Power Pils Round and this weekend played with fire by holding the Dark and Dangerous Round on a Sunday night.  I have to finish the homework I didn't do and go to morning German classes and Herr J has work....neither of which are things that go well with drinking superstrong beer the previous night. 

Our competitors this time all come from the Starkbier classification of beer. In reality, the "strong" part of "strong beer" has to do with a tax-based classification.  Beer in Germany is taxed based on the weight of the run-off that is strained off after the mashing part of the process (see here for more technical brewing and taxation info).

All four are strong lager types of beer, with 3 doppelbocks (darker, stronger lager beers traditionally brewed by the Paulaner monks in Munich for about 3 centuries).  Paulaner's Salvator (meaning "Savior") is the classic Starkbier, though many breweries make one these days. Interestingly, many often name the beer with a single word ending in "-ator." Here we have Löwenbräu's Triumphator, and you can also find other Starkbiers named Celebrator, Optimator, Maximator, and so on. This is also the beer known as the "liquid bread" that the monks could drink while fasting for Lent. See here for a good rendition of the history of Starkbier.

However, in our minds, the "strong" has more to do with the alcohol content, and not only with color and taste.  Let's put it this way...at 7.1% ABV, the Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel was the weakest beer of the group!

Next in line were Löwenbräu's Triumphator (Dunkler Doppelbock), with 7.6% ABV, and Paulaner's famous Salvator ("the original Starkbier"), with 7.9% ABV.

Leaving the first three in the dust, was our final competitor: SchorschBock 16%. You can likely guess from the name the alcohol content, and they proudly market it as "The Strongest Lagerbeer in the World." It is not, however, their strongest beer...SchorschBock's offerings proudly include the strongest wheat beer (13% ABV), the "formerly strongest beer in the world" (32% ABV), and The Strongest Beer in the World, clocking in at a liver-frightening 43% ABV.  Why make a beer with comparable ABV to scotch? "'cause Frankonian Men don't dress like girls."

We needed something to stand up to these beers, so we tasted them with our Feng Shui Texas Chili.  These are good beers to drink with a spicy and hearty chili, but the spice of the habaneros did cover up some of the flavors of the beers. So we also tasted them alone, and with only the slightly sweet cornbread.   

  Feng Shui Texas Chili with Paulaner Salvator and SchorschBock 16%

First up were the Doppelbocks:

     

 Andechs Doppelbock Dunkelr vs Löwenbräu Triumphator

These two looked surprisingly similar in the glass, and both had a lovely dark beer smell....malty, a bit spicy and chocolaty.  Though their tastes were in the same family, each had a different take on the Doppelbock variety. The Löwenbräu finished with a slightly bitter, almost hoppy ending taste; the Andechs with a sweeter, toasted caramely ending.  It's really a matter of how you want your beer to taste, but we gave the win to Andechs, as we preferred the sweet finish to the bitter.  (No worries to you manly beer drinkers... as it's a stronger, darker beer, it is not a beer you can really call "sweet," just a description of it's final taste.  Both were great beers, very complex mix of flavors, and drinkable. Perfect for drinking on a cold night in front of a fire. However, these definitely pack quite a punch and are would be hard to drink for long beer drinking sessions!

Then we moved on to the heavyweight championship....Paulaner's world famous Salvator starkbier vs SchorschBock's world's strongest lager. I remember Paulaner from the annual Starkbierfest as a really dark, meaty beer. However, I also realize that I never quite saw what it looked like, as it was served in the traditional pottery mugs. Don't worry, it's still a liter of beer, but the container is completely opaque.

So, initially I thought it would be dark like the Doppelbocks and was certain that it was the darker of the two (see the picture above with the chili). And then I tasted them. Wow. I'm going to award extra points to any beer that makes Starkbier taste smooth and light by comparison.

Both were good, in their own ways. The Salvator was a tasty (many flavors combined together) and smooth beer. The SchorschBock did have a strong and good flavor, but was quite concentrated.  I doubt I could drink much of it in a sitting as a beer, but I would definitely serve it as a sort of "beer liquer." I'd expect that's even more true for their 43% beer! But it was much more concentrated, thus tasted closer to a whisky or liquor than to a beer. but with retaining the good maltiness, cloves, burnt caramel, and other characteric tastes you may find in a darker beer.

While the SchorschBock put in a nice showing in the first quarter, it couldn't go a full game and Paulaner predictably takes another victory.

We've learned a lot so far in this little experiment, including that generally all of the Paulaner and Andechs beers are unusually good beers.  So we knew that the Salvator vs Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel was going to be a tough matchup. It was. Again, this one came down to a matter of personal preference. We'd give both beers top marks, but found the Salvator to be a little smoother and drinkable. The flavors in both were outstanding, but the Starkbier just went down more smoothly. Something I really did not expect. I had thought it would be a little more bitter, and not so easy to drink. Of course, after half a maß of Starkbier it always goes down really smoothly. But I had always thought of it more as a festival beer, and not something you might drink with dinner or one evening. Another happy discovery, and I'm looking forward to celebrating Starkbierfest next spring at Paulaner am Nockherberg!

And to a Paulaner (Salvator) vs Paulaner (Original Münchener Dunkel) showdown for the Dunkel regional championship!

Feng Shui Texas Chili

Inspired by Toytown's Annual Chili Cookoff and motivated by the cold weather, we decided to try our hand at making chili this weekend.

I wanted a hot chili, with lots of shredded beef, so we used Kent Rathburn's recipe (see below - unfortunately I just saved it on email from an old Jasper's newsletter, so don't have a link to give).  It's a hearty Texas style chili (without beans, and often without tomato), and ours tasted a bit like Carolina barbecue after we had finished. Authentic or not, it was tasty and a really good first effort. We'll work on perfecting a good Texas/Asian chili this winter!

It's always a bit of an experiment when using an American recipe and trying to figure out what the ingredients are in German supermarkets, but we figured goulasch beef would be an excellent choice. and it was - not only did it fall apart perfectly, but we didn't have to do any cutting!

We had planned to try to make chili with a little Asian flair in the spices, but when I saw the packages available, I knew we had the perfect starting point....what could be better than using a lucky amount of 0.888kg of beef????  Hence the "Feng Shui" part of the recipe.

And, of course, it's a great excuse to make cornbread! 

We had a little accident resulting in too much salt in ours to start with, but were able to remedy it with some tasty Andechs Berg Bock Hell, giving it a nice little bit of sweetness to balance out the spices. We also added some cardamom for taste and substituted cayenne powder for ancho, as none was available here.  If you want your chili super hot, you can do as we did and use roasted habanero peppers in place of the poblanos. However, it's REALLY hot...trust me....Despite all precautions of wrapping hands in baggies and not touching my face, etc....running the knife under water managed to send all the habanero spiciness into the air, and me running outside to gulp down cold air to stop the burning....always an adventure in the kitchen around here! 

Also, we don't have a grill, so we just browned the meat in the soup pot, then removed it to cook the onions. Worked well! Cooking long and on low will make the meat fall apart perfectly.

Beer-Braised Sirloin Chili

(Recipe from Kent Rathburn)
Marinade:
2 lbs top sirloin steak, trimmed
2 Tbsp canola oil
Juice of 4 limes
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp black pepper, coarsely crushed
1 jalapeno pepper, stem/seeds removed, minced
1 Tbsp salt

Chili:
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 large onions, peeled and diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp ancho chile powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 bottles (12 oz each) Mexican beer
2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, seeds and stems removed, diced
1 tsp salt
Juice from 2 limes
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1. Cut the steak into four pieces, each about 8 ounces.

2. Marinate beef in the oil, lime juice, garlic, shallots, cilantro, pepper, jalapeño, and salt for at least three hours, or overnight.

3. Prepare the grill (using hickory or mesquite if possible). Cook the meat to medium doneness on an open flame. Let the meat cool, then dice into one half inch cubes. Set aside.

4. In a large sauce pot, add the oil and sauté the onions and garlic until translucent.

5. Add in meat pieces and cook on medium heat until most of moisture is gone.

6. Stir in ancho chile powder, cumin, and coriander; then deglaze with beer.

7. Continue cooking on medium heat until meat is tender and sauce starts to thicken.

8. Add diced chilis and finish with kosher salt and lime juice. Garnish with green onions and chopped cilantro.

The United States in TV and Movies

OK, I'm a big dork and love maps, especially ones that blend together geography and pop-culture.

You've probably seen the one with the US states as Movies before (it made the rounds on The Huffington Post and other sites), but Andrew Shears has done one showing the states as TV shows. I guess "Dukes of Hazzard" is a bit better than "Deliverance" for Georgia, but still not bringing out the state's best!

The United States as Movies  

The United States as TV Shows

via Strange Maps

Lego Architecture

LEGO is now selling these cool architecture models, including a Frank Lloyd Wright Collection and other well-known buildings and monuments.

Very cool!

via WANKEN

Guggenheim Museum

 John Hancock Center 

Fallingwater House