So I am taking a bread baking course at the local
Volkshochschule, which is like a community education class. I had two sessions of four hours, led by a retired
Bäckermeister, master baker. He worked in different bakeries, owned his own, and then decided to retire from the business because of competition amongst other reasons.
Sad. Because in Germany, there are many more traditional, family-owned bakeries which make their own dough and and have their own recipies and specialties. But increasingly, there are chain bakeries which get their dough from the factory and bake it on-site but don't make it themselves (like chain bakeries in the US such as Panera). So this is a trend which unfortunately is spreading...But Germany truly still does have a bread culture totally different from that in the US.
The Germans will put up their noses and scoff when the conversation turns to the white bread you can buy in the US. They call this "Toast Brot" and love to talk about how mushy it is, how you can push one end to the other and press it together flat. German bread is solid, fresh, usually denser and usually not 100% white.
In any bakery there are tons of different kinds, and usually you buy the whole loaf. You can ask them to slice it for you, if you prefer. They have a machine there in the bakery which slices it. But most people cut their own bread at home one slice at a time...and many households even have a small "
Brotschneidemaschine" (bread cutting machine). The mere fact that this exists proves one huge difference between the US and Germany. While trying to fall asleep last night I was thinking about the expression "the best thing since sliced bread....."
So anyways, I did a baking course and learned a lot of helpful techniques and tips for making yeast doughs, sweet doughs and sourbread doughs. I definitely need a lot more practice, but it was super interesting and also a true social experience being in a course with 11 Germans who want to perfect their bread-baking techniques, and one master baker who looks at us curiously sometimes and smiles.... "No, don't ever put dishwashing liquid on your bread pans! They're clean! You're just going to bake with them again, just wipe them out! Dish soap is the
worst thing for them!" Or his commentary about the baking industry, "Yeah, bakers used to get there at 3:00 or 4:00 am to start making the bread for the day, now some of them are even starting now [around 7:00 pm] to make your bread for tomorrow! That's what it's come to!"
Another thing that is typically German are
Brötchen, which we can only translate as rolls but they aren't like any rolls you can buy in the US. Like the French have croissant for Sunday breakfast, Germans have
Brötchen. There are lots of different kinds, white bread, whole wheat with sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds, or made from a milk dough with raisins... Like German bread, they always have a hard crust and a soft inside. If you touch the crust of a loaf of German bread it's always hard, and Brötchen, too. Crunchy outside and soft inside. Not like a loaf of bread you can get in the US which would be soft to the touch.
Here's what I made last night: A Kräuter-Quark bread (herb and quark), and also a loaf of rye with dried fruit. Last week I made a garlic bread and a sweeter dough for making breakfast rolls.
Next up: the same baker is doing a course on Torten und Kuchen (tortes and cakes). I am already signed up.
below: Kamps, a chain bakery in a shopping mall (but they still do have great Rosinenschnecken)
Sue having a Schnitzel for dinner...
Sue and Audrey partying it up in Berlin!
Hackische Höfe at night...pretty inner courtyards
Free coconut? Some guy gave us a free coconut. Strange, and delicious.
Amazing winner triathlete Audrey: "Biking makes happy"
Berliner Dom at night
Berliner Dom and the Spree
This one is for Derek: it's HUMBOLDT!!!
Today we went to an exhibit called "Deutschland für Anfänger," Germany for Beginners. It was really well done, a very hands-on, very colorful, mixed media exhibit. Not sure who the intended audience is...as most of the information was in German with small bits translated for non-German speaking visitors... But it was great for graduate students who teach German 101 in the US. :)
A for Arbeit, "work."
"B" is for Brauchtum, "customs," like the Tannenbaum, Karneval...
"C" is for Currywurst, a letter dedicated to all the different kinds of Wurst the Germans eat. Turns out they eat on average 2.6 kg of Bratwurst a year, 7.3 kg of Brühwurst.
And they also had jokes such as: "Q: What is the title of the shortest book in the world? A: One Thousand Years of German Humor."
"L" for Lorelei, the poem by Heinrich Heine which is named after a spot of cliffs along the Rhine, where, as the myth goes, sailors crashed to their deaths because of the singing of a woman combing her hair.
And below is the Bergmannstrasse in Kreuzberg, a really colorful beautiful area with lots of different kinds of cuisine and shops...
Below: Ad from Kentucky Fried Chicken in Germany, an example of the rampant Anglicisms in the German language, which are most commonly found in advertising, the business and technology sectors, and in youth slang. "Chicken" is not a German word, but here they have it used gramatically as if it were, in the compound words "Chickentag" (chicken day) and "Chickenteile" (chicken pieces).
This is a slide in a movie theater. Seriously. The theater was on the second or third floor, and one option to get back out is to take a slide...Here is Michael at the bottom.
And another Berliner Randomness: After Michael Jackson's death the Germans were sadder than the Americans. Seriously. This is just one example of a totally random little shrine...On Alexanderplatz next to this clock that shows the time all around the world, they started putting pictures and notes and memorial candles.
So anyways, I did a baking course and learned a lot of helpful techniques and tips for making yeast doughs, sweet doughs and sourbread doughs. I definitely need a lot more practice, but it was super interesting and also a true social experience being in a course with 11 Germans who want to perfect their bread-baking techniques, and one master baker who looks at us curiously sometimes and smiles.... "No, don't ever put dishwashing liquid on your bread pans! They're clean! You're just going to bake with them again, just wipe them out! Dish soap is the worst thing for them!" Or his commentary about the baking industry, "Yeah, bakers used to get there at 3:00 or 4:00 am to start making the bread for the day, now some of them are even starting now [around 7:00 pm] to make your bread for tomorrow! That's what it's come to!"
Next up: the same baker is doing a course on Torten und Kuchen (tortes and cakes). I am already signed up.
This fancy shiny dome was built in 1992, designed by Sir Norman Foster. It has a ramp you can walk up to the top for great views of the city. It's also a very enviornmentally-friendly design, with mirrors which let in natural light into the room below where the congress meets.
Artists in action....
Some samples from the gallery:
Above: "So strong, and yet so vulnerable. the people (das Volk), man (der Mensch), the forest, the tree."
Above: This painting has become really famous, known as the "Bruderkuss," "brother kiss," which was a greeting in the former Eastern Block to show respect. In this mural (after a photograph) it is Erich Honecker (E Germany) und Leonid Breschnev (Soviet Union).
