an die Arbeit

I accidentally took this picture while scanning a book chapter at the FU library, and thought it looked pretty cool. In the next few weeks I be posting less often as I focus more on my work.... Berlin got some Siberian air, and it's a sign that it's time to stay indoors with some tea, or hole up in the library. Also dann...los geht's.

Snow Graffiti

scary, fun, beautiful produce

It's another gray, and probably the most freezing cold day in Berlin yet. Good for baking a nice warm meal. At the market this morning I got some more of the beautiful violet-orange carrots, to make for lunch with baked chicken with a paprika garlic marinade.

I also had the Schwarzwurzel to try. The farmer I bought it from warned me that they can be difficult to work with, that they get all sticky. So I looked it up online and almost everyone said to make sure to wear gloves when peeling--for some reason the exposed root turns glue-like with skin contact. Strange! And so freaky weird looking!  And it has to be put in an acid right away, or it discolors (I used a milk/lemon mixture). It's often compared to Spargel, or white asparagus, and is used the same way in recipes (the Germans most often pair asparagus with hollandaise sauce or butter). I just made a lemony sauce to go with it. Nothing amazing. Not like the Topinambur (sunchoke), which I will make again for sure. Maybe I didn't cook it well, but we wanted to taste the root, and know what it was like. Maybe I should give it one more try...

Every time I get chicken I think of my dad...who finds it crazy how many people buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts. He's has told me multiple times that it's cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut the breasts off. :) And finally, after years of being afraid of breaking down chickens, I finally do it. And make stock with the carcass. It makes me feel good to use all the parts, too, and once you've done it a time or two it's not so scary to attack a whole chicken.

Espresso Konzert II - Klavier

 

After going to last month's Espresso-Konzert at the Konzerthaus with Jessica (harp music), I really wanted to go back again. How can you beat this? 5 EUR for a 45-min concert (which, with encore, is about 1 hr), and a free coffee! This month it was a pianist performing, a young woman from Armenia. She started out with classical Mozart, and ended with a few more contemporary Armenian pieces. We sat on stage, right behind the pianist in this gorgeous room, and it was so much fun to watch and listen to her play.  Next month is viola!

Yes, the sun was actually peeking out on Gendarmenmarkt (Konzerthaus on left)

gegen den Multi-Millionär..."you can call this class warfare..."

 For the most part, the Germans love Obama.  Last week we were at a Turkish restaurant and the waiter effusively expressed his support for our president. Wow, you never got that five years ago. :) It's not the worst time to be an American. But anyways, it might be interesting to share some of today's headlines after the State of the Union speech (trying not to get too political...). Notice how in the US the term "class warrior" is negatively connoted, and in Germany it's portrayed positively:

"Obama verspricht gerechteres Amerika" [Obama promises a more just America] (ARD)
"Mit Gerechtigkeit gegen den Multi-Millionär" [justice against the multi-millionaires] (Spiegel Online)
"Obama fordert Fairness" [Obama promotes equality] (Berliner Morgenpost)
"'Amerika ist wieder da!' In seiner wichtigsten Rede vor der Wahl greift Obama die Reichen an" ["America is back!" In his most important speech before the elections Obama attacks the rich] (BILD)
"Wahlkämpfer Obama - populistisch und offensiv" [Campaigner Obama - populist and on the offensive] (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

not even commenting on this fascinating image they chose...

In this article in the Süddeutsche (above), entitled "In the Land of the Unequal", they say that Obama is a different man than four years ago, a "class-warrior [Klassenkämpfer, here in the positive sense] who stands for justice. They write, "Das ist eigentlich unamerikanisch, aber trotzdem nötig" [That is actually un-American, but still necessary.] "Denn angesichts eines extrem ungerechten Steuersystems, das schamlos die Reichen bevorzugt, haben viele US-Bürger das Grundvertrauen verloren: dass jeder die Chance habe, sein Glück zu machen." [Because in the face of an extremely unjust tax system, that shamelessly favors the rich, many US citizens have lost their fundamental belief: that everyone has the chance to make his fortune." 

Needless to say, the American press was not quite so positive. This Washington Post article does a good job "fact checking" empty rhetoric and statistical claims.

The discussion of taxes--which seems to be a huge part of this year's election as well--was brought up in most of the Ameircan articles I read, and the German press also focused on Obama's "attack on millionaires."  In Germany, individuals earning above EUR 250,731 pay 45% income tax. Additionally, there is a "Solidarity tax" (Solidaritätszuschlag) up to 5.5% in top brackets to help the costs from German reunification, and is paid in both (former) East and West. Also...if you belong to a religion, you pay 8-9% Kirchensteuer, church tax. So it's maybe not completely surprising that they find Obama's proposals fair and "socially just."

happy birthday Friedrich...and danke for the potato

http://www.rbb-online.de/themen/friedrich/friedrich___jahr/index.html

Friedrich der Große, the Great, "der alte Fritz": 2012 marks the 300-year anniversary of his birth. He was an advocate of "enlightened absolutism," read the French philosophes, played the flute and tried to reform and modernize Prussia.

In December, during our visit to Sanssouci in Potsdam, we noticed potatoes on his gravestone near the place. I had to look up why, and found out he helped introduce the potato to Prussia.

the gravestone in Sanssouci

Here is one account of the legend:  "Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the potato's potential to help feed his nation and lower the price of bread, but faced the challenge of overcoming the people's prejudice against the plant. When he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of Kolberg replied: "The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?" Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting potatoes, Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology: he planted a royal field of potato plants and stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby peasants naturally assumed that anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and so snuck into the field and snatched the plants for their home gardens. Of course, this was entirely in line with Frederick's wishes."  From http://www.history-magazine.com/potato.html

statue on Unter den Linden

 "Fritz" display at bookstore (Dussmann)

"In meinem Staate kann jeder nach seiner Facon selig werden."

fun with roots

This week and last I got some really beautiful produce at the organic market on Chamissoplatz: Last week, a mixture of fresh herbs, purplish carrots, parsley root, zucchini and rutabaga (I love its violet/green color). The onions, too, were a mixture of deep red and golden. One of my permanent resolutions is to keep trying to cook with things I'm not very familiar with, and always try new recipes. Outcomes so far: kohlrabi has become a regular on our salads (grated raw) and I love roasting root vegetables.

This morning at the market I got Topinambur (sunchoke/jerusalem artichoke) and Schwarzwurzel (literally "black root"), along with some brussel sprouts, beets and eggs. I  have eaten both sunchoke and Schwarzwurzel, but never cooked them. We had Schwarzwurzel at Restaurant e.t.a. hoffmann  and it was delicious, and I got to try some sunchoke at Little Otik last week. They cooked it whole, and it kinda flaked open (don't remember whether it was peeled or not). Yum.

So for lunch today we sautéd up some sunchokes with herbs, bay leaves and garlic, and they were delicious. I wish I had got a lot more. I don't know how to describe the flavor, but definitely sweeter than the potato.

inspired by Jamie Oliver recipe for sautéd jerusalem artichoke.

Naming your child

In the US, you can name your kid whatever you want, and the government won't do anything to stop you. Gwyneth Paltrow famously named her child "Apple". I'm sure you know many other examples... ("Valley" and "Lake"?) In Germany, I have been made aware of the fact that there are certain guidelines when naming your children, and the government tries to protect children from crazy parents. I've had really interesting conversations with people about this...about whether you are "damaged" or disadvantaged if you get a strange name from your parents.  And I see some points here...but the German guidelines seem really strange to me. For example, I heard from someone who wanted to name her son "Jannick", but at the time it was perceived as "too foreign." Now it's very popular. And the gender issue also strikes me as out-of-place. Read on...

When looking at the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache [Society for German language] site about the "word of the year," I found something really interesting. They have a service (20 €) where they will look into a name, and decide whether or not they think it should be accepted, and then they will pass along this recommendation to the city hall (Standesamt). They say on the site that the city hall usually goes along with their decision.

Here are the guidelines they list on their site, when deciding whether a name should be recommended:

1.  The well-being of the child is the main priority of the giving of a first name.
2.  The gender of the child must - possibly through a middle name - be clear to determine
3. The name should be documented in serious, legitimate (seriös) sources (academic name literature, official documents, etc). Evidence from the internet is only conditionally accepted.
4.  The form of the name must be recognizable as a first name.

I find all of this really fascinating. What do you think? Do you think this should be regulated? Does this also say something about the US and Germany?

You may find this interesting...the most popular first names, in Germany and the US (Emma, Maria, Sophia are on both). It's always amusing which names are "classic," and cross the Atlantic divide, and which names are culturally specific. For example, no one is named "Lena" in the States, or "Sebastian," and, the other way around, "Gretchen" is an old lady name in Germany. 

http://www.gfds.de/vornamen/beliebteste-vornamen/

from: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

More here:
http://www.gfds.de/vornamen/

arroz con pollo

Going back to Michael's Miami roots...we have been wanting to make arroz con pollo for a while. It was delicious and worth the work.


1. marinate chicken in lime juice/garlic/salt brine  (2-4 hrs)
2. brown chicken
3. make sofrito: peppers, onion, garlic, saffron, oregano, bay leaf
4. add chicken back in, cook down
5. add rice and chicken stock
6. finish off with a beer (seriously, poured into the pot)




We found the recipe here: Arroz con Pollo, from arroz y frijoles

Wort des Jahres / Word of the Year

I saw an interesting article in the ARD Nachrichten about the 2011 "Word of the Year," which not only says a lot about the relationship between language/culture, but also about a language itself. A lot of the German "nominees", as well as last year's winner (Wutbürger), are neologisms, new words that were "invented" or used to describe a particular phenomenon. German is especially suited to making up new words, because of how easily you can form composite nouns. Interestingly, there are also lots of English-influenced words, or examples of "Gerglisch," on the list (#9 is "Killersprossen," or the "killer-sprouts" of this summer's E-Coli food scare). 

This year's winner was "Stresstest," referring to the stress put on various institutions and governments: the article names the banks, nuclear energy, and the Stuttgart train station debates. Personally, I think the choice is a bit lame, and rather vague, but I guess I wasn't here all year and maybe the word has been thrown around a lot. The Süddeutsche Zeitung has a list of all the "words of the year" since 1971 here. 

Also bemerkenswert is #7, "guttenbergen," a new slang word for copying/cheating (abschreiben). Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg was German defense minister, until it was revealed that parts of his dissertation were plagiarized.

In the States, NPR's Geoff Nunberg named "occupy" the word of the year for 2011. Not only because it refers to an event, but to a new kind of phenomenon, a new kind of language, and a new kind of protest (notice how "we are the 99 percent" made #10 above in the German list):

"The word itself can take credit for a lot of its success — this isn't an item like "debt ceiling," which just happened to be hitched to a big story. But give props to the magic of metonymy, too. That's the figure of speech that lets us use names like Wall Street, Hollywood or Seventh Avenue to refer to the things that go on there.

....So why not make "the 99 percent" itself the word of the year? Well, for one thing, occupy is that rare linguistic phenomenon, a word that bubbles up out of nowhere and actually helps to create the very thing it names. And anyway, "the 99 percent" wouldn't be part of our political discussions if occupy hadn't gotten there first."  Entire article here