The Pennsylvania TV station PCN interviewed me recently. Francine Schertzer, the program host, asked me how the fall of the Berlin Wall had changed Germany’s food scene. I said there had been tremendous change for the good for East Germans. Continue reading
One of my favorite scenes in the great German movie Good Bye Lenin is when the main character Alex, a young man who in the last days of the crumbling GDR takes care of his gravely ill mother, fills West German pickled cucumbers into old East German jars to keep the illusion of the GDR alive, because any further upset could be a fatal blow to his mother, a staunch supporter of the ruling regime.
25 years after the Berlin Wall fell, the longing for the lost goodies, edibles and others, of the former East Germany is not that far from reality. It even has its own name: “Ostalgie”, the nostalgia for the East. Continue reading
During spring cleaning this week, I considered throwing out a pair of dark brown suede gloves, my longtime favorites. I’ve had them for more than a decade and they are worn but the thought of tossing them passed and I decided to keep them after all.
If you are not living in Germany you will most likely find it odd when I tell you that I bought the gloves at a coffee shop, Continue reading
Spoonfuls of Germany 