Down the street from us is a log chalet that looks right out of the Bavarian Alps, except without the red geraniums spilling over window boxes. Houses like this are not a rare sight in the United States. They tie German-Americans to their roots and make them feel at home. Continue reading
German slang has a funny word for all those trinkets whose sole purpose seems to be to accumulate dust: Staubfänger (literally “dust catchers”). While we have a bunch of those around our house (who doesn’t?), only a few give away my German background. I do not collect beer steins or Hummel figurines, nor I do not have a cuckoo clock. Continue reading
If there is one thing that has always been associated with junk food in Germany, it’s sweet woodruff (Waldmeister). There is sweet woodruff-flavored Jell-O, hard candy, soda, and Italian ice, all of them a neon-green color.
Jell-O is also called Götterspeise in German, „Food for the gods.“ And that’s what it felt to me as a kid: heavenly yet rather unreachable. Continue reading
Spoonfuls of Germany 