We Will Miss Pt. 2

Welcome to the food edition of “we will miss:”

We will miss leisurely dining. In the States, servers are trying to turn tables quickly in order to maximize their tips for the day. Also, Americans often are in a hurry to get from one place to the next, so a quick meal works out well. (Exception being fine dining) Over here, however, the wait staff is paid a normal wage (aka not $2.13/hr), so they do not rely on tips for their income. It is not abnormal to spend 1.5-2 hours enjoying lunch. LUNCH. No one tries to hurry you from your table. You are expected to relax, enjoy the meal and eat, drink and be merry. While I’m on the topic of eating…

We will miss our bakeries. Oh boy, we will really miss our bakeries. We have already scouted out some bakeries to try once we get settled in Austin, and I’m certain we will be regulars at one of them. I just hope their Schokocroissants (chocolate croissants or pain au chocolate in France) satisfy our cravings. The recipes and examples of these that I have seen online has been subpar, so please, Austin bakeries, don’t disappoint me!

We will miss coffee. Sure, you can get coffee at any Starbucks, McDonald’s or local gas station, but the flavor is lacking. The first time I had a cup of Starbucks coffee after having been over here was in the Detroit airport. I ordered a caramel macchiato. When I took my first sip, I announced that the barista must have forgotten to add the coffee. It just tasted like warm water and milk. John took the drink back to the counter, and they remade my order. Unfortunately, try #2 was no better. Coffee in the States is that weak compared to what we normally drink, which is rich and full of flavor. I will really miss it.

We will miss pretzels. Like with the coffee, you can get a warm pretzel in the States – namely, at the food court in the mall. However, it’s just not the same.

We will miss doner and our lovely Turkish fast food joints. There is a large Turkish population here, and so there are also a proliferation of fast food restaurants and food stands who carry doner, Turkish pizza, etc. Yum. One place in particular, Sisal, has phenomenal doner and fries. They make their fries fresh and add great seasoning. There’s no need for ketchup or mayo on the fries. (Yes, here it’s more common to put mayo on your fries than ketchup. And you know what? It’s delicious!)

We will miss two great sodas: Mezzo Mix and Fanta. Mezzo Mix is a blend of regular and orange cola. Next to Dr. Pepper, it’s my favorite. The Fanta sold here is a different recipe than is sold in the US. It’s not a bright orange Crush-looking beverage.  It looks more like Sprite plus orange juice. The sweetness factor is a fraction of the US Fanta, too. Fanta is my third favorite soda and my top pick if I’m going caffeine free (as in, I have been ordering it often since June!). Speaking of something I haven’t been enjoying lately…

We will miss wine. Old world wine. French wine. Burgundian wine. We can buy this in the States, but it’s usually the mass produced wines, and they are sold at a huge mark up because of import taxes and transport costs. I will miss walking down to our favorite little wine shops and picking up a fantastic bottle of French, Spanish or Italian wine for as little as the US equivalent of $9-10. Our oenophile-tendencies are about to get a lot more expensive, which means that we will probably have much less opportunity to enjoy truly great Old World wine. Perhaps this will give us a chance to delve more into Californian wines. (And no…call me a wine snob if you will, but I won’t accept Llano Estacado as a noteworthy wine.)

We will miss neuer Wein and Zwiebelkuchen, otherwise known as new wine and onion cake. This is a popular seasonal treat in the fall. New wine is wine that has just begun the fermentation process. It is not filtered, so it has a feathery look to it, leading some to call it Federweisser (feather white). Oh, and it’s carbonated! Depending on where you are in Germany, this sweet treat has many different names. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federweisser The alcohol content can be quite deceptive and can have an alcohol content of anywhere from 4-10% by volume. The Zwiebelkuchen is an important part of enjoying the neuer Wein. It is a lot like an onion-based quiche. The tastes complement each other well and you would be remiss not to order them together.