Today's lesson was a traditional German cooking show. This week, we are learning to navigate our way around the kitchen and how to follow recipes. We learned the names for: plates, forks, knives, garlic presses, sieves, egg timers, dishwashers, sinks, etc. Today, our teacher cooked Bauernfrühstück - which means "farmer's breakfast". The meal contained: potatoes, ham, cream, eggs, onions, salt, pepper and parsley. Luckily for me, there were two Muslim students in the class which meant we out-numbered the carnivores. As such, the meal was made "ohne Fleisch".
While the teacher prepared the meal, she taught the lesson. We learned many of the verbs which take place in the kitchen such as: cook, boil, fry, chop, mix, peel, bake, spread, etc. Here is a very brief list of some words from German recipes: geschalgen, gebraten, gelegt, gehackt, gestreut, geschnitten, gegeben, gegossen. I'm ge-ge-going crazy. It'll take getting used to, I ge-ge-guess.I have come to realise that English is no different than German. Sure, the words are different and the sentence structure is different and the grammar is diferent but both languages often lack logic. We have just as many non-sensical word-combinations and pronounciations in English as I am finding in German. (Patricia - are you ready???) We have through-bough-cough, all spelled with "ough" but pronounced differently. Mooch-brooch. Read-read-red. Two-too-to. A picture is hung. A person is hanged. Today I eat, yesterday I ate. Today I see, yesterday I saw, or in some parts of the country - seen. See-saw, seen, scene. I have a headache...
The meal was cooked in a large, deep frying pan (like a wok), then flipped over to treat the other side. It resembled a pie when it was served. As much as I hate potatoes, it was pretty good. I'm quite sure I will never try it again but I have no regrets.I tried another local specialty at home today. My host made a traditional cake called "eierscheke" which is a levened quark cake with raisins. Quark is milk curd and having just googled to see what it is, I now know why it is not popular in Canada.
Both (new) dishes seemed very unhealthy to me but attempts were made to convince me otherwise. I may not have loved it but at least I can say I tried German food. What is typical Canadian food? Maple syrup? Beavertail? Poutine? Nanaimo Bars? Ice Wine? Montreal Smoked Meat? - nothing healthy.-----
The photos are of poorer quality today because I used the webcam on my laptop at school rather than my digital camera.
