regional taste (was quark)

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

>>>>I had the same experience upon returning from Karlsruhe (Ettlingen

actually)

at the end of MY junior year in HS!

***Ach du lieber!! Du hast auch im Baden studiert? Kanst du noch auf Deutsch

sprechen und/oder schreiben? Ich habe alles vergessen Except how to write

what I just wrote. <g> I moved in with another family while I was there, and

my second family's eldest son lived in Karlsruhe if I remember correctly,

but I never visited him, although heard that it's a lovely town. Freiburg

was beautiful, and the food was unforgettable. I have never tasted

such...*tasty* food in the U.S. Never. And I don't know why German food

seemed to have so much more flavor to me...it's something I've wondered

about from time to time. Some of my favorites were chocolate, potatoes

(never knew how good a potato could taste!), bread and all bready things

(best bread ever - and a staple, as I'm sure you know), chocolate, most

vegetables, cheesecake and most pastries were the best I've ever tasted,

turkey, apple sauce that my second german mom made, schnapps and chocolate.

OK, so I became a chocolate connoisseur while there...so close to the Swiss

border, and Swiss chocolate everywhere. Hmmm....just looking at my list it's

a wonder I survived! So much sweets and starch! But, for the life of me I

can't remember how any meat tasted except the one Thanksgiving turkey dinner

I had at a restaurant, which was also very tasty - enough so that I remember

it. Oh, just remembered another thing - even the Mcs' French fries at

the Freiburg location were out of this world. Or is that blasphemy on this

list? <vbg>

So...do you suppose it's something about the soil that makes German food

(not talking about the chocolate now) so tasty as opposed to American food?

Or maybe I'm the only one who feels it's light years tastier...? What do you

think? Do you remember it being *that good*?

Also worth mentioning in regards to location and taste - I went back the

year after I graduated high school. I saved up my money from 3 summers of

working on lobster boats and bought a plane ticket and 3 month Eurrail pass.

I took a backpack (stupidly forgetting a sleeping bag) and, after spending a

little time with my best friend's family in Freiburg, I hopped a train and

did a solo trip around Europe. And I can say that the food in just about

every country I visited, was eons tastier than any food I've tasted

stateside. The only other place I've traveled outside the U.S. (aside from

Canada) is Nepal, and I can think of only two foods there (among the many I

ate) that tasted *that much* better than anything I've eaten here - mangoes

and lentils. So, I'm thinking there might be something unique to the soil in

some areas of Europe that make the food so very yummy...or maybe the drastic

difference in taste was just my own personal experience...?

Imagine the shock to my taste buds when I returned home to Maine in Feb and

got a job as a waitress at, er... 's! If there ever was

artificial food...all 'raw' materials came in a plastic or aluminum bag to

my recollection, and the cooks threw it on the grill and served it up. I

think my taste buds went into shock

Back to European food...here are some of my culinary memories in countries

other than Germany. The apples in France were out of this world. I took my

trip in the fall, and the apples were the size of small acorn squash. They

were the most flavorful, *crisp* *tart* apples I've ever tasted! (Even

though I live in state that produces apples.) My mouth is watering right now

thinking about those big juicy *tart* French apples. The best *Pizza* (and

this one deserves the capital " P " ) I've ever had *anywhere* was in a little

village cafe on a knoll in Monaco. Not really known for it's pizza <g> but

to heck with casinos and yachts...the pizza alone is worth a trip there. In

Greece, the seafood and salad stand out in my memory most. First time I'd

ever eaten squid (shoot! or was it octopus?), and it was wonderful - not

something I'd normally like. In Italy, the best food I had was soup - no

kidding. This soup was an ongoing home made concoction that was added to

daily by some American's whose apartment I stayed in for a few days. They

simply added local produce to it daily and just kept it ongoing. I had met

up with another American, last name 'Shere', who's parents own(ed) a famous

CA restaurant - Chez Panise, I think it's called. The folks whose apt we

stayed in were friends of her family. Spain - I don't recall any foods that

were so memorable - doesn't meant there aren't any - I just don't remember.

Portugal...I don't remember a particularly tasty food, but do remember that

every other shop sold seafood. It was ubiquitous. But I didn't spend long

there - being a naive, 18 year old *blonde* American traveling alone turned

out to present too many challenges for me to hang out there long enough to

get acquainted with the food Although now that I'm older and darker (no

more blonde!) and have got street smarts (from living in large urban areas

most of my adult life) that I couldn't have dreamed of back then, I'd have

more leisure to enjoy the food, I'm sure. Austria - everything that was good

in Germany was good in Austria. Overall, *the majority of foods* I ate in

these countries was so much more tastier than food I've eaten here. And it's

not like I've only eaten mass produced foods here, as my family's always had

a garden and we've often bought locally-produced foods, but not always.

I was far too thin when I went over there (after working hard at being rail

thin like the models in the magazines targeted at my demographic when I was

in my late teens), but I ate my way through about 8 countries, so I imagine

I must've filled out at least a little bit. Adventures were plentiful,

though - a little too plentiful perhaps, so there was lots of stress to

sweat off all that I ate. Plus I walked everywhere carrying the weight of a

backpack (minus a sleeping bag!), so I think I could've eaten about anything

and not put on much (needed) weight. Yes, I really loved the food just about

everywhere I went and I would *love* to do it again some day. Just wish the

food here tasted even half as good...

>>>>A few years ago, I did find some

packaged quark produced by the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company

http://www.vtbutterandcheeseco.com/product/quark.html

***Oh thanks! Have you tried it? I haven't even thought about quark for

years until this thread came up. I did save my first german mother's

cheesecake recipe, though. But have usually used ricotta cheese in place of

the quark. If I ever make it again (it's been years), I'll definitely

consider trying *real* quark from this source.

>>>>It's pretty good. It's not as good as I remembered, but my tastes have

become much more discriminating in the last 12 years or so...

***Somehow, I think mine have been deadened

Suze Fisher

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