I’ve always had a thing for the German breakfast since going to Germany my first time in high school. I think I enjoy the simplicity and old world charm of their breakfasts. It probably helps too that I’m 98% of German background. Most of the time the breakfast just consists of brötchen (German hard rolls) eaten as an open faced sandwich with butter and then either meat, cheese, or jam. You may also have muesli with milk or yoghurt, as well as soft boiled eggs. Of course with the soft boiled eggs, you traditionally would cut off the top, place it in an egg cup, and eat the egg out with a tiny little egg spoon. Before you even ask, yes I do have a set of egg cups, egg spoons, and even have a sinister looking device that cuts the tops of the eggs.
Luckily, here in Madison there is a German butcher shop and grocery store on the west side of town. It is aptly named Bavaria Sausage and is owned and operated by one family. The original owners (the mother and father) opened the shop in the early 1960s. I’ve in fact seen the father still at the shop making sausages and other meat, and of course wearing the small traditional Bavarian hat complete with the feather on the side. Because of the family tradition, and the endless supply of incredible looking meat and cheese, Bavaria Sausage is one of my favorite places in Madison.
For my Saturday morning breakfast, I went to Bavaria Sausage on my Friday lunch break and picked up some of the essentials. I purchased brötchen, schinken (sometimes known as Black Forest ham, kind of a German prosciutto), hard salami, butterkäse (a white farmers style cheese), and this very dense full grain bread (here is an example). The last item is an item that I don’t really know the right name for, but you see it all the time in Germany. Its density though, does make it an acquired taste. In fact, on my second trip to German as part of a college trip, we received this bread as part of a sack lunch. I was the only person of our group that would eat it.
The brotchen come frozen and half baked so I popped those in the oven first thing that morning. While they were baking, and later cooling, I made my customary morning tea (the Germans do have that too) and lined up all of my other foods. Then with the brötchen cooled, I cut then in half and topped them with meat. I also had a slice of the dense bread, split in two and topped with butter and butterkäse. After two rounds of that, I was quite satiated and quite pleased.
Although, my soccer club didn’t win that Saturday morning, I had a good time making and enjoying my traditional German breakfast. And I didn’t even have to put on any lederhosen…
Round One: Clockwise - whole brötchen, brötchen halves with schinken, and dense bread with butterkäse
Round Two: brötchen halves topped with hard salami, dense bread with butterkäse
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