Yesterday I woke up with a strong craving for the same breakfast style I had in Germany.
It might sound strange but I don’t think I’ve ever eaten with the French so I can’t say I missed that style. I do miss their bread though. I did have it with tea in a bowl as my host in Nancy showed me. But it was typically grab and go, or eat in front of the PC.
In Germany, however, every morning at his parents’ in Achim, or his place in Berlin, or his brother’s in Nürnberg, we had fresh brotchen (bread rolls) laid in a dish, and a wide variety of marmalade (jams and spreads), and a block of butter, and fresh coffee.
There were a couple of things I learnt:
- One bread roll per person is too little. Two is little. Three could be about right.
- If there’s a long bread, don’t slice it all up for convenience. Let the person cut the amount preferred.
- Slather the bread with any jam preferred. This means nutella, fruit jams, honey (honig), some kind of herb spread…
- Operating a simple coffee machine. Woh.
- Coffee isn’t the only beverage at breakfast. It’s usually coffee with juice as a side.
- Long breakfast conversations are a norm.
I love the long breakfast conversations. I love every long meal conversations. Because back home we’re too busy eating to talk. Or too much in a hurry while eating. Or too occupied watching tv while eating. And when one is done eating, mealtime is over and everyone leaves.
Coming from a land of food culture, I actually didn’t miss meals back home. Probably also because I wasn’t away long enough, and I had some Asian food while I was there, but mostly because often, the experience kicks the actual product’s ass.
So I tried to replicate it yesterday. I had my sliced loaf of whole meal sunflower seed bread, another sliced loaf of buttered bread, and my jams laid out on the table. I enjoyed slathering bread with jam. I had milk instead of coffee.
But still I had no long conversation that made it the breakfast I missed. Scheiße!
kaya toast 