Silvester/new year's eve

it's going to be a working one, this Silvester as the night between december 31 and january 1 of each year is referred to in german language. i don't mind too much. already as a teenager i found out that in north america new year's eve is quite disappointing.

just like the name for the occasion in english is rather down to earth compared to the more glamorous sounding german word that sparkles as you speak, so is the actual celebration of the calendar's turn.

as an almost teenager i found myself with family in toronto, canada. as adults were invited to a hotel dinner, we kids were left in the hotel room. for consolidation a big box of lego -- a huge underwater station -- was to keep us company. no fireworks, no sparklers, not even a Knallfrosch [fire cracker] or as harmless as it gets Tischfeuerwerk -- a cardboard cylinder popping open upon ignition spilling out plastic symbols of luck for the new year such as chimney sweeps, green four-leaved clover, a mock penny (or rather cent), fly agaric as so-called lucky mushroom and the like. ever since i didn't expect much of north american new years. the experience was confirmed when the highlight of december 31 evening in nebraska was an ignited line of gasoline along the only village main street. nothing compared to the playfully blasting trash cans, mail boxes, and friendly fire cracker fights while roaming the city streets in bands of excited youths. the swooshing and hissing of the rockets that people can buy so that each party has their own fireworks in front of the house. streets eventually are covered with the colorful confetti of left-over red paper and other wrapping of the firing material, bottles used as rocket launchers roll around.
everyone is enjoying themselves.

okay, to stop nostalgia, there is some danger involved with all these fanatic private rocket parties. once it happend that a friend caught a fire cracker in his hair, jackets get burned, finger tips singed. nevertheless, there have been more positive Silvester evenings than negative ones. it certainly was never boring.

if you have nothing to do you can also fall back on Blei giessen, a very fun and peaceful activity belonging to Silvester as countless paper streamers blown into each other's face. Blei giessen means pouring tiny amounts of heated, molten lead into cold water to interpret the result. just like pumpkin carving kits are a standard supermarket item at the right time in the united states, kits with a portioned bids of lead, a spoon to heat the same over the flame of a candle, and a booklet to oracle about the meaning of the re-solidified metal show up at the seasonal sections of german stores. everyone wants to know what the next year brings, right?!

whichever way you celebrate, quiet, rambunctious, with Sekt oder Selters [champaign or soda] have a
guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr -- a nice slide into 2010!

ps: just checked with one of my main sources on small town german life. she said there's quiet some noise and neighbors gathered on the street to watch the lights in the sky. i can imagine the solemn excitement despite sitting in a somber office.

where are you from? -- being foreign

"For the first time in history, across much of the world, to be foreign is a perfectly normal condition. It is no more distinctive than being tall, fat or left-handed. Nobody raises an eyebrow at a Frenchman in Berlin, a Zimbabwean in London, a Russian in Paris, a Chinese in New York."

-- Being Foreign. The Economist, Dec. 17, 2009

or a german in washington d.c.

after the inevitable question "where are you from?" my inevitable answer "germany" outs me as a foreigner.

in ninety-nine percent of these budding dialogues, the reaction has been positive. especially u.s. americans like to place themselves somewhere on a scale oscillating between full-germanness to remote german flavor as they recall a german ancestor, living distant relative, friend, work colleague or remote acquaintance, someone who was born, visited or served in germany.

"It has long been true in America that nobody can be foreign because everybody is foreign."

somewhat true. but the experience of just recently having left your home country comes with a different sense of being foreign.

the smart essay in the december 17, 2009 print edition of the economist summarizes many of the themes that accompany long-term living abroad. it offers a short history, philosophies, and traditions of foreignness. it acknowledges asylum seekers and economic refugees as well as adventurous students, artists, and other immigrants by choice.

falling in the latter category more than any other i felt at home reading the article that so concisely and knowingly penned out the contradictory equation of joy and burden of being foreign.

for example that it's easier for europeans to live within each other's countries or the united states. how about living in japan or any african country? the perceived similarities between western countries, however, sometimes wash away the experience of difference that cannot be overcome whenever you live outside your home country for better or worse.

"[...]foreignness is intrinsically stimulating. Like a good game of bridge, the condition of being foreign engages the mind constantly without ever tiring it. John Lechte, an Australian professor of social theory, characterises foreignness as “an escape from the boredom and banality of the everyday”. The mundane becomes “super-real”, and experienced “with an intensity evocative of the events of a true biography”."

just going to the supermarket is an adventure in the beginning (prices without included taxes make for a big surprise at the cash register, unknown brands and missing products). cooking can result in cultural fights when pancakes are not pancakes but Eierkuchen and eaten any time other than for breakfast. the visit to a foreign dentist is a scary novelty and costly with cash needed before the pain even subsides. hunting for housing is an unbeaten path with sticky strings attached by a seemingly all powerful landlord ruling over lessees without law. routine activities such as clothes shopping, gift giving, and party invitations become a social gamble.

"Every foreigner of inquiring mind becomes a part-time anthropologist, wondering and smiling at the new social rituals of his adoptive country."

i am still searching to understand the subtle rules of how u.s. americans make friends, often boldly and sudden. i observed many times how two of them talk to each other at a bus stop or party assuming from the conversation that they have known each before just to find out that only met the minute before. in conjunction with this conundrum comes the riddle of the how privacy is handled. questions concerning boyfriends, family relations, and the sum of the latest paycheck or how much your cute purse costs are willingly answered within in seconds of a new acquaintance. depending on my mood i like playing the game of u.s. american interaction or not.

i feel like a foreigner every single day. although it does not strike as strong of a chord with me as other underlying principles, the article also describes the dark side to having gone away.

"Beneath it all there is the guilt of betrayal. To choose foreignness is an act of disloyalty to one’s native country."

reproaches of not being home or taking care of things there can flare up in subtle ways from the home front. on the foreign shores, criticism resulting from constant comparison between your two countries, can result in reproaches of another kind.

"A foreigner is, after all, someone who didn’t like his own country enough to stay there. Even so, the complaining foreigner poses something of a logical contradiction. He complains about the country in which he finds himself, yet he is there by choice. Why doesn’t he go home?"

following the way the cookie crumbles, a country might choose the person and not the other way around. whichever way:

"The funny thing is, with the passage of time, something does happen to long-term foreigners which makes them more like real exiles, and they do not like it at all. The homeland which they left behind changes. The culture, the politics and their old friends all change, die, forget them. They come to feel that they are foreigners even when visiting “home”."

this feeling comes quicker than the article makes it out. as much as i am the foreigner in the united states, some people in germany jokingly have called me "the american" when i visited back home. how much do i know about current milk prices, the latest catchy song on the radio, the current fashion on the street or the talk of the german towns i lived in? not so much at the moment despite almost obsessive watching of Tagesschau, Tagesthemen, heute journal and the absorption of any printed german online and offline.

"But we cannot expect to have it all ways. Life is full of choices, and to choose one thing is to forgo another."

going back is always an option, living abroad is something not always offered. that doesn´t mean though that i´m not german anymore.

Stollen -- discovering a german christmas cake tradition abroad

we never have been much of a Stollen family -- "Stollen" meaning the bread-like cake filled with almonds, dried fruit, raisins, and currents inside and decorated with molten butter and powdered sugar on the outside. Stollen is one of the christmas specialities in germany and cities like dresden or nürnberg pride themselves with original recipes for the dense rich loaves.

we never have been much of a Stollen family because my grandmother would prepare home-made Apfelstrudel. for my u.s. americans, think of a big nut roll with an extended filling of butter-roasted breadcrumbs, almonds, raisins, and lots of grated apples that have to be of different varieties.

nevertheless, as german tradition demands, Stollen has to be on the table for gatherings in the Adventszeit, the Advent season anticipating christmas eve. commercially produced ones appeared on ours.

every year since i have moved to ohio, a Stollen was sent over the ocean to be shared with my u.s. americans. inspired by another two baby Stollen that arrived at the right time this year, we decided to bake one ourselves. i was excited as always when doing something german or something new. now i could combine the two following a new tradition of producing german food favorites that i had never made from scratch in germany before but couldn´t find ready-made in the united states (think Quark, Pudding, or Klöße).

missing a family tradition to fall back onto we downloaded a recipe for a Dresdner Stollen. a christmas elf helped us with the dough. that`s where the story begins of how to make a fancy brick -- the way the supposed Stollen unfortunately turned out.

















the dough is quite heavy with lots of butter but no eggs. you might find the absence of eggs curious but the more interesting fact is the presence of butter. originally the loaf was meant to be a food for fasting with only flour, yeast, and water as base ingredients.only with the Butterbrief of 1491, a papal permit allowing butter in the dough, the Stollen morphed into the richness we know it now according to the official website of the Dresdner Stollen (available in english and german by the way).














as written above we joined the christmas elf when it came to the fun part of kneading the remaining ingredients into the dough such as currants [Korinthen].














strong hands folded them in followed by Orangeat [candied orange peel], Zitronat [candied lemon peel], and a mix of dried candied fruit pieces. i imported the little boxes a while ago as they are not common in the united states. we trusted that all the sugar in them would preserve them a bit longer than the expiration date indicated.















almonds are another part of the filling for the loaf, that according to legend is symbolic for baby jesus wrapped in a white blanket.














what a beauty! the dough tastes delicious. i and my favorite american probably ate a cup of dough speckled with nuts and raisins each before it went into the oven. we were thinking of starting another ice cream edition. instead of the prevalent variety in the united states of cookie dough ice cream, we will have Stollen dough next.











we tried to shape it into a loaf folding over one side. despite adding aluminum foil on top after a while and repeated knife stabs to test is dough-iness inside, we got it all wrong.














after 80 minutes in roughly 180 degree celsius [350 degree fahrenheit], a visually acceptable bread with a one centimeter rock hard bottom and dry yellow innards encased by a solid browned crust came out.














lucky enough the christmas elf had prepared a second batch of dough following another recipe out of a u.s. cook book. may i introduce you to the perfect home-made Stollen with a moist soft sweet inside and crisp powder-sugared skin as seen above?. mmh, want a slice of German christmas?

honestly, it would be great if a couple of my dear german readers could dig around in their family cook books to supply me a secret recipe for a successful Stollen. anyone?