A Matter of Taste

This is what I've been eating for breakfast this week. It is bircher mueslix--a yogurty, oatmeal cereal that is mixed with fruit, usually apples and pears.

I discovered my taste for mueslix just last week when a friend introduced me to it at the gym. I thought I knew what mueslix was--just another type of granola cereal--but this is quite different. Substantial in a healthy way and it guarantees that you won't need to eat another bite until after lunchtime.

It's quite easy to make. Some raw oats soaked overnight in juice, spices, and yogurt that is then mixed with natural or flavored yogurt the next morning to loosen it up. Traditionalists put grated apple, orange, or pear in as well, but I prefer berries. I feel very German eating it. Like somehow, I've become more native. More in touch with my Swiss-German compatriotes.

I've found a lot of comfort finding foods here that I like just as much if not better than I did in the States. I've always appreciated good pork but you just can't beat the variety and flavors of the good 'ol pig you can get here. You could eat a different type of bread, pastry, or cake here every day for a year and still not taste all of the amazing variations of homemade love that German bakers proudly prepare. And that's not to mention the beer, tea, and diversity of root veg that you can buy by the truck load in this country.

There is one taste, however, that I have not been able to appreciate and that is the parsnip. I don't think I'd ever had a parsnip before moving to here but as mentioned above, if you don't embrace the root vegetable you will be going hungry for fresh veggies during the winters, my friend. I had it a few weeks back so I knew that I didn't like parsnips. But I keep forgetting what the dag-on word means in the German so I keep on ordering the horrid flavored soup from our local take-out restaurant. So, sadly, I had it again tonight for dinner and as always, I had to convince myself throughout the "meal" that "No, I was not going to throw up this soup. (Hiccup) That I secretely liked parsnips and that they were good for me. That the smell, that awful, dirty sock smell (hiccup), was just the nutrients derived from the healthy root of the Gods. Yumm." When I finally swallowed my last mealy-parsnipity mouthful, I breathed a sigh of relief. Mind over matter and all of that.

So I'm not writing off all "exotic" root vegetables in Germany and I will definitely continue to venture into the unknown spheres of the German culinary universe. But, believe you me, the parsnip is one food that will not knowingly find it's way into this expat any time soon. I just don't have enough pep in me. (Hiccup)