Just so

I lived in California where there is so much cultural diversity (esp. in Silicon Valley) that by and large people are very comfortable with things being done in many different ways. Cooking rice like the Mexicans is different from how the Japanese do it or the Italian way, dressing in saris is fine, so are jeans and suits. Some celebrate Christmas, some Hanukkah, some nothing or something else. Indians shake their head when they agree, Westerns nod.

From an environment that is very flexible on those little things I have come to the culture of “just so”. Maybe it is the fact that we live in a small, well-off southern German city or that I have a lot of contact with my parents’ generation right now but “just so” creeps into my life all the time. Things are just done a certain way and that is that. Nobody ever seems to even questions whether there are other, different but equally valid ways of doing stuff.

Is hard to come up with examples for that phenomenon. If it were big things it would be easy, but it is the little things that by themselves are not fit to exemplify it and only in aggregate, observed over time create the complete picture. The List I wrote about in my last post is an example. The whole “they don’t like this” discussion I had over taking geek-boy out of school for a couple of days and the pervasive attitude that things should just stay the same even if they could be improved upon because “this is how we did it” (implied is “why should you have it any better than I did – just shut up and suck it up”).

A little story about that was when geek-boy started school. Instead of getting the supply lists (there seems to be a list theme going here) a few days early on the website or via email we got it on the first day of school, along with several thousand other families with kids in school. The supplies were needed within a few days and naturally all the parents and kids flocked to the stores that day. Now this is not NYC, there aren’t dozens of stores, there is a handful that have all that is needed. The scene in those stores resembled a “Black Friday door buster deal” type situation only that we weren’t going for electronics and sweaters but fountain pens and notebooks.

I run into a neighbor that day and mentioned that scene and how easy it would be to mitigate by just putting up the lists a few days early so there would be more time to shop for stuff. She clearly did not think that this was a good idea, mainly because “this is what I had to do for two kids” (little side snide comment on my being a lazy person for only having one kid).

And then vacations …. It is early December and I hear tons of adverts everywhere to book summer vacation now before everybody else does it in January. Summer vacation? What? It is December, I am not thinking about booking summer vacation until April – and then I think I am early. But this is how it is done here and one better goes along with the program or else all the nice hotels with German speaking staff will be sold out.

I know that I am not being entirely fair here, there are 14,000 students in this city most of which I am sure embrace new technologies and do not overcook cauliflower and serve it with white creme sauces because that is the only way one can serve cauliflower – but still. A little more willingness to open ones mind would sure not hurt.

Tomorrow we are going to an Asian restaurant for my friend’s birthday. They serve sushi there. I love sushi and I just hope it isn’t offered with a creme sauce because “that’s just how food is served here.”

A week in France isn’t a good time to start a diet

Ever being the Californians we decided short notice (absurdly short notice, as in the week before) to take a week off and drive over to the Alsace region of France and easy two-and-a-half hour drive from where we are. There are tons of vacation apartments (gites) in this area but all but three got eliminated on the particular site I was using due to the high-speed wireless internet connection requirement.  ever the Californians ….

So we piled way too much luggage in the car and off we went. It was four of us, my best friend since middle school days joining us as well.

Now, there is much than could be said about France in general and the Alsace in particular but I’ll condense it. First I have to mention that despite three years of French in school (or rather because of it) I have a rather broken relationship with the language. I hated and feared French classes and always skirted an F.  After three years I was able to drop it and it was one of the best days of my school career which wasn’t very distinguished but ended well after French (and Latin) were gone. Anyways, I have never managed to mend my relationship with French always maintaining that I will learn Mandarin or Arabic before I learn French. This time I thought that – maybe – I could learn to understand it and maybe read it. Who knows, three more visits and I will get comfortable with the notion that maybe one day I might be able to say a couple of sentences.

So, this goes to say that I didn’t feel quite as awkward as I thought I would despite the fact that the French must have thought me weird because I kept answering in Spanish, when addressed in French.

The Alsace is beautiful, great for hiking, lovely little towns and villages which – in late October – were only somewhat inundated with tourists; in summer, I am sure they must be quite unbearably flooded.  They have lovely old houses there, many nicely restored, many of the little towns look like right out of a picture book.

We went on lovely hikes in beautiful terrain, not Alpine but still rugged and demanding, with lovely vistas. Old castles and ruins abound and the aforementioned little towns to visit afterwards for a coffee and a petit pain au chocolate.

Despite my broken relationship with French and basically most things French I have always loved French cheeses – and, boy, they are every bit as good as I remembered them. The prices, despite France not being cheap at all, are fantastic. I basically got three to four times as much cheese per dollar as in the US. And: I can get them all, all the good goat cheeses as well as my all-time favorite, the Chaource, which I can hardly even get in the US and if I can find it it’s worth its weight in gold (well almost).

The food in general, is fantastic, the pates, the nice cold cuts, did I mention the cheeses, cakes, chocolate, wine, I could go on. The operative sentence of the week was uttered by my friend, who constantly tries to go on a diet and generally fails before starting in earnest “a week in France is not a good time to start a diet”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Geek-boy was also pretty content with the situation and hiked like a pro, no whining, no complaining and we did serious tours. He, who can never be for more than a few minutes without holding something in his hands (compulsive, ever since he was a tiny little baby) found another endearing French quality. Standing in the middle of a forest trying out a whole bunch of sticks (Geek-boy always has at least two to three sticks in his hands while hiking) he proclaimed “Man, the French have good sticks.”

A good number of these sticks are now under his bed back here at home, a good stick can’t be left behind, we learned that many years ago.

So, in all it was a pleasant week, with good hikes and good food and I might actually be tempted to give France another try in the not so distant future. As to French – not ready to sign up for classes just yet.

 

Lovely little town in the Alsace

One of many cute houses, nicely restored and presented

Half-timbered houses are typical for the area as well as southern Germany and Austria.

All the spices in the world – but for Mexican ones. Sigh!

even as a German I have to admit: good bread

Oh, the cheeses! Just look at all the cheeses!

 

I am getting my mojo back

German guaca – came out alright

To get my cooking mojo back I made guacamole.  What better to get one’s Californian cooking mojo back than guaca with the possible exception of California roll? (which is a bit ambitious but I did find a source of nori and I brought Wasabi from California – and I found it here – but making the rice just right will be a lot of hassle if I remember correctly)

It came out rather decent, really, and the question was: will the chips be any good? And I am happy to report that they were and the whole thing tasted just fine, in fact, tasted totally California.  To offset this exotic cuisine we had bread dumplings with chanterelle creme sauce and bacon for main course and now I am indecently stuffed and can’t possible write any more.

But the signs are good that the cooking mojo might come back!