Kinder-Schokolade in the US

If you have a hankering for German style chocolate of the "Kinder" kind you should check out your local US Aldi grocery store. I have to say the mini chocolate bars you can get at the store are phenomenal. It is probably one of my favorite products they have. They are modeled after "Kinder Schokolade." I believe the original brand can not be found in the US, but lucky for us, Aldi has its own brand on the shelves. Let me describe what you get. The package comes with 11 (not 12 or 10) little chocolate bars. The chocolate covers a milky white creme filling that has a slight coconut milk taste to it. The fresher they are the better. Yes, and they do melt in your mouth. They are imported from the land of chocolate Germany, so you know they'll taste like the real thing.

German Food Myths Exposed

If you are going to a German restaurant these days, you will find several items on the menu that any American would consider essential German cuisine. Hence you will find these items on every menu in every German restaurant in America. Nobody ever thinks about that some of those menu choices are not even of German origin. Even though all of them are popular in Germany some them should be in the restaurants of other nationalities. Here's a list of German foods that are not really German.

Wiener Schnitzel: Schnitzel is probably considered THE most essential German food. Its origins point to a different country though. Actually it's a quite obvious one, since it's called "Wiener" schnitzel, Wien being the Austrian city of Vienna. Some even say, that the breaded cutlet dish actually originated in Milan, Italy and then was brought to Austria from there.

Goulash: It seems that every German restaurant has incorporated at least one form of Goulash in their menusm, either as a full meal or an appetizer. Goulash, if you don't know, is a beef stew made with onions and paprika. The dish actually originates from Hungary. The word itself is Hungarian for "herdsman."

Roulade: The roulade is a dish in which a slice of meat is rolled around a filling. Sometimes this dish is also considered Hungarian

German Chocolate Cake: German chocolate cake is not German at all. A clue might be, that it's made with coconuts and pecans. Neither one of those grow very well in the colder climate of central Europe. Wikipedia tells me that the reason it has the word German in the title has to do with the fact that it was first made with a sweet chocolate product created by an Englishman named Samuel German. Hence German Chocolate cake. The recipe itself was sent in to a newspaper in Dallas, TX.

Ragout: Often you will find at least a Chicken Ragout on a German menu. And again, ragout is stolen from a different culture. This time it's the French that gave us this meat stew.

Bratwurst: Just kidding. The Wurst is still as German as you can go, originating in the region Thuringia, in the eastern part of the country.

Now that you know where all these foods come, go check them out at your local German restaurant and pretend you've never heard of this article.

German DVD Store

I don't know if you have noticed, but I have added a little button to the top right hand corner of the blog. The "German DVD Store" button will take you straight to your one stop shop for all your German DVD needs in America. It is powered by Amazon, so you know you can trust them. It's just an easy way to find German movies in the US.

Jungle Jim's International Market Grocery Store Cincinnati

Trying to find German products in the ailes of your local grocery store can be quite daunting. Of course there's always the World Market which does have a limited supply of German products (such as Teekanne tea and Bahlsen cookies) though the emphasize is definetly on "limited." Let me tell you about a place on the other hand that has huge selection of the products that you crave. That store is Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, Ohio (right outside Cincinnati). Not only do they have a large selection of German products, they have about 150.000 products from 75 countries. If you can't find it in their 300,000 square foot store, I doubt you can get it anywhere else in the US.
I don't consider Jungle Jim's a regular store. It is more or less set up like a theme park. It all starts in the parking lot, which has signage just like your about to park at Six Flags. Once you enter the store, you might be surprised by all the animatronics. My favorite section in the store is the British foods part. Their section looks like a part of Robin Hood's Sherwood forest. They have a talking Robin Hood up in the canopy. The products are arranged around the trunk of the tree. The vast hotsauce section is appropriately adorned by a fire engine. Everywhere you look you will find neat little animatronic displays. You'll find a singing cereal band and a rocking Elvis lion. The German section is rather plain but has huge selection of products you won't find anywhere else.
Going to the bathroom is an experience all by itself. Their bathroom was ranked best bathroom in America in 2007. It looks like a Portapotty on the outside but the plastic shell is just a facade for a pretty nice bathroom inside it. The first time I went I actually didn't go to the bathroom there, since I didn't know the Portapotty was just a front. I did find it strage though, that they didn't have real bathrooms. Now I know better.
So if you are ever in Cincinnati region and in the mood for adventure shopping, go check them out. They are located 5440 Dixie Hwy in Fairfield, Ohio and open 7 days a week. It's well worth the trip. Check 'em out at http://www.junglejims.com

Pros and Cons of being German in America

CONS

1. David Hasselhoff - Not a week goes by I don't here about David Hasselhoff's success in Germany. The crazy thing about it is that his success happened in 1990, almost twenty years ago. It's American network television that actually still puts him on TV. At least he stopped singing though.
2. Wiener Schnitzel - People love telling me that I must love Wiener Schnitzel. I quit telling them that Wien is a city in Austria a long time ago.
3. Having a baby in America full well knowing that we would get some serious money from the German government, but since we pay American taxes, we don't get anything.
4. Heidi Klum - She is pretty annoying on Project Runway.
5. Dieter from Saturday Night Life - Not every German is as crazy about electronic music as it might seem. Even the new AT&T commercial shows us techno cracy Germans.

PROS

1. Going out to eat - Why does American restaurant food taste better than German restaurant food.
2. Having a talking VW beetle on television is pretty cool.
3. Nature - America has a lot of it, and where else can you have deserts, jungles and snowstorms in the same country.
4. Being the hub of all pop-culture is pretty neat.
5. Every American has a Germany story. Somebody was in the military and loved it over in good old Europe. Therefore Germans are popular. We should be happy were not French.

Introduction

Germans are masters of blending in in America. Even though we are the largest ancestry group in the US with over 45 million Germans (almost 15% of the whole population) one couldn't tell just by looking at local grocery stores. While other cultures are well represented, German products are hard to find. While you can find the occasional Haribo and Werther' Echte product, others are hard to come by, if you don't know where to look. This blog will help you find German products. I will take you to stores that cater to us. I will also review German movies and books you can get in America (Thank God for the internet, otherwise we'd be stuck watching "Das Boot" and listening to Rammstein). Here you will find everything German. Feel free to participate in the comments. Have fun with my blog!