Per my family’s tradition (or rather, lack thereof), Christmas was rather a low-key affair this year. As a Hindu family in Australia we never really celebrated the holiday itself, but would each year take advantage of the long summer weekend to have a picnic at the beach or a barbie in the backyard.
It wasn’t exactly beach weather in Munich, as the desolation of the usually bustling Seehaus beer garden attested…
… but all the same we had a nice Christmas Day stroll around the English Garden. My parents saw a frozen lake for the first time, and as you might have guessed from an earlier post, watching their reaction was good fun!
When I was a kid, I had this book called Usborne Children’s Encyclopaedia that had pictures showing what all the seasons look like in the northern hemisphere (it was an American publication). The English Garden reminds me of that. It’s so nice any time of year. In summer it’s lush and green and full of sunshine; in autumn, it’s a riot of fiery fall shades, and in winter, whether snow-covered or not, it’s still beautiful in its bareness. (Don’t ask me about spring, I haven’t seen it yet!) Being within jogging distance of this place really is one of the most wonderful things about living in Munich.
As requested by someone back in Seattle (Was it you Sean? I don’t remember), I took advantage of my parents’ request for a post-walk coffee pit stop to conduct recon on the seasonal drinks available at the local Seattle Embassy (ie. Starbucks).
- Dark chocolate cherry latte – a McDonalds-esque attempt to play on a well-known local flavour (cf. the truly awful “McGreek” I once tried in a fit of desperate hunger at Athens airport). Nicht so gut.
- Lebkuchen latte – this tastes exactly the same as the gingerbread latte in the States. Mmmm.
- Toffee nut latte – this didn’t seem a typically German flavour to me, nor was it particularly good. *shrug*
- No eggnog latte. Sniff!
For lunch, we ate the very traditional Christmas repast of bhel. See? We’re total heathens.
Dinner was a more traditional affair. I had decided that for my one and only Christmas in Germany I wanted to go all out and make a traditional German meal. Plus, my family has never made roast dinner-type food at home before, so my parents (or at least my dad – my mum’s pescetarian) would get a treat too.
So on Christmas Eve-Eve, I visited Viktualienmarkt (the farmers’ market in the centre of town) to buy a bird for roasting. The traditional Christmas meat in these parts is goose, but (a) they cost €70 apiece, (b) a whole goose is way too big for only two people, and (c) the only mechanism for roasting I have in my apartment is the little toaster oven that Natasha, Punit and Kostas gave me as a housewarming present. Goosey no fitsy.
(Oh, and (d). When I move back to the PNW, the scary Canadian geese would get me. Fo’ sho’s.)
I went to talk to the nice man standing outside Geflügel Paradies (Poultry Paradise), who convinced me to settle on a humble chook. Not the most exotic of meats, but given my size limitations it was the only workable option. I memorised the stallkeeper’s instructions like a mantra, which is why fellow U-Bahn commuters heard me muttering under my breath all the way home: “hundert sechszig Grad, eine Stunde fünfzehn Minuten”.
I had very clear instructions on how to make my German roast chicken with apple, walnut and sultana stuffing, but nevertheless it wasn’t the most relaxing cooking experience. I couldn’t shake the irrational n00b fear that I would take out the chicken and it would still be raw as Gollum's supper, spoiling my dad’s one and only traditional Christmas dinner. But happily, everything turned out just lovely. Thanks, Geflügelmann!
That’s the chicken and stuffing in back, some spinach with pine nuts and sultanas (a substitute for blaukraut, which my parents don’t really like), semmel knödel (German bread dumplings – I cheated and bought sofort – instant), some grilled cod for my mum (not at all Weihnachtlich – but I did find the recipe in a German book!), and a simple green salad. The gloop in the middle is gravy made from the pan drippings.
I am pretty proud of myself for not burning down the building .
I decided to leave dessert to the experts, stocking up on lebkuchen, plätzchen, Dresdner stollen and früchtebrot from the Christkindlmarkt. Omg. If the German people could just master irony and customer service the way they’ve mastered baking, I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to leave.
And then, completely fat on Christmas food, we all immediately went to sign up for the next season of The Biggest Loser.
Frohe Weihnachts, all!
Other miscellaneous observations:
- Christmas store hours here are a bit different. Since Christmas Eve is the big daddy in Germany, everything is shut by noon on the 24th, but many essentials (supermarkts, coffee shops, bakeries) are open again by noon on the 25th.
- I saw no surfers on the Eisbach on Christmas Day. That was a first!
- Yes, that is a real Christmas tree (!)
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