You Go Nate!

I *HEART* SHINKEN

Tender and soft, chewy and slim

Sweet though for her, salty for him

Cool to the touch, slick on the lips

Good with some bread, in pasta, or dips

I like it plain, just one leaf alone

Rolled like a cigar and bare as a bone

Each bite is savored, the last one: regret

Oh, have I ever a meat like you met?

It never will do, to call it just “ham”

You might as well call your sunburn a tan

For this meat’s not cooked, yet nor is it raw

It comes as it is, without any flaw

I can do naught, except constant thinkin’

I cannot help it, I luv-a da Schinken.

I haven’t really eaten a bad meal since arriving in Lüssow. Almost nothing is canned. Nothing is nuked. Much of what is served is organic and everything is fresh. You will never find fake American cheese or margarine at this table.

Dinner is not the main meal but is always wonderful. The board is set with fine and assorted cheeses. While they might be expensive in North America, here they are common and reasonably priced. The meat is usually cold cuts. But a name so drab does not describe the great flavors of Hungarian Salami, German Wurst, SCHINKEN, and sometimes smoked salmon. Fresh whole wheat bread is the canvas for each landscape of meat and cheese or portrait of butter and marmalade. Tomatoes from Spain, gherkins from Saxony add color and variety.

The afternoon often brings tea and cakes (herbal for me) or at least a fun new pastry.

As the main meal, lunch is always different. Whether chicken, pork, beef, served with vegetables and potatoes, it is hot and filling.

Breakfast can include creamy yoghurt that tastes like it should be an indulgence, or a frothy cream cheese and honey over a lightly toasted roll.

Meals are an event savored with few words save a hearty “Guten Appetit!”

They sale packaged eels at the supermarket... Eels!

...EELS!!?

...EEEEELS!!!?

Cheese is really big here: