The blog needed a gimick

And I've got one that I think will work well. In order to chronicle my life in Germany, I've decided to make this into a journal of what I eat. The idea is that describing my meals will lead to the stories that make a blog worth reading. I think it'll work because our life here seems to revolve around meals, and most of our income is devoted to feeding ourselves. Considering this, I think that most of the interesting things that happen to us, besides our laundry troubles, will be in some way connected to a meal or a snack or a cup of coffee or a trip to Kaufland (the Walmart style grocery store - a 35 minute walk from us, but worth it because they carry tortillas and "taco sauce").

I don't want to backtrack too much, as I'm afraid of getting mired down in all of the noteworthy food I've had in the three weeks I've lived here. But I do want to mention, for Becca's sake, that while in Amsterdam last weekend, I introduced Bill to goat cheese. I think, to some small but significant degree, it changed his life. We ducked into a little place, Cafe Captein, to escape the driving hail. The entire weekend was a battle with the elements - rain (as we drove from Chemnitz to Holland), Peanut M&M-sized hail, sleet (we were taking what was meant to be a quick walk to a grocery store to buy wine - so we'd left behind our umbrellas, hats and gloves. Unfortunately, we were out for almost an hour and returned to the hostel soaked and freezing), heavy snow, and very occasional periods of sunshine. So after exiting a used book store (where we made some great finds. I think we came away with six books for 20 euro) we had to seek shelter, and lunch, in the first place we came to. And being on a budget, we decided to share an appetizer and each get a sandwich. Bill had never eaten goat cheese, but is a noted fan of cheese in general. He agreed to the goat cheese and french bread for a starter, and ended up choosing a goat cheese and marinated bell pepper sandwich. And since we've been back, we've twice bought logs of goat cheese at the grocery store. The first we ate in a single sitting. The second made it through our viewing of the Royal Tenenbaums yesterday morning, but didn't survive our post-dinner cheese run.

And now we're going to make some hhhwayvose (aka huevos, or eggs) for lunch. We have tortillas from Kaufland and shredded gouda (the only shredded cheese we can find is gouda or emmentaler) and Bill will surely put "taco sauce" on his.

Until later (biss shpeta, to put it in my phonetic German).