Cookies + Markets

One thing I desperately miss about the US around the holidays is how everything centers around food.

It's an excuse to gather, to enjoy, and to eat a bit more than usual with pot-luck style meals and cookie exchanges.

Here people tend to do it all on their own.

I'm always impressed when we visit Stefan's family and there are an array of different cookies all meticulously put together and perfectly bite sized. His Mom has a legendary fondue, which has become a fantastic family tradition, too.

Each year I think I should organize a cookie exchange, because I love variety, but the holiday chaos usually gets in the way. It gets a little trying to make an array of cookies on your own. This year Stefan joined me for a glühwein and evening of baking, which was a lot of fun.

I try to make new recipes, old favorites, and learn some German varieties with lebkuchen and the standard Mürbeteig base.

There seems to be a distinct difference from celebrating in Germany and the US. As with many things I wish that I could meld the two together.

Here people celebrate oftentimes outside and away from their homes. They gather with strangers, neighbors, and friends for Christmas markets and festivals.

The US is a bit commercial with a strong emphasis on gifts, family, and individual traditions.

If we ever move away from Germany I'm certain we'll have an annual Christmas market party - complete with lebkuchen, glühwein, spiced nuts, spätzle, open fires, and undoubtedly our own traditions thrown in.

Here are a few photos from the Tollwood festival, which is an enormous organic around the world style Christmas market, similar to Yellow Springs back home. It takes place on the same grounds as Oktoberfest.

We had some incredible schupfnudeln and spätzle, which came in edible dishes. Isn't that ingenious? 

...and of course our fair share of feuerzangenbowle, which a glühwein with rum over pressed sugar that is then lit on fire. 

Paulaner Brewery Tour + Free Beer

I've always thought the breweries here should offer tours akin to those offered at the champagne houses in Reims. Last year I read about the sightseeing beer tour, which pays a visit to Spatenbräu.

We're bigger Augustiner and Paulaner consumers, so I filed it away as something that might be fun when we have visitors.

Today I booked a Paulaner tour, which includes a tour of the brewery, beer taping course, tasting of 3 beers, a brotzeit, and a 2 course meal. The discounted offer is good for the next week with random dates from May through October.

Is it sad that I will be proud to hang my beer taping course certificate?

Another date to mark in your calendar, if you're in Munich, is 23 April. This is the day of the Reinheitsgebot anniversary for the purity law that went into effect back in 1516. The city celebrates with 1000 liters (Maß) of beer for free.

To be part of the celebrations make sure you're at the beer fountain at Oskar-von-Miller-Ring 1. It will probably be a little chaotic since it's on a Saturday this year. Prost!

`Tis the Season

Our advent calendar is winding down, which I am actually going to miss. It's been fun to surprise Stefan each morning before he heads off to work. My aunt sent me the Elf on the Shelf a couple years ago and he's been making surprise appearances all around the apartment as well.

This past week we visited the Tollwood, had a candle light cheese fondue, bought and decorated our tree, watched a Christmas movie, and had a delicious breakfast to name a few of the advent calendar surprises.

Since I haven't seen many of our ornaments for the past two years there were some great treasures to rediscover. Somehow I forgot my angel that always makes me smile. I picked her up my very first Christmas in Germany at the Weltladen while my sister was visiting.

I also forget how so many trees here resemble bushes and for some reason the lights come as a lasso. I can't quite figure out why this is a good idea. Untangling Christmas lights is never fun, but when there isn't even a single end to work from things get interesting rather quickly.

Whenever we travel we like to pick up an ornament or something small that can be hung from the tree, which has lead to a really fun collection. Each year I love to unpack our Christmas decorations and reminisce over the exciting things we've done together.

I've wrapped Stefan's gifts and they are nestled so nicely under the tree. I'm very excited for him to open them, but I might make him wait until American Christmas on December 25th.

Christmas Spirit

Getting into the Christmas spirit seems to take more work than it used to, although that's probably because I'm now the one responsible for creating the magic. It also takes some work to figure out ways to incorporate my traditions while living abroad, as well as learning more about the Bavarian ways of celebrating. I'm certain much of it is self induced, because I love traditions and making things just so.

We've also worked at creating our own family traditions, like simple gift giving with 4 principles: want, need, wear, and read. It's pretty incredible how encompassing those 4 things can be and how much thought goes into finding 4 gifts that suit the categories.

In the recent weeks Munich has been blanketed with snow, which helps with the Wintery feeling. We've been trying to visit as many of the Christmas markets as possible, although my favorites are at the Rindermarkt + Chinese Tower.

The smell of spiced nuts and glühwein waft through the air and the lights seem to glow while people huddle around and complain about their numb toes. This is one aspect that is quintessentially German and absolutely delightful at this time of year. I also appreciate that eating lebkuchen and pomegranates for breakfast is acceptable.

Here are a few of the pretty scenes around town:

The Chinese Tower Christmas Market

Sledding in the English Garden...

How many cities have such a charming downtown park that people can use to cross country ski or go sledding?

Rindermarkt + Haidhausen

The Krampus Run

Tollwood

Ice Skating at Karlsplatz

Hope you're also feeling the holiday glow!

Elisen Lebkuchen

Since not everyone is able to make it to Munich for the markets I translated this recipe and made a cute little card to match, so you can have some German Christmas cookies, too.

I've made these several times and Stefan claims they taste like his Oma's, which is clearly a good sign. Best of all they don't have flour or hirschornsalz (baker's ammonia) in them.

The illustrations were so much fun to draw. I'm working on a second edition of my cookbook and debating if I want to do use them as opposed to photos.

I'll post a recipe for homemade glühwein in the coming days as well... homemade is the way to go. The only trouble is it tastes better than most at the Christmas Markets, but the ambiance and warmth keeps drawing me back.

Advent

Merging traditions is especially important around the holidays. It's difficult to be away from family and not be able to enjoy the festive foods, great company, and different ways of celebrating.

Since moving to Germany I've learned Christmas isn't complete without glühwein, lebkuchen, spiced nuts, Christmas markets, a fondue, and advent calendars.

My friend Emily and I are working on creating a great glühwein spice mix to send home to family. I have my Mother in law's fantastic lebkuchen recipe (Vielen Dank!) - my mom even used it last year and they turned out quite nice. The spiced nuts I make whenever it's even remotely chilly out, and the Christmas markets, well, they can't exactly be recreated. It's magical to stand under the glowing lights with the snow falling and a warm mug of glühwein.

Last, but not least, is the advent calendar.

Germans adore their advent calendars. It's a fun way to add some daily excitement to the Christmas season. I've seen plenty of calendars available, however this one takes the cake... it's so simple, pretty, and modern. The simple typography is stunning. Plus, you can easily reuse the tins year after year and for birthdays.

Stefan has since developed a fondness for American Christmas tunes, my Mom's cookies, my Grandma's baklava, having a Christmas stocking, and blinged out trees with an array of ornaments from our travels. He also appreciates the fact he gets to celebrate twice, since German Christmas is actually celebrated on Christmas Eve.

I'm already thinking of the fun things I'll be filling these tins with, which incidentally begins one month from today!

Oktoberfest Tents

This year I visited every single Oktoberfest tent and took photos of the interiors + exteriors for those that weren't able to make it.

Here they are in order of appearance on Wirtsbudenstraße + Matthias-Pschorr-Straße from the main gate up the right side and down the left:

Hippodrom

Armbrustschützenzelt

Hofbräu-Festzelt

Hacker-Festzelt ('Himmel der Bayern')

Schottenhamel

Winzerer Fähndl

Schützen-Festhalle

Käfer Wiesen Schänke

Weinzelt

Löwenbräu-Festhalle

Bräurosl (Hacker-Pschorr)

Augustiner-Festhalle

Ochsenbraterei

Fischer Vroni

Oktoberfest 2010

Going to the Oktoberfest is always fun. I love seeing the different tents, decorations, and small details. It's also nice to go at various times of day to see the way the light changes.

The second week looks to be much chillier and with a bit of rain. That is one change I could do without, but I'm glad we were able to enjoy it with bright blue skies and the last of the summer sun.

Cat + Beth brought their dirndls along, so they were set and ready to go. Our first Wies'n visit was opening weekend, but thankfully with reservations at the Schottenhamel tent.

Reservations typically include vouchers for 2 Maß + 1/2 of a chicken. Even though the vouchers come with a tip for the waitstaff it's wise to give them at least a Euro extra for prompt service. It's easy to understand how the workers make a fair amount of money during the Wies'n, but they definitely earn it.

Stefan joined us after running a half marathon and looked dashing as ever in his lederhosen. We had a great time singing our hearts out. Perhaps I haven't visited enough this year to pin the 'Wies'n Hit', but the band's rotation was really great and included crowd favorites that you can download for your own celebrations:

'Das Geht Ab' - Frauenarzt + Manny Marc
'Ein Kompliment ' - Sport Freunde Stiller (the local favorite)
'Skandal im Sperrbezirk' - Spider Murphy Gang
'Hofbräuhaus Lied' - Wilhelm Gabriel
'Anton Aus Tirol' - DJ Ötzi
'Anita' - Costa Cordalis
'Country Roads' - John Denver
'Er Gehört zu Mir' - Marianne Rosenberg
'Viva Colonia' - De Höhner
'Fürstenfeld' - S.T.S.
'Hände zum Himmel'
'So ein schöner Tag' (Fliegerlied) - Tim Toupet

We'll be visiting several more times as friends and visitors arrive. I'm hoping to get up the courage to ride the sky swings or ferris wheel at dusk, because I'm sure the photos would be incredible.

Vintage Oktoberfest

Since Oktoberfest began 200 years ago it is more of a celebration than ever, although this is a photo of the calm before the storm. Vendors were finishing their set ups and Theresienwiese was relatively quiet.

The old-fashioned area with old rides, costumes, animals, and horse races opened the day before the actual kick off, so we were happy to take part in the festivities. It costs 4€ to enter, but it's definitely worth checking out. After all Jubileumswiesn was 200 years in the making!

The animal area is very impressive. They have sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, turkeys, and freshly hatched chicks.

Keeping with the Oktoberfest theme there is plenty of beer, but the beer in the Jubileums area is slightly different. All 6 breweries got together to help in creating it the old way straight from the wooden kegs and it's available at the Festzelt for 8.80€ / litre. It's a bit stronger in taste and alcohol.

It appeared as though many tourists didn't realize it was happening, because there weren't as many people as I would have expected.

On our way over I was talking to our cab driver about the supposed controversy between several brothels in the area. One is said to give the cabbies 120€ / person they bring, so the other brothel is complaining. He said since he's a day driver he doesn't know too much about it, but he did say he had a Turkish business man that wanted a 'typical German woman'. He wasn't sure what that meant, so he took him to several brothels to check out the ladies. The cab driver said the Turkish man found one he liked, but she was the cleaning lady and her services weren't for sale. Cab driver stories are always so random.

Amazingly we were his first trip to Oktoberfest this year.

In the Festzelt there were traditional Goaßlschnalzen whip crackers and locals with their festive costumes and kitted out tracht.

It makes me love our city that much more - they definitely know how to celebrate and incorporate tradition at every turn. They also make things so family friendly.

This is a great site to buy Oktoberfest decor and celebrate yourself if you're not able to make it.