Hackfleisch an Brot

So in the last week my education of the German culture progress. This week I saw a German specialty that made me wonder about the German culinary habits and what America's viewpoint of these habits would be.

I was wondering around Marburg on the bicycle and I decided I would get some groceries from the Marktplatz. This particular part of the town has a Farmer's Market going on their every Saturday morning. It is one of the only places I can find that sells fresh herbs and vegetables. Surprisingly little fresh herbs and vegetables are found in the grocery store by my house. (I want to go back to Zagreb--where the Farmers market is a block wide, 2 levels, and open every day) Also, I have become determined on making the creme of potato soup that actually tastes good, since my first few batches were only so-so. I decided I needed parsley and lemon grass in my soup -- so to the Farmers' market I go. Also there is a couple of butchers who put out there latest and freshest slaughter. I decide to get some pork chops when I saw the dish de jour.

The particular dish that made me wonder is 'Hackfleisch an Brot', or Hamburger on Bread. Why is hambuger on bread so special? Americans eat 1 billion of these a year. You see, the hamburger was completely raw! My stomach cringed. To serve this interesting sandwich scoop some fresh hamburger on a bun, add onions, relish, and a little mustard and Voila! Hackfleisch an Brot! I sat and watched a group eat these sandwiches and was thinking about how the fast food corporations had wasted billions of dollars in cooking the hamburger to 160 F degrees. So I asked my German companions about this sandwich and they assured me that it is very good indeed. I asked them how the butchers could get away with selling it due to Ecoli risk. They told me that the butcher can only use meat that has been ground up that day and then it must be stored at 4 deg celsius the whole time. Hmmm. Maybe I will try a small bite someday and hope I dont get sick for three weeks. There is a small part of my brain that trys to think up how McDonalds or Burger king would advertise Hackfleisch an Brot to germaphobic americans. All I see is meat grinders beside the milkshakes though--maybe you could mix the two and have a Fleisch Frappe´. Mmmmmm.

The german gradaute students got wind of my blog by finding one of my old posted videos on the public computers-my Zermatt video. A group of them spent a couple of hours searching the internet to find my webpage and then the rest of the day reading it and laughing at me. The next day, while we were grilling outside, they came up and were giving me shit about--but it was all in good fun. In regards to the last post, it turns out I was factually inaccurate. They tell me their are in-fact many brothels in Marburg and one can recognize them by the red lights in the windows. I laughed at the guy who said this to me and asked him how does he know? He shrugged his shoulders. I then turned to his girlfriend and asked her if she was mad he was visiting all the brothels--without batting an eye she says, ''Oh no! I drive him there!''. To this response I laughed so hard beer flew up my nose. What a girlfriend I thought. Now thats open minded!