For our 23rd date night, we had a special guest chef -- Opa helped Mark cook a German meal! And we were joined for dinner by our families out here in Michigan.
A beautiful German feast! Everything was delicious. I especially liked the sauerbraten (roast that was pickled for 4 days) and rartoffelknodel (potato dumplings).
Picture-perfect and delicious apple strudel. The phyllo dough was not handmade but the rest was!
I surprised myself by liking this beer. The brandy made nice Manhattans.
Cheers to the chefs!
After dinner, we started to watch the comedy Good Bye Lenin! (2003), but the subtitles were off. We will have to try again with a different version.
I'm glad Mark took Germany, because I can't help but feel a little uncomfortable celebrating the cultural legacy of a country whose most famous "accomplishment" is the near-extinction of my people. I'm sure Germans today don't want to be defined by the ugliest period in their history, any more than Americans today want to be defined by the horrors of slavery, or the genocide of Native Americans. But just as we are grappling with ongoing racism, and the legacy of historic oppression, Germans must keep dealing with the sequelae of the Holocaust. I know that some people would love to say that the Holocaust is in the past, it's history, but sadly that is not true: anti-semitism is alive and well in Germany (see one recent Times piece, for a discussion). The USA also has these problems, but modern Germany is objectively more anti-semitic than the US. Not great.
Anyway, we didn't let these considerations color our meal, which was very pleasant. And perhaps that is a victory, that we are still here, and can enjoy a nice meal with our family!
Who cooked? Mark
What's for dinner? (Recipe links)
Germany Stats
- Population: 83.2 million (like California, Texas, and Florida combined)
- GDP: 5th in the world (following only China, US, India, and Japan)
- Life Expectancy: 27th in the world... UK is 28th. USA is a shockingly low 54th in the world, highlighting our outrageous health and wealth disparities.
- Founding Date/Age in 2022: Region of Germania dates from 100AD, but officially formed in 1871. 151 years old.
- Official Language: German
- Rankings:
- Largest producer of rye, hops, lignite
- Largest net exports (balance of trade)
- Highest government budget surplus
- Largest natural gas importer
- Most Winter Olympic medals
- Best performance at a bunch of sports things
- The world leader in the use of solar energy per capita
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