The elusive bakery item I always long for. I'm telling you, they can NOT make them in Minnesota. And I don't understand why not. It's not like there aren't any Germans around. Maybe they're all from the wrong parts of Germany? Or corrupted by contact with Scandinavians?
Nuremberg is where “the pretzel madness begins,” said Tinka Bickel, a German marketing manager who lives in New York. South of that German city lies a distinct culinary, linguistic and cultural region where pretzels are much more than a desperation-level snack.
Bavaria is part of this region; there, a classic old-school breakfast is a fresh pretzel — about as wide as a dinner plate — served with two weisswurst (veal sausages) and a dollop of sweet mustard on a plate. Even bigger ones are made for Oktoberfest.
But now, Ms. Bickel said, young people in Munich, Bavaria’s capital, just grab a thickly buttered pretzel with coffee on the way to work.
Wah! I want pretzels and sausage for breakfast!
My homemade sourdough pretzels are pretty good, but someday when I don't have small kids around I'm going to start using a lye bath. But in the meantime, I think I will start adding lard to my pretzels.
I'll have you know that I spent six weeks with a family in Munich in college and I never saw anyone eating a pretzel for breakfast. A lot of people eat sausage on Simmel, a chewy roll, but my family preferred yogurt and tea or plum cake on occasion.
Posted by: Kelly | 26 May 2010 at 10:44 AM
Kelly, don't mess with my fantasies. I want to believe that somewhere in the world is a place where Starbucks serves fresh hot soft pretzels at 8 AM. With coffee.
Posted by: bearing | 26 May 2010 at 10:49 AM
Oh, I would love a fresh soft pretzel for breakfast. With tea though.
I tried making pretzels for the first time a couple of weeks ago. They were good but not great, and maybe I will need to try a lye bath when I don't have a toddler who wants to be involved with everything I'm doing.
Posted by: Sheila | 27 May 2010 at 04:43 PM