Time release culture shock

It's the Christmas season. Car-clogged streets. Multiple-light-change waits at intersections. Glass-ball-infested trees blocking shopping center passageways alongside racks and racks of goods for sale. Fa-la-la-la-la-la. This morning I needed to pop into a downtown bookstore for a completely non-Christmas book. 'Twas the opposite of a quick stop.

Nonetheless we've begun to find some holiday cheer. This Christmas will be our third since moving (back) to Germany. We're spending the holiday with family here this time, as we did two years ago. Last year we visited my family in Ohio and our friends and old haunts in Utah. Here in Germany it's starting to feel as though we know our way around. Last weekend we finally made it to the Bad Wimpfen Weihnachtsmarkt* (Baht Vimpfen Vie-nachts-markt, vie as in vie for something, and for the rest just say one consonant after another until they're all done). It's reputed to be one of the loveliest of the outdoor markets, and with its narrow streets, cobblestoned hills, and lights tracing the silhouettes of historic towers, it really is beautiful. My sister, Julie, was here for the weekend, and I think she took some photos; I'll ask her for one to post. I'm sure she tried the Glühwein (for "ü" make lips for "ooh" but say "ee" to get glü-vine)--we both did, in red and in white. It's a mulled wine the keeps the cold away while you wander from booth to booth, snack to snack.

A part of adjusting to living in a different country is learning where to find the stuff you need. Mayonnaise, for example, is only tolerable to my palate from a single source: the Kraft product I can find at only one of the grocery stores I shop at. Low-fat ground beef you pretty much have to ask a butcher to grind fresh for you (the standard around here is half pork half beef, but A) it tastes and acts different and B) my daughter refuses to eat pork). So we adapt and become strategic. With other items, I've found it's best to accept their temporary loss in our lives. I have been in abject withdrawal from Mexican food. Annaheim peppers? Jalepenos? Tubs of ready-to-go pico de gallo or guacamole or spicy salsa? Black and red beans? Mexican rice? Yeah, I can make some of this stuff myself. But Rico's, Red Iguana, and even Rubio's (all in Salt Lake City)… The yearning is extravagant. (Please do not ask me about the establishments we have located so far in Germany that use the term "Mexican".)

I guess I was taken unawares yesterday afternoon when I had the quick thought, while shopping in downtown Heilbronn, that it would be fun to crunch up a candy cane and sprinkle it on ice cream for dessert. We had a friend coming to dinner and were planning on a "mix-in" style vanilla ice cream with Markus' homebaked Lebkuchen (labe-ku-hcen)--gingerbread. So, I went to the candy section of a big department store. Chocolate. Santas. Chocolate. Santas. Lindt. Milka. Ritter Sport. Hachez. Ferro Rocher. And so on. All chocolate. I found one plastic tub on a bottom shelf with red-orange-yellow-white striped candy canes. They looked fine, but I was sure they weren't mint. The lady sent me to another store, where I found the same thing: a few candy canes in fruit flavors.

For the first time in my experience of Germany, I began to think about candy canes. I expect this means, in more than 8 years of living here, candy canes have never crossed my mind before and they have not been a primary need for me. Still it came over me like some sort of clarifying revelation of a family secret: Germans don't like mint candy. Now that I think of it, there's nary a dish with those small thick red and white pinwheel hard candy disks, twisted in clear crinkling wrap between two fan-shaped fins. No strips of miniature red and white candy canes encased in never ending plastic ropes. Or their green and white counterparts. Or green, white, and red. Not at Christmas, not any time. Mint must be toothpaste-ish or medicinal here. No wonder I ate chocolate chip mint ice cream in the US last summer--it might not be my all-time favorite, but some part of me knew I'd better store up.

Perhaps I'm not the hugest devotee of mint candy, but I really like do it now and then. Cheap, wrapped, visually interesting, they're everywhere, year round in the US. Candy canes in all sizes and variations appear for the Christmas season. Take a look at the images on Google. It seems these candies haven't changed since I was a child, and I'm guessing much longer than that. It's hard to imagine a world without those little round mint pinwheel candies, and suddenly I'm realizing that's exactly where I live. I'm having delayed culture shock, like some time release effect. I guess I just assumed that EVERYONE wants mint candy. Apparently not. Here's my festive mint candy fantasy for right now: Peppermint Bark from V-Chocolates (Salt Lake City).

If you're in North America, or somewhere else with the candy cane culture, take a look around you this Christmas season. Now imagine all of that not there. Sure, there could be a lot of really high quality chocolate in place of the candy canes. But still.

For those who might also be interested, I found a blog post that gives a history of the candy cane, including its roots in Germany. However, the introduction of mint flavor seems to be an American affair.

*Website warning. This is a godawful website: music you didn't ask for, ads in your face. However, if you find the "Media Galerie" link and locate the pictures there, you will get a look at a lot of aspects of the market, and the opening panorama zoom video gives you a lot to see if it doesn't make you ill.