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kabutoki
26th April 2004, 22:54
Ay caramba !
Dear Earl, whoever said the word is mightier than the sword must have heard of your German.:D
Youīre very close on most of them:

Riesling
Sauerbraten
Schinkenflecken (itīs not a sword is it?)
viel schnitzel (thats a real headscratcher, you donīt mean Wiener Schnitzel ?)

Elke Sommer, I have to admit, I had to look up on imdb.com. I heard her name before but thats really not my generation. Oh my god, she made so many movies and I think I didnīt even see one of them. ;)

Keep going with that German !

Karsten

nicojo
26th April 2004, 23:03
Riesling is better, but a Gewurtztraminer goes well with stir-fry.

YMMV ;)

Earl Hartman
26th April 2004, 23:18
Karsten:

I was just teasing Mr. Lowry a little, who said something about how Gewurtztraminer and spaetzle are the only things, other than the word "umvelt", that the Germans had ever contributed to world culture. (BTW, how does "umvelt" differ from "Weltenschaung"?)

Sorry about the misspelling of Riesling.

My father comes from a German background, and when I was a child, he would sometimes make Sauerbraten (again, sorry about the misspelling). Most delicious. I always liked mine with noodles. (My father would often make the noodles with poppy seeds and would sometimes add dried mushrooms and fried onions.)

Although I don't eat it anymore, schinkenflecken was another of my fathers recipes from his childhood. He told me it it means "ham (schinken) bits (flecken)". (No, in this case "shinken" does not mean sword.) Anyway, it is a noodle casseole made with ham, as follows:

Broad egg noodles, cooked al dente
Finely ground ham flavored with ground nutmeg (and maybe a little pepper)
Milk mixed with eggs (more milk than eggs, although I can't remember the poroportions; sort of like a crepe batter without the flour)

Butter a deep ceramic casserole dish. Place a layer of noodles on the bottom. Cover with a layer of ground ham. Repeat the noodle/ham layers until the noodles and ham are used up. Finish with a layer of noodles. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the top. The liquid should come just to the top of the casserole dish and just barely cover the surface of the noodles. Bake in a moderately hot oven until the top is brown and the egg-milk mixture has set, sort of like a custard (don't let the top noodles get too brown or dry out).

Serve hot out of the oven accompanied by warm applesauce.

I suppose that "veal" is the English spelling for "viel". And, yes, I meant Weiner Schnitzel. (I though if I said "Weiner" schnitzel, Mr. Lowry might complain that I was talking about Austria rather than Germany, but since as far as I know "Austria" is just the Anglicization of Ostreich or "Eastern Reich", I thought I could include it.) My father would always serve it only with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, nothing else. If we wanted ketchup, he would chase us from the table. I think schnitzel is best with a good salad of finely shredded cabbage with an oil-and-vinegar dressing, oven-roated potatoes with browned onions and caraway seeds, and a really good Pilsner beer.

Elke Sommer was a popular actress when I was young, and I thought she was a goddess.

kabutoki
26th April 2004, 23:24
Earl,
please donīt apologise. I was not complaining or making fun of your German. I just wanted a little teasing on my own.
I think the delicious recipe you shared with us is from southern Germany. Also the word "flecken" indicates that.
What exactly is your fathers "German background" ?

Karsten

@Moderator: Please feel free to move this wherever you think it would fit. It is certainly not Koryu.

Earl Hartman
26th April 2004, 23:34
My father's grandparents on his mother side immigrated to the US sometime in the late 1800s. I really don't know where they were from, although for some reason, the town of "Regensburg" sticks in my memory. Their name was Schulteiss. His father was from an old Pennsylvania family, also German (as should be pretty obvious from my name), which had been in the US since the Revolutionary War. My mother's family is Jewish, some from from Alsace, I think, who also came to the US at about the same time.

The only thing I know for sure, really, is that my great-great grandfather on my mother's side is buried in the Jewish cemetery in the town of Bruchsal, which I think is not too far from Frankfurt.

I don't know if the spelling of "Bruchsal" is correct; it was written in Hebrew letters on his gravestone, of which I have an old photograph.

Blackwood
26th April 2004, 23:43
But the real question is, Do you know who Elke Sommer's husband was? And why should you, a martial artist know who he was?

From a descendant of a Hessian mercenary who fought in the American Revolution (for the other side!).

kabutoki
26th April 2004, 23:44
Earl,
thats really interesting. I found this site www.bruchsal.de (http://www.bruchsal.de). I didnīt go through all of it but it looks like a nice place.
To me, as not only being German but also being young it is good to know that there are a lot of people in Amerika that are connected, at least to some extant, to Germany or Europe in general (all politics aside).

Karsten

Mekugi
26th April 2004, 23:46
ACHTUNG!

I'll take Jagermeiser and Hasenpheffer over Gewurtztraminer and tasteless, wormy spaetzle anyday. This coming from a Kraut, mind you (before you even start Kraut means "good German"...well at least in the German, so I hear).

Ohh yeah, weltanschauung can include ummelt, something that was ultimately defined for our century in Jakob von Uexk?El’s umvelt theory. It's kinda like saying how can your outlook on life effect your philosophy of life, or something like that.

Anyway, the moral is DRINK MORE JAGERMEISTER and EAT MORE HASENPHEFFER YOU HEATHENS. It will effect your umwelt and just might change your weltanschauung, ('how come everyhting in German sounds sexual??)

kabutoki
26th April 2004, 23:47
Dear Mark,
I just looked at some pictures of her and I had a hard time realizing that she had a face as well.. Please donīt make me say I had and still have no clue about her husband.
The name Hyams doesnīt ring a bell...

Karsten

Earl Hartman
26th April 2004, 23:52
Karsten:

Thanks. If I could speak German, perhaps I could contact them and see if the Jewish cemetery is still there. I would very much like to see if the grave is still there.

Blackwood: Sommer is a Baronness and is married to a hotelier named Wolf Walther. Do you ask your question because he is a member of the family who makes firearms?

kabutoki
26th April 2004, 23:53
Russ,
I never heard anyone referring to "Kraut" in a charming way. In Germany itīs coleslaw, for the rest of the (anglo-saxon) world itīs not a very nice term to refer to Germans.
Baron Uexküll lived in Hamburg and had a reasearch institute which is now part of "my" University of Hamburg.

The world is a village, isnīt it.

Karsten

Blackwood
26th April 2004, 23:54
Joe Hyams (her first husband) was a martial artist and student of Bruce Lee.

He wrote "Zen in the Martial Arts" which, in my humble opinion, ought to be required reading for all martial artists. It is a quick read, but contains a lot of thought provoking stuff, as well as some brief glimpses into Bruce's life.

Earl Hartman
26th April 2004, 23:56
Jagermeister?

If you're going to drink the hard stuff, I vote for kirschwasser.

My father would make a chocolate layer cake filled with sour cherries and then douse the whole thing in kirschwasser before icing it.

Excellent.

Oh, yes, how could I forget about the absolute best example of Deutsche Kultur: stollen! We would make it every year based on a recpe from my grandmother. I still make it every year, just as my father did. There is absolutely no better breakfast anywhere in the world than all the stollen you can eat, washed down with strong, dark, black coffe and followed by a nice chilled bowl of fresh fruit.

kabutoki
26th April 2004, 23:57
So who is she married to, now ?
And second but equally important, how come this thread is the most active one in the koryu section ?

Karsten

Blackwood
26th April 2004, 23:57
Why get fancy? German Beer! Some of the best!

My first drunk was in Germany on German beer in a German Frat house.

(I was a late bloomer and 19 at the time!)

Mekugi
27th April 2004, 00:01
True Earl but it's not as trashy and trendy. You wanna getda chics, whip out yer Jager.

BTW have you ever been exposed to Tartare, German style? Yarg. Raw egg and ground steak....you need something cheap to wash it down with.




Originally posted by Earl Hartman
Jagermeister?

If you're going to drink the hard stuff, I vote for kirschwasser.

My fahter would make a chocolate layer cake filled with sour cherries and then douse the whole thing in kirschwasser before icing it.

Excellent.

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:04
I think I might open up a Germany-shop in the us. Or better internet-based, so I can supply stuff to Japan too.
If you need anything from Germany let me know (not shipping girls, though).

Karsten

PS.: Is a "frat house" what I think it is ? My dictionary doenīt list it and that just adds to my assumption...

Blackwood
27th April 2004, 00:09
frat house - Fraternity house. Male organization. It was one of those fencing organizations that the German Universities have. I couldn't tell you the name of it to save my life, but I had a couple of beer glasses for a decade or two before they broke.

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:10
Despite the image you may see portrayed in this thread, being German or of German ancestry is not (entirely) about having a drinking problem. Problems only occur if we run out of beer :D

...actually...I should consider becoming a diplomat...

Karsten

Earl Hartman
27th April 2004, 00:10
Steak tartare, properly done, is one of the glories of world cusine (I like mine without the capers, though). Get a little taste, willya?

Karsten, a "frat house" is short for "fraternity house". In the US, a fraternity is a private group of young men, college students, who beloing to a fraternity, or "brotherhood". They usually live together in a house near the college they attend as students.

Fraternities are probably a lot like the old German student organizations.

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:12
LOL,
ok itīs definitly NOT what I thought. Not really better...but not what I thought.

Karsten

Blackwood
27th April 2004, 00:15
Did I mention I work for 'Foo Vay'?

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:17
Ok,
thats kind of cryptic but if I try to imagine being an American I could get to the conclusion that you mean VW - Volkswagen. Good cars, my mother has one...
Guys are we drifting here ...?

Blackwood
27th April 2004, 00:20
Ja! I work for Volkswagen of America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen, AG.

Earl Hartman
27th April 2004, 00:24
Karsten:

Something just occurred to me: is the eating of stollen a regional custom in Germany, or is stollen popular everywhere? If it is regional, perhaps that would indicate where my father's family is from.

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:26
Well,
I hope you like your work. Maybe some of the money your company earns pays for my university in Germany.
Thanks !

Karsten

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:29
Hi Earl,
stollen is just great isnīt it. I think it used to be regoinal but now you get them all over Germany, mostly during x-mas and easter time. One region that has been famous for stollen ever since is Dresden and Leipzig in the former GDR. I will ask my mother tomorrow. She knows a lot about customs and stuff like that.

Karsten


PS: Do you want me to get in contact with the guys in Bruchsal ? I could try and find out whether the cemetery is still there...

Earl Hartman
27th April 2004, 00:40
Karsten:

Yes, I would very much like to contact the people in Bruchsal. Once, many years ago, I was in Munich on a business trip, but I was unable to find the time to go to Bruchsal, unfortunately.

Blackwood
27th April 2004, 00:42
Hey! My wife's grandmother was a Stuhldreher. The Mother and all her kids left Breman in 1850 to come to America. Haven't been able to find out what happened to the father (Guessing he died), or even what city they originally came from.

Any suggestions?

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:43
Iīll do my best to find some info.
Right now I have to sleep. You know...time difference, daylight savings time...


Karsten

kabutoki
27th April 2004, 00:45
Hi Mark and Earl,
just send me all the info you have on your families and I can try to find out...
karsten@helmholz-castle.com

Karsten

Blackwood
27th April 2004, 00:56
Thank you! Most kind!