Das deutsche Frühstuck (and an American recipe)

I guess you could label me as a morning person.  I certainly enjoy my sleep, but somehow or other I tend to find myself getting an early start to the day.  And, it goes without saying, that breakfast is an important meal; I don't know about it being the most important meal, but it's right on up there.
The typical German breakfast is quite different from that of a typical American breakfast.  To our pancakes, bacon, bagels, eggs, sausage, cereals, etc they have fresh bread, cold cuts, cheese, yogurt and müsli.  I definitely enjoy the German breakfasts; the yogurt is unbelievably good and the bread, oh, the bread.

So much to say... take a walk down the street early in the day and just soak in the aroma emitted by the bakeries all over the city.  Low/No-Carb diets surely don't exist here.  Semmeln (crusty rolls), Brezen (pretzels), Butter-Brezen (need I translate this one?!), various Croissants, Krapfen (Donuts), the list goes on and on.  The temptation that is the German bakery is one I find similar to that of fast food or junk food in the states.  The fast food epidemic has not quite taken Germany, sure, there are McDonalds, Subways and the like scattered around the cities; but it's the bakeries that are on every corner and have lines out the doors during rush hours or after classes.  But the bread-obsession doesn't stop there; not even close.  Check out the discount grocery store, Aldi.  There's a bread vending machine, seriously.  Look at the pictures, push a button, and a warm, freshly baked Semmel, loaf, Breze, whatever is sent to you within seconds and will cost you just a few cents (0,29/ Breze!).  Or if you are planning ahead for a busy/lazy morning grab a bag of the frozen or brown and serve Semmeln to finish off in the toaster oven.  Most of the bread in Germany ist crusty, however, if you're feeling a little homesick, "American style toaster bread" is available pretty much all over.

Now the hard part, what to eat atop this glorious bread.  As I mentioned earlier, cold cuts and cheese are typical at the breakfast table.  As far as cold cuts go, I would say the most popular are some sort of "Wurst" (but not the hotdog style wurst, more like bologna), Salami, and Ham; deli Turkey exists but is rarely eaten.  The cheese is fantastic.  As sliced cheese, Berg (Mountain) Cheese, Butter Cheese or Emmenthaler (Swiss) are probably the most popular; of the spreadable variety Brie is very popular as well as Camembert and several flavored cream cheese like spreads.  Germans are certainly not afraid of butter, it will regularly be used as a condiment instead of mayonaise.  Outside of the cold-cut sandwiches, there are of course several varieties of spreads such as Nutella, Philadelphia, Exquisa (a cream based spread), jams... just to name a few.  You really can't go wrong.
The yogurt in Germany is out of this world, or I guess out of the American world!  It's on a whole different level; think creamy, super fresh, and super cheap.   With a little bit of Müsli (sort of a less sweet granola), it's a great start to the day.


But.... sometime you get a little craving for an American breakfast.  Hans, a friend from the JYM program, introduced me to this fascinating way to eat an egg: inside a slice of toast.  Brilliant.  Of course for this undertaking, we had to use the American style Toast bread.  It's super easy and looks pretty cool.

Take a regular slice of bread, cut out a circle in the middle (with a glass or just free-form it with a small knife), heat equal parts butter and evoo (I like to put a little bit of rosemary in the pan as well) and once the oil/butter is hot, add the bread and crack the egg into the middle.  Let the egg set and flip it, cook until the egg is done!  It's simple, looks pretty cool and tastes good!

Guten Appetit!