A Day in the Life: Diary of a Foodie

Living Abroad - A Foodie Day in Mainz

 Living in Germany has really given me the opportunity to embrace food in a way I haven't before. And it allows for some great Saturday adventures. The Farmer's Market here in Mainz is unbelievable. It runs Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, year-long. I usually go shopping on Tuesday or Friday, because Saturday is like a whole different beast. Throngs of people crowd stands piled with fresh local and imported produce. Delicious smells waft over the crowd, lending to more of a carnival atmosphere than a mere farmer's market.

Saturday is my favorite.

Not for shopping, but just for the experience. In fact, forget shopping at the Mainz Farmer's Market on Saturday; you're lucky if you can get yourself through the crowd, let alone yourself weighed down with bags and baskets of plump delicate strawberries, and a cup of freshly pressed juice. You'd be lucky to get out of there alive, let alone clean and unblemished. I love it.

Visions of a German Farmer's Market

So, like I've said, I have a love affair with really great food! I am incredibly lucky to live where I do, because there are Farmer's Markets out the wazoo here! The major one in town runs on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday every week! It's huge, and now that the weather's nice, it's getting bigger. You can find everything down there, even a vendor selling local wine on Saturdays! So, given my ill-concealed excitement, I wanted to share some photos from my visit last Tuesday.

Later, I'll post a recipe I've been mentioning for a little while: Chicken Paprikas. (First time I have ever bought chicken from a FM, and let me tell you, it's a whole different bird!

German Radishes: I just loved the color of these! That deep magenta is just so gorgeous! 

The white radishes intrigue me as well.

Of course, you can't have German produce without red cabbage (as well as the stunning green cabbage at the top of the page). It just lends itself to such beautiful photos!

My favorite: rhubarb! One of the local shops here makes a strawberry-rhubarb cake that is unbelievable. My mom has some growing wild in her backyard, and I just love it! (One of my cousins actually like to take plain raw rhubarb, and just dip it in a little sugar and eat it that way!)

I love this chicken! This was the first day I bought farm-fresh FM eggs (3X the price, but soooo worth it!). This stand always caught my attention, not only because of the chicken, or even the cute little old man who runs it, but because of the sign! Roughly translated it means "No worries of Salmonella from our eggs!" I love it! (The eggs at this stand cost about 10% more than most of the other stands, but you can't help but love the chicken! Genius marketing at its finest!)

The same chicken, giving me the evil eye because the chicken-man decided I wanted the bird awake, and proceeded to poke it until it woke up... and fell asleep again in about a minute.

The Tomato Diaries

News Flash: People don't eat their veggies!

I think a big reason why people tend to not eat their fruits and veggies comes down to a pretty simple explanation: they don't like them! I know, it's a major shock. But here's the thing. For the past 60 years or so, food production has gotten out of the hands of locals, and into the hands of big mega-super-duper-markets. Seasons no longer matter; you can get virtually any shippable produce anywhere, anytime. This is where the problem lies. If you pick a tomato while it's still green, for instance, then ship it to a market, and expect some mom to convince little Johnny "Sweetie, it's good for you," well I'm sorry, but if I were little Johnny, I'd say no dice!

How to Eat Food, Part II

So I have a few philosophies about eating, borne from the past few years of self-education. Through several casual conversations with an R.D. I'm acquainted with (I hope to post an interview with her in the near future) and personal experience, I've found more satisfaction from eating according to these rules than I ever did following the general "wisdom" touted by the major food producers in America. Eat fat, eat carbs, eat whatever makes you feel good; it comes down to knowing HOW.

How to Eat Food

Quite a concept, eh?

The US is a veritable melting pot of different cultures, that's no secret. So I find it fascinating that with all of the culinary influence out there, most Americans have lost touch with their roots. I don't just mean cultural roots either. Our food landscape has shifted so severely in the past few decades, that we consider a paper-wrapped squishy-bun-covered patty of "beef" and a side of artificially enhanced fries to be an acceptable meal.

Well I say NO LONGER!

It's sleek! Fresh! Delightfully Retro! Here at Blissfully Unrefined, I am exploring the idea of eating actual FOOD.