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Bringing the Purity of German Sausage Making to California – Carina & David of YouBite (Interview)

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XPAT Spotlight interview with Carina and David Mohr, owners of the German butcher shop YouBite in Camarillo. Their traditional German Bratwursts and a variety of smoked products are all handcrafted and made according to German family recipes. Produced with the help of German machinery, which they imported to the USA – it can’t get more German than that!

Carina and David, both settled in California after having traveled the world. For Carina, life abroad is nothing new. Born and mostly raised in Cologne, she got already an early taste of living abroad when she was ten years old. Her parents moved the family for 5 years to Pune in India, where they opened a Turkey Farm. For David, however, who was born in Bonn and later lived between Cologne and Bonn, settling abroad is a new, exciting adventure.

What made you decide to leave Germany and move to California?  [Read more…] about Bringing the Purity of German Sausage Making to California – Carina & David of YouBite (Interview)

The Tale of the Traveling Cake Continues

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THE TALE OF THE TRAVELING CAKE CONTINUES

It was a beautiful Saturday in April of 2017, when one particular wedding cake and I started the journey from Redondo Beach into the deep Malibu Canyon.  My boss and I figured that if I left the bakery with the cake at 9 a.m. it would give me plenty of time to arrive at the venue at the appointed 11 a.m.

As we all know, traveling through the LA area usually consists of sitting in traffic at least at some point, if not more.   But since it was a Saturday, I had high hopes that the traffic Gods were on my side.

Unfortunately, they were not.  In fact, they wanted to test my patience extra hard that day with a three-lane-closure at LAX due to a crash that involved a burned-out vehicle.  My hopes of a punctual arrival diminished from minute to minute, and while the cars in front of me still weren’t moving, I decided to give the wedding planner a heads-up about my delay.

Thankfully, she was not too stressed about it (or she was just good at hiding her real feelings). It felt like an eternity, but eventually cars started moving again, and slowly but surely I was ready to continue my route while the cake was still peacefully sitting in its box.

Now is probably a good time to tell you a little bit about the “transport box,” just for an overall better understanding of the situation.  This particular box was actually a bigger paper carton with no lid.  The cake was securely fastened onto a round shaped cake board, and then just pushed into the box, the open side facing my dashboard.  To my defense, it was not my idea to position the cake like this on my passenger seat.  You might know now where this story is going.

I was finally able to get out of the whole traffic mess and to speed up to a decent pace; wanting to make sure I hopefully don’t encounter anymore delays. I kept driving on the 405 north for a while before my GPS told me to merge onto the US 101.

I merged onto the outer right lane, slowing down a bit but still holding a steady speed, about to approach the loop towards the 101 freeway.  Unsuspecting, I made my way around it, when suddenly the car in front of me hit the brakes hard, resulting me into doing the same thing.

I knew right away what terrible maneuver I just had done.  While pushing my foot the hardest I could onto my breaks, I heard a swoosh sound.  I looked over to my right side, and in a matter of seconds, I witnessed the precious 12-piece cake slipping out of the box and straight onto the floor.

I will not be able to tell you verbatim what I was exactly yelling out at the moment since it consists of a series of swear words.  What I can tell you is that I started to cry hysterically.

I couldn’t contemplate what was worse: the fact that the cake actually dropped on the floor or that I had to call my boss and tell her about it. Well, since there was no way around it, I picked up my phone and anxiously dialed her number.

When she heard that I was crying, she instantly knew that something really bad must have happened. To my relief, she was very understanding and tried to calm me down, which made me sob even more.

Unfortunately, I still had to deliver the cake, hoping that the florist would be able to cover up the damages. “At least the cake wasn’t supposed to be the one eaten,” is what I kept telling myself to calm me down and to prepare me from having to face a pretty uncomfortable situation, but more on that next time. As for now, feel free to enjoy a graphic image of the described disaster.

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Images: pixabay.com, Anne-Kathrin Schulte
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Anne-KathrinAnne-Kathrin Schulte, is a contributor for CaliforniaGermans.com. She writes on her personal experience of the American Dream as well as on working as an au pair in CA. She was born and grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she completed her degree as a state-approved Kindergarten teacher. After her au pair engagement in the US and a quick return to Germany she decided to attend university in California and moved back to the United States. She has been living in Southern California since 2011.

If you would like to contact Anne-Kathrin, please send an email to californiagermans(at)gmail.com and place her name in the subject line.

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German Cuisine – Defined by Sausage, Pretzel and Beer?

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What’s Up with German Cuisine in California?

German restaurants and German food trucks seem to be in high season these days. I feel there are so many new ones. But do they offer anything new?

I just heard of a new German restaurant in Orange County in SoCal, “Stadtgarten LA“. It sounded promising, I thought. Curious about what kind of German cuisine they would offer I went to check out their website.

I am met with the the restaurant’s name Stadtgarten written in an interesting font, that reminds me of a neighborhood German beer pub from the 60ties. Then I read the “story”: Stadtgarten is a “gourmet hub” in a historic landmark in Fullerton. The experience apparently “highlights bold tradition with every speciality item offered” .

Wow, I am eager to find out more! Did I finally discover some authentic German restaurant that will surprise me with some tasty Schweinebraten (roast pork) with a crunchy crust or a Berliner Eisbein? Perhaps the authentic northern specialty, Matjes, or a juicy Jägerschnitzel, or even just tasty Käsespätzle or Maultaschen?

My excitement to see the menu is put to a worried stop after my eyes are met by the headline “Artisanal Wurst & Bier”.

Seriously!!  Yes…, all I see is sausages galore!

Come on! Pleaseeee!!

I scroll back to the “story” that claims that I will experience the “storied taste of Germany, spanning decades of specialty quality and selection”, “with recipes  spanning decades brought directly from Germany.”

Am I not being promised a “gourmet authentic cuisine” here? I start feeling a bit offended about what I am actually being offered on the menu posted online.

– The Sausage and its Rise to Power –

Is the Stadtgarten LA seriously claiming that only sausages are making up the storied taste of Germany ? I honestly believe the German Wurst has never been that popular ever (!) than since it’s been pushed to its limits here in the USA. – Sozusagen ‘ausgezuzelt’ (ausgesaugt) bis auf’s Letzte. –

And, I m not even sure if the Wurst frenzy is in fact even happening in Germany itself. The last thing I recently read was that it was now really hip over there to get Eggs Benedict instead of a simple, fried egg… But Wurst!!?

Besides, anyone ever heard of the Vegan Mexican Chipotle sausage or Chicken Habanero & Tequila sausage being part of the German Wurst staple?

I guess I must have missed something growing up in Germany or I’m just getting old….

For me, ‘Wurst’ used to be a fast food served at stands at Christkindlmarkets and other little town fairs. It certainly was present at ALL kids birthday parties, so much so that I couldn’t face a ‘Wienerwurst’ or any ‘Wurst’ for years without slight shudders… until I fell in love with the ‘Käsekrainer’ in Vienna! Since then my sausage taste has been very selective to say the least.

But to call ‘Wurst’, no matter what kind, gourmet food!? That is for sure a social rise for Wurst & Co.

To all the Würstel Dudes (sausages dudes) out there. German cuisine has so much more to offer than only pretzels, beer, and sausages!

It’s not enough to just give a restaurant a German name and slap some German sounding words onto the menu like “share das good times“. Please check your German, otherwise it gives you away as not being very authentic at all!

Having said all that… Stadtgarten LA appears to have a hip, modern and inviting interior (unlike its restaurant name lettering would suggest). It apparently has also created a nice outside beer garden atmosphere, which indeed is hard to find in OC.

Stadtgarten LA may in fact position itself more as a specialty beer pub than a restaurant, if you consider the immense selection of beer that “… can be intimidating to a beer layman” as Edwin Goei puts it in his 2016 article in OC Weekly.

…Nix für ungut!

Author’s note: This article is solely based on the business’ website and its information posted there.

Sponsored by Adolesco.org 

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Deutsche Spargelzeit – German White Asparagus Season : Get the Real Deal in San Francisco!

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‘Unfamous’ in CAlifornia,  white asparagus has celebrity status in Germany.

Traditionally, “Spargelzeit”, the white asparagus season, starts in Germany around mid-April and lasts until June 24th. But this year, because of the harsh winter, the harvesting time has been moved out to almost the end of April. It was just too cold for the asparagus to grow and the only available one until recently arrived usually from other European countries with warmer climates.

But now it’s finally here! Germany’s Spargel season has officially started and with great anticipation connoisseurs are looking forward to tasting the new season’s  “royal vegetable”.

A Spargel Dinner – the traditional German way in San Francisco

During the season the vegetable also referred to as “edible ivory” or “white gold” is prominently featured on menus everywhere. In order to bring this tradition a little bit closer to everyone in California, the German American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (AHK) will import fresh white asparagus from Germany to San Francisco!

100 kg of fresh harvested Spargel will be imported directly from  the “Spargelhof Schulze” in Rheinland -Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) straight to the plates and palates of the German American community in San Francisco.

Spargel Dinner AHK San FranciscoThe second annual White Asparagus Gala Dinner will take place in San Francisco on May 10th, 2013 at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins on San Francisco’s Nob Hill. Tickets will include a Champagne Reception, 3-course Gala Dinner and beer/wine/soft drinks.

Get ready for an original Spargel Dinner, the traditional German way!

Tickets are available here  –AHK Spargel Signatur RSVP now

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Last year’s Spargel Feast by the German American Chamber of Commerce in NY city. Video by RTL in Germany:

http://www.rtl.de/cms/news/rtl-aktuell/amis-sind-heiss-auf-unser-weisses-gold-23179-51ca-14-1150839.html

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