Sounds and Smells of Deutschland

Must say it revolts me to see someone eating their lovely crispy chips with Mayonaisse piled on top,but every one to his taste.
The roadsweeping vehicles here are still right hand drive,I take it so the driver can get as close to the kerb or your car as possible!
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Don

alan8376 wrote:

An ideal car market for the Brit squaddies in BAOR was the RH drive VW Bus and Beetle.

Ever wondered why there were so many? Apparently, the German Postoffice (Bundespost) had so RH drives so they could empty and deliver safely mail boxes on the streets!

Actually, I noticed just a few weeks ago one of the delivery trucks with Canada Post likewise had a RH drive. I guess I'd seen it before, well I know I have, just never gave it much thought.

Anyway, I asked one of the postal workers who comes into my store about it and she told me the same thing...it was so that the driver didn't disembark into oncoming traffic during deliveries but could scoot out curbside. Made perfect sense! (Unusual, I will quickly add, for Canada Post!).

Not sure of the efficacy of using a RH drive while driving on the right side of the street as opposed to the left but if one is used to RH drive, that too makes sense.

A question, though....why does UK drive on the opposite side of the road to the rest of the world (although I think Australia follows the same suit as UK)? I once heard it had something to do with going down country lanes and coming around a hedge...if one is on the left it gives better visibility or something than if one is on the right, although I can't quite figure that one out.

donald wrote:

Must say it revolts me to see someone eating their lovely crispy chips with Mayonaisse piled on top,but every one to his taste.
The roadsweeping vehicles here are still right hand drive,I take it so the driver can get as close to the kerb or your car as possible!
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Don

Ehehehehe....now let me think....[delving into his musty memory banks]....when you say "crispy chips" you are referring to french fries, correct? AKA pommes frites auf Deutsch. See, to us colonials "chips" are potatoe chips, like those made by Frito Lay....

Now, putting mayonnaise onto what I know as "crispy chips" is gross, but on french fries -- assuming one uses German style mayonnaise -- is not so bad although I will admit that when I first encountered the pomme frites mit mayonnaise I think I actually shuddered It is definitely an acquired taste but once acquired, I actually quite liked the combination!

Stephen,
I was referring to "pommes",and when in Detmold we decide to have a brattie and chips and see someone piling the mayonaisse inches thick on their pommes then I shudder too.But it must be an aquired taste,as my kids(yack)do it too!
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Don

I was in Germany from early 1955 to mid 1957 and one of my smells was the schell imbisses by the roadside, always good for a fill up if on the move etc. A much earlier posting got on to the risky subject of schnapps. I never drunk it much and the last time I did it was Steinhager, one of the stronger ones I believe. It came in a stone bottle so you had no idea how much was left in in, you just went on drinking it until (a) you passed out, or (b) it was empty. It was more often the first than the last!!
I remember the Asbach brandy which someone mentioned. I went back to Germany 13 times with the TA between 1971 and 1989 and our regimental medical officer always said it was the best available. I took many a bottle home after our two week exercises and it was a very smooth drink. Hard to get over here though.

Noch ein bier,

Norman.

Ah yes, Steinhager! I'd forgotten about that one (I suspect the consumption of said beverage tended to obliterate the brain cells responsible for...uh...for...uhm...oh yeah! memory....). I thought the stone bottle (hence the name) was kinda cool.

Asbach was, as Norman points out, not a bad brandy at all and quite smooth unlike most brandies that one could consider 'cheap' which burned like the Dickens going down (or back up!). I periodically come across it in liquor stores here but it is hardly 'cheap'. Here, you see, it's an "imported brandy" LOL

Does anone remember a drink called Samba................vodka with grapefruit juice, vile stuff and Persico its tasted a bit like aftershock. I was told it was taken off the market as it gave you brain damamge . Don't know if thats true .................... but it would explain a lot!

You can get Asbach in some cash and carry's plus the odd specialist wine shops. Chased around for a bottle for my brothers 50th and finally got one. As soon as I did, I spotted it all over the place. Think it was about 17 quid or similar?

samba..aahh what a taste...persico...tasted like raspberry night nurse...graham.

Another 'sound' of BAOR, from the early days of SSVC/BFBS Television. (Could never remember which it was!) An extremely annoying German woman who tried to teach us the German language. She had a 'talking' parrot. Can't remember her name but can remember the purile theme music. Dreadful programme that was too ridiculous to teach us anything.

Auf Deutch Bitte?...................Corinna Schnabel and her bloody parrot.

I think she was in Auf Wiedersein Pet as well!

That's the bloody woman! And now since I thought of it I can't get the damn awful tune out of my head!!! Please tell me she isn't still going!!!

O'dear! Now you make me think of 'Uncle Bill and Badger!'

Don't get me started!! Bring back Asters I say!

Whats that I say water rat and Owl ???

a pity you can't find those stories they would be great for the Granddaughter

ChrisP wrote:

That's the bloody woman! And now since I thought of it I can't get the damn awful tune out of my head!!! Please tell me she isn't still going!!!

She may not be, but I'm willing to bet the parrot still is...damn things outlive their owners. Vile birds....

I stayed with a woman a couple of years ago as I sorted out my living situation who had seven of the damn things...a cockatoo, 2 cockatiel, 2 African Greys (nasty vicious creatures) and one other that was similar to a cockatiel. Then the African Greys had a chick and she kept that one then they had two chicks and she sold one eventually and, I suspect, kept the other. She also had a huge scarlet Macaw she was 'babysitting' for a month...gorgeous looking bird, I must say, but crazy as a loon and you dared not turn your back on it if it was out of it's cage because it would suddenly decide to attack you...not always, just if it suddenly had a psychotic moment LOL.

She lived in a small 3-bedroom bungalow and the birds were esconced in what normally would be the dining room and one, the first chick that was a few months old, she kept in the spare room and allowed to walk around. Yuck.

Noisy abrasive things who squawked and screamed from 6am to midnight. The cockatoo, who was friendly enough but never out of her cage, would periodically emit this ear-drum splitting screech and scare the bejeebers out of me every time.

The neighbours loathed her.

Ah.Cockatoos,know someone who has one,it has the habit of biting off the cornices on the living room ceiling,can tear a plastic bottle into small bits,drinks its Ribena from a wine glass like a profi,and if it lands on your shoulder goodbye ear!All this accompanied by ear aching screeches!
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Don

Ok you lot, anyone remember this then, "currywurst mit pommes, Bitte"

Mike

Anyone one remember the "Wienerwald" or "Kochlöffel"?

They have all gone, now it's all McDonald's and Burger King.

Mike

Yep remember anything to do with food! Halb Hanchen (not sure about spelling) on pay day was good! Kottelet und frits was another good one. Or anything that involved 'wurst' and frittes. Especially about 2 in the morning - had a unique flavour!

uncle bill,remember his his endof programe sisn off...good night children..everywhere....on another thread already mentioned my first curry wurst mit fritten in hemer..nevermind the halbes hanchen and those frikkedelen in every bar in hemer and iserlohn .cant remember what those pork things were called ...boiled with onions and put on half a brotchen...graham

Many years ago when the wife arrived in Germany I promised to introduce her to the delights of Bratties. We were on summer hours , so while waiting for the Sparkasse to open I took her to the kiosk that used to be in the middle of Bergen. I bought the bratties and we sat on a wall to eat. Just as she was about to eat I said did you know thats horse meat.She's never touched a bratwurst to this day.More for me

One thing I do miss is Wiener Schnitzel. Lidl used to sell them but since the PC brigade complained about the way veal is farmed they are made from pork.....................not the same.


Teabag, check out your local ASDA they sometimes have Asbach, I got my bottle there.
There's a place in Knaresborough that sells Warsteiner , I would rather have Herfies but heyho......

graham wright wrote:

uncle bill,remember his his endof programe sisn off...good night children..everywhere....on another thread already mentioned my first curry wurst mit fritten in hemer..nevermind the halbes hanchen and those frikkedelen in every bar in hemer and iserlohn .cant remember what those pork things were called ...boiled with onions and put on half a brotchen...graham

Graham, Remember well,it was required tea time listening for the singles as we had evening meal. Circa 1971. We must have been a sad bunch. Those were the days before BFBS TV, which in my humble opinion ruined Mess life!!

I remember Badger!!! I quite enjoyed the programs, even as a teen! Parts were quite clever, actually.

I was long gone by the time BFBS TV hit the airwaves but I can well imagine it would have an injurious effect on social life. Every one holed up watching telly instead of getting out and socializing at the Mess or the local gasthof or what-have-you!

As for bratties being made from horsemeat...hmmm, not sure about that! I probably don't want to know what bratties, or any sausage for that matter, is made from LOL. I do know, or was told at any rate, that the Frikadelles found in most gasthofs -- which were delicious even if they had probably sat there for far too long -- were horsemeat. But when you come right down to it, what's the difference between eating cow or eating horse?

We have an affinity for horses (smart) that we don't have for cows (dumb) but setting sentimentality aside (and don't get me wrong....I love horses!!), meat is meat. Well, no -- I mean I wouldn't eat dog or cat for instance but cow meat vs horse meat? Really not much of a difference.

[quote="Stephen Lock"]

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I was long gone by the time BFBS TV hit the airwaves but I can well imagine it would have an injurious effect on social life. Every one holed up watching telly instead of getting out and socializing at the Mess or the local gasthof or what-have-you!

With games machines ie Wii /PS/X-Box etc things have gotten even worse.When I was serving we all worked together and most of the time socialised together. I have been told that happens very rarely nowadays.

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As for bratties being made from horsemeat...hmmm, not sure about that! I probably don't want to know what bratties, or any sausage for that matter, is made from LOL. I do know, or was told at any rate, that the Frikadelles found in most gasthofs -- which were delicious even if they had probably sat there for far too long -- were horsemeat. But when you come right down to it, what's the difference between eating cow or eating horse?

I was taking the mick but she went all funny about the comment. She's not normally pinnicity about eating but that day..........who knows

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meat is meat. Well, no -- I mean I wouldn't eat dog or cat for instance but cow meat vs horse meat? Really not much of a difference.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh cat. I remember as a child in Singapore my Mum ordering Singapore Chicken , her face when she was told it was cat was a picture........she'd eaten it by then.