Culture shock in my own country

Even though I was born and raised in the US, my 5+ years spent in Germany were enough to "European-ize" me. Sometimes I still have moments of "culture shock" in my own country. Yesterday I had two such moments.

The first moment was when I learned that in the US you apparently actually have to pay to recycle batteries and eco-friendly light bulbs. For years I couldn't find anywhere to take used batteries and I simply refuse to throw them in the trash. I don't care what anyone says about it being OK to throw away alkaline batteries - I won't do it. I'm thankful that battery recycling is even possible now, because for years I have been saving up my batteries hoping that I could one day find somewhere to recycle them. Thanks Batteries Plus for taking back old batteries - but it's not really cool to charge 99 cents per pound / $1 per light bulb for recycling. In Germany basically every grocery and drug store has a box at the front for recycling batteries - because it's the right thing to do - and it's free!

My second moment of culture shock came during the process of couch shopping. It was absolutely unbelievable to see how the (US) furniture industry has adapted to certain traits often scrutinized as "typical American". Individual seats on some couches could fit 3-4 of me. I felt like Alice in Wonderland - I often felt as though I had been shrunk down into a miniature me. Not only are many couches made for very large people, they also accommodate laziness with HUGE cup holders built into the couch. Seriously - a cup holder in a couch, it's not a car!! I personally think it's rather tacky. I might think it's OK if the couch were for a special movie theater room in the house, but I don't want that in my living room. I was going to say something about the electric recliners - but I actually kind of liked that (except I don't want wires running through the living room and I don't have floor sockets).

On a funny note, at one of the furniture stores I was helped by none other than Will Ferrell. Well not that Will Ferrell, but it was all I could do not to say something. I'm sure he appreciated that. As we were leaving there was a car with the license plate "MAKULAF" - I wonder if it was his...

A brief guide to the soft-boiled egg

Gluten-free toast with
delicious toppings

Fresh fruit: local peaches, local
blueberries I picked myself and
organic kiwi.

I love eating outside, especially when the weather is as perfect as it is today. No humidity, sun shining brightly, temperature around 80 F (27 C). I had one of my typical breakfasts consisting of fresh fruit (local peaches from The Produce Box, blueberries I picked from a local farm this summer, which I had frozen and thawed, and non-local, but organic kiwi), 2 slices of gluten-free toast - one slice topped with lemon curd and homemade blackberry jam from Germany, the other with whipped cinnamon honey from a local beekeeper, and finally my ultimate favorite: a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg (with an egg from my local farmers' market).

My breakfast companions
(One hiding in the back)

Perfectly cooked
soft-boiled egg

Eating soft-boiled eggs is an art that begins with proper preparation. Most importantly, you should be sure to use fresh organic or free-range eggs from a source known to you, ideally from your own chickens or from the farmers' market. This way you'll not only be eating much healthier eggs, but can also be quite certain that they are free from the problems with industrially produced eggs as seen in the news lately. In Germany soft-boiled eggs are quite popular, with special spoons and egg holders created especially for their consumption. Nevertheless, there is still some disagreement on the right way to prepare them. There are special egg cookers, but the simplest way to prepare a single egg is to place about 1 inch of water into a pot, add the egg, cover with a lid, and once the water begins to boil set the timer to 5 minutes for large eggs or 3.5-4 minutes for smaller eggs (times and amount of water may need to be varied for multiple eggs). There is no need to cover the egg with water - the steam from the boiling water serves to help the egg cook and goes much faster than waiting for an entire pot of water to boil. In fact, put your toast in the toaster around the same time as you set the pot with the egg on the stove and your toast and egg will be ready almost simultaneously. When the timer beeps, take the egg out with a large spoon, run the egg under cold water to stop the cooking process, place the egg into an egg holder (as in my picture, though the varieties are endless, my favorite being the ones with feet coming out of an egg), "decapitate" with a knife, lightly salt, and enjoy (ideally with a special egg spoon as seen in the picture). Some people beat the tops of their eggs to crack them all over and then peel, while others use a special device known humorously in German as a "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher" (egg shell breaking and perforating device), which also happens to be one of my all-time favorite German words.

Hope you are now inspired to try your own soft-boiled egg in the near future!

Egg before

and after "decapitating"