different cultures

I thought it would be educational to introduce a new culture and learn different customs. Today is Germany. Foods, customs, and clothes are interesting to us all. Feel free to give any information that we can all learn by and appreciate.

Germany, beautiful countryside! As a teenager my faily was stationed there (march 1985 to november 1989) you know before the wall came down (literally like the day before!!!!) Absolutely fabulous chocolate

Here is an interesting site on food traditions: Search resultsGerman cuisine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Regional...|Staple foods|Side dishes|Spices and...
[edit] Staple foods. German sausages and cheese ... Trout is the most common freshwater fish on the German menu; pike, carp, and ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cuisine

it's all about the food with you isn't it flowers? LOL

LOL Trina, no I just know this thread would take off if I had the sense to word it right.Come on people help me out here. Ok any country****** Spain, Switzerland, Italy,Russia,United Kindom,France,Hawaii,anywhere yall pitch in and tell us something. I like many others are really facinated by customs ect practiced in other countries. We won't make fun just have fun and learn. Dave we need you here.

Italy.....yummmy.....oh they bread and the wine and I wish I was rich and had a vacation house there! LOL

ok maybe if I insult someone accidentaly they will key up and correct me. Here is what I know. The French are good kissers, The Germans drink beer like water, The Italians eat pasta and sling there arms when they talk. They wear wooden shoes in Norway, Chinese carry their food on top of their heads in baskets,Switzerland is known for their beautiful mountain ranges and windmills,Russia tells the whole population what they can and can't do, and last but not least Dorthy really didn't go to the land of OZ lol.

There was an interesting documentary on PBS the other night about how the Beatles Invasion affected Russian culture. Apparently there was a picture of Russia the outside world had, and there was a sub-culture of mods & rockers also. It was very interesting, the teens were gobbling up anything & everything they could about The Beatles. It didn't look much different than anywhere else in the world at that time.

Yes Smilely I think that is the only country that will not accept change. It is so sad to think of people that are frozen in time when we take our freedom for granted. Since I carry only the basics of such things my way of thinking is the people are the ones that are gonna have to free themselves as decades and centurys of control by parliment or whatever is not gonna let freedom rein there.

Agree, Flowers.

Here's a tidbit: Back in the 50's, my father was an abstract artist in the same vein as Pollock, etc.. That era.

As so many painters did, he and my mom moved to Paris so he could paint on Mont Marte (I think I spelled that wrong).

My mom was telling us that one time they were in a restaurant, and she inquired about corn on the cob. They laughed.

'Silly American, we feed that to the pigs.'

It may be different now, but they didn't eat it back then. She was amazed.

They still don't In all of europe, corn is to be fed to the pigs

We all have our foods of state so to speak and can see how another can shun our choices also. If we were all alike, life would be so boringggg. But not to eat Corn, thats just wrong lol

Now Ireland, thats a happy bunch

Yeah, except they eat haggis too yeck!

Whats haggies? Thats ugly old women in our culture lol Heres a tidbit, Chinese find it an insult for anyone to leave their chopsticks sticking straight up in the food.

sausage stuffed goat intestine that's hagis

well if I remember right all link sausage or salomi is stuffed down the lining of a pigs intestine here.

nah a lot has been switched over to a celulous wrapping of some kind, kind of papery

Well seems not much interest on this subject. Let this be a lesson,; if ya don't know your material then don't try to teach it lol. I liked the idea!!!

I like the idea too, Flowers, but can't really contribute anything. My grandparents were born here. No old traditions, except grandma making pizza.

I have a question I've been thinking about: Why do your kids have the names they do? Why those particular names? I'll start:

Jacob Joseph is Jacob Joseph because his maternal grandfather was Joseph Jacob and his paternal grandfather was Jacob. We'll leave out the Chester part ^_^

Angela Jean is Angela after my favorite uncle, Angelo, who was a kick and made me watch the Watergate Hearings with him, and Jean is after her paternal great-grandmother, who was a fabulous cook and loved by all. A really sweet lady.

What about you, Flowers?

That is a neat idea Smilely , better yet what do these names mean in Chinese or Indian or whatever. Ours were named after kin folk and in one instance from a character on the soap General Hospital lol.

Luke or Laura? Oh, I'm dating myself!

nope, got one of the first universal names, it wasn't heard much when I named my Tracy. The boy was named after close friends and God Parents, and other daughter just loved the name Amy.

the new generation has it pegged with such cute names, they have steered away from the common names that were used over and over in the past. Like John, Billy Bob, Betty ect. now those old names are starting to sound fresh again.

It's funny how names go in & out of style. Older names like Emma, Hannah etc.. are now in style. When DS was born, there weren't a lot of Jacobs. Now it's a very common name.

My niece is an Amy - she's a sweety pie.

yes somehow we never tire of the names we give our kids whys that lol The Indians suposedly named a child being born after what ever they were seeing at the time, like raccoon stands and salutes or something like that lol

reminds me of that old joke

... "why do you ask, Bear SH***ing in Woods?"

ROFL I knew that was coming Squirrel p on log!!

I just noticed this is the Flowers that Smile thread.

I wondered (for a while) why there were so many Dolores's in our extended family. I know it was for the Plaza (I *think* that part) Dolorosa.

Just tryin to keep something going, here. I know a family of Mary's. Mary Kay, Mary Elizabeth, etc..

yea and what about Drake sr, or the 1st 2nd or 3rd, when do they cut it off? We get confused because one brother named his son after his brother so one gets the name Little so and so, just not fair. He's 30 now

Yep, there's a ton of Jimmy's in our family now. My brother got smart and called his son Jamey, even though he too is a James.

I read once that if a Sr passes away, The Jr. becomes the Sr, 3rd now becomes Jr. etc..

Talk about confusing!

does your Mary Kay drive a pink catalac? I knew a lady that worked for Mary Kay that did.

Whoa, then she sold a lot of makeup! Gotta sell a lot to get that pink cadillac! No, but she did sell it for a little while.

she was one of the top honchos, it was pretty neat. Haven't seen her in years. Her husband owned a chain of pizza resteraunts.

nice life! Grandma used to smush anchovies and mix it in her pizza sauce. I know, it sounds yucky, but it gave it that mwah!

grandmas were'nt scared to experiment back then, bet thats how Betty Crocker got started.

my mom bought a new cookbook recently. Her old book was being held together with rubber bands, no lie.

She settled on a copy of the original Fanny Farmer cookbook fro the late 1800's, I think it is. There's some pretty weird stuff in it.

Love the old ones, the new ones all use cans of cream of mushroom sauce, cream of chicken soup and cream of everything else. Now mind you I am guilty of using this too but miss the old recipes where they rolled the dough out and could make pies taste awsome.

If I had my druthers, I'd rather do everything from scratch, but I work too.

Some things I won't settle on, though. Like scalloped potatoes. Or gravy.

yes I'm a cooker but not much of a baker since sweets never was a fetish for me. So girls bring the deserts at our gatherings.