What's Wrong With California Wine?

I miss you, California vineyards!

So far there seems to be only a handful of products I'm used to that will be difficult if not impossible to obtain here. The first is California wine. I'd heard that Europe was notoriously snobby about our "upstart" wine industry, but I'd figured that was largely a thing of the past. ABSOLUTELY NOT. German, French, Italian, and Spanish wines are not only plentiful here, but also very cheap by US standards, and that's great - but I'm a California wino, and let's face it, wine varies greatly by region to region. You get used to certain grapes, certain styles. German wine trends towards sweeter and fizzier than I'm used to - they love their sparkling wine (sekt) and it's common everywhere, as is the Italian version (proscecco). As far as white wines go, the familiar Chardonnay and Sav Blanc is hard to find unless you go French - Germans specialize in Riesling largely, as well as some minor white varietals that most Americans have never heard of. They do make dry Rieslings, but it's no substitute for a grassy, herbaceous Sav Blanc! Red wine fans have even less to be excited about. While the Wurttenburg wine region grows more red grapes than anywhere else in Germany, they favor a red grape known as "Trollinger" that reminds me of a sweeter Gamay (which makes France's famous Beaujolais wine). It's slightly carbonated and light, and is far better chilled than room temperature unlike most reds. Nice perhaps in the summer but I'm missing big California Cabs for sure.

When California wine is on the menu or at a store, it's the wineries that even the least pretentious quaffers raise an eyebrow at. I have literally seen Gallo as the ONLY California offering on several wine lists. At the fancy German market, the only California wines were Fetzer and a very expensive Russian River Chardonnay. (Estimated time before I break down and buy it anyway? I give it a few weeks.)

Stuttgart IS famous for it's wine...

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but the wine clerk was predictably snobby about California wines. He first spoke to us in German, then when he realized we were English speakers, assumed we were British. It this a compliment or an insult? Once we revealed ourselves to be boorish Americans looking for the wine of our homeland, he got a little pissy. "Uoo zee heer in Europe, ve are not caring zo much about ze American vines." No shit, dude, I could tell by the fact that you only included 4 bottles of mediocre California wine out of your selection of hundreds. There is quite a bit more South African and Chilean wines available here than Californian. (Not that S. African and especially Chile don't make some great wines, I'm grateful for that at least!) But really, you'd think that for a wine region that is considered to be at least the 2nd best in the world even internationally wouldn't be so snubbed, particularly considering that nearly every major restaurant and wine bar in the Bay Area features a ridiculous amount of European wine. Wanna return the favor, guys?

Food in Swabia - Shopping

So I may have jumped the gun in believing some of the stereotypes about the German palette (see the previous post about my Bay Area foodie bucket list). Contrary to what I'd heard and assumed, a wide range of products and ingredients that I commonly use for cooking can be found here, albeit not in normal grocery stores. I think the fact is, large metropolises are maybe not that different worldwide - regardless of the local cuisine, any city with an international population (and it is estimated that 1 in 5 Stuttgarters are not German-born) is going to have a diverse range of ingredients available.

My first realization of this took place on our very second day in German, when I visited Stuttgart's famous Markthalle (Market Hall). I wanted to compare it to a more practical version of San Francisco's Ferry Building Market, until I realized that our market was probably largely based on European markets! Stall after stall of high-quality meats, cheeses, produce, and speciality food products from all over the world. I was delighted to recognize familiar ingredients such as high-quality tortillas and habaneros, and excited to try some produce I'd never seen before, not even at the famous Berkeley Bowl. And truffles (the fungus, not the confection) for reasonable-ish prices! Totally a foodie's dream.

A week later I found the German equivalent of "Andronico's" or "Whole Foods" in the city center, where I found even more international products. While I don't regret my last-minute shopping spree at Richmond's Ranch 99 (A Chinese-American supermarket chain that carries a huge selection of products from all over Asia) I was relieved to see high quality Shoyu (soy sauce), Sriracha (a Thai chili sauce), Sambal Oleck, soba noodles, and other condiments and products I utilize on a regular basis.

There is also a large farmers' market in front of the Rathaus (City Hall) three times a week, which carries almost all the basic kinds of produce I'd see at the Grand Lake farmers' market in Oakland (winter veggies, herbs, eggs, chilis, olive oil, honey, wine, citrus and some other fruit) as well as a few new exciting varieties of European winter squashes. I did get the impression that some of the products came from a bit further away than a California farmers' market would have - I saw that some of the produce was from southern France, Italy, and Greece - but then again Californian markets often have produce from all the way across the state, so it's not that huge a difference for a half-hearted, wannabe localvore such as myself.

German grocery stores are relatively easy to navigate, and not dissimilar to American ones except they seem to be smaller than a typical supermarket, and have a much better bread, cheese and meat selection (they apparently take that stuff seriously here). Beer is incredibly cheap - a large bottle of any local brew is usually under 1 Euro, although the catch is you can only get local beer, aside from a couple of nationwide brands like Becks, everything is either from Baden-Wurttenburg or Bavaria. Grocery stores sell underwear and socks.

All shops - literally, everything - are closed on Sunday. This lead to quite an adventure when we realized Sunday morning we were out the cat food we'd packed for our cat. I walked about a mile through the suburb of Moehringen looking for some store that would be open, to no avail. We finally went to the "Shoppette" on base, which had no cat food, but it did have packaged tuna, which apparently has made my cat quite happy.

Up next: Restaurants and wine in Germany - we might have a few annoying American complaints for this section, as I'm badly craving a glass of good California chardonnay and apparently that is NOT going to happen.

Taking The Waters

Anyone who's knows me much knows I'm a fan of water. Swimming pools, baths, hot tubs, rivers, even the chilly California beaches are pretty much my favorite places. So I was thrilled when I read that Baden-Württemberg, our new home state in Germany, is famous for hot springs and the various mineral baths and spas that one finds in such places.

Even the hotel that is our temporary home has a large spa complex, Schwaben-Quellen. Virtually every American who'd told us about the spa mentioned that, "Hey, it's Europe," followed with a warning about the nudity. Indeed, bathing suits are not allowed at the spa except on special "Textile bath" days, also advertised as "American sauna" days. Our country's prudery is well-known.

But we're from Northern California, where wearing a suit in a hot tub can be a faux-pas as well, so we figured, why not? The spa offers special discount rates after 9:00pm, which we figured would be a good introduction.

It's hard to explain what Schwaben-Quellen was like. I've been to a few mineral baths in the U.S., such as Evan's Plunge in South Dakota, but I've never seen quite a shrine to aquatic relaxation as this. It felt very foreign and very confusing, but also very cool.

Apparently we were supposed to get towels from our hotel reception in advance, but we didn't realize this, so we both entered the changing rooms and then started freaking out about the idea of walking around totally naked the whole time. Luckily the slightly exasperated yet polite women working the front desk loaned us very nice towels and waived the typical €5 fee for rental. We were each given a bracelet with an electronic device which gave us entry to the facility, chose a locker for us, and can be used to pay for additional spa services such as massage and skin treatments, and even food and beverages.

The complex can best be described as a sort of grown-up watery theme park. There is a central cool pool done "Caribbean style" with a volleyball net and waterfalls, surrounded by palapa lounges. The other main pool is an "Icelandic geyser pool" which is warmer (although far below the 100 plus degrees Fahrenheit that hot tub aficionados like us are used to), and is partially outside. Swimming in a warm, bubbly pool as snow falls on you is a pretty amazing experience, although running
around barefoot on actual snow to make it to the next sauna room was less so.  Can you say shrinkage?

Surrounding the pools are at least 20 differently themed steam rooms, saunas, relaxation areas, and tanning beds. I found the relaxation areas kind of silly (I am not paying nearly €10 an hour to nap!) but they seemed quite popular with the locals. Everything was themed to a different culture and decorated in a sort of Disney-esque approximation thereof, so we hung out in a "Mayan" steam room and a "Canadian hut" sauna. (This, by the way, is probably some of the last offensive cultural appropriation we've seen so far. Oh, Europe!) There are also special showers located everywhere with water jets in all directions, foot baths, and private rooms for people who pay extra to not have to mingle with the masses.

Overall it was very cool and relaxing, although I wish we'd known a few things in advance, such as that you can (and should) wear slippers, and that even though they don't let you wear clothes in the pools or saunas, many people had bathrobes for walking to and from the different areas. The weirdest part was the restaurant overlooking the main bathing area - you can use your bracelet to get a smoothie, a cocktail, or even dinner - while wearing a towel! Definitely a different experience from an American spa but overall pretty enjoyable, although I have to say that this is one of those times that being extremely nearsighted might be a good thing.

European Products To Love - A Series

A few years ago, a couple we knew invited us to visit the cabin they rent out every August on the Russian River. We're no strangers to cabin trips, but Ivy and Andre always stayed a week or more, and we realized when we arrived that meant they'd done some serious shopping. Let's just say the bar was well stocked. They also had a large box of something we'd never heard of before - Underberg.

It just so happened that we were both having some unpleasant indigestion that day (McDonald's breakfast may have been the culprit) and as a result we had to stay behind for the big river tubing trip. Skeptically, we decided to each try one an Underberg, as it advertised itself as a "digestive herbal tonic that promotes a feeling of well-being."

It doesn't taste good. It's basically herbal booze, packaged in it's trademarked paper-wrapped tiny bottle. Think Fernet, but uh, yuckier. And yet, within just a few minutes, we did feel better. Maybe it was the secret recipe of herbal infusion or maybe it was that we'd basically had a 40 proof shot, but our stomachs felt better and we were revived. Sold!

Unfortunately, Underberg is both hard to locate in the States, and very expensive. German restaurants in the Bay Area usually sell it for around $4 a bottle, and you can buy the large boxes at BevMo, but you're still paying nearly $3 per bottle.

So one of our first missions in Germany was to find a source of Underberg. The MarketHalle in Stuttgart sells individual bottles for 1 Euro! Score! Better yet, our local grocery store stocks Underberg in a variety of sizes, including a decorative tin that we just had to get, for even cheaper. And given the heavy starch and meat-based meals that are mostly unavoidable, Underberg isn't just a cute curiosity - it's a necessity!

Leavin (On A Jet Plane)

So we departed the United States on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 17th, 2011. It had been an intense few weeks leading up to it. We rented a car and travelled to Ventura County to visit Chris' family for Christmas, then drove up to Sacramento on Christmas Day to visit my family. Although the process for Chris' job started in September, we didn't get the actual orders - that is, the confirmation that we were actually going - until December 26th.

From that point, the race was on. We were to immediately contact our local transportation office and schedule movers to pack up all our worldly belongings and ship them across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, that didn't go smoothly, and we weren't able to schedule the movers until the Friday before we left. In the meantime, we realized we had to get married as quickly as possible, so I could be put on the orders and we could go to Germany together. We decided on the 31st that the soonest we could get married was on the 3rd.

Despite the last-minute nature of our wedding, it was pretty awesome. I found a dress I adored that I can totally re-use as a classy cocktail or party dress. A surprisingly large number of family and friends were able to join us for our Monday wedding at the County Clerk-Recorder's office, and we all celebrated over dim sum at Oakland's Legendary Palace afterwards. I'll write more about the wedding and post pictures soon.

From there Chris and I departed for our honeymoon and last trip to the California Coast. We stayed at Timber Cove, which is between Jenner and Gualala in Sonoma County which I will ALSO write more about and post more pictures of when we have the time.

We returned to the bay area on Friday the 6th, and most of our time was taken trying to wrap up loose ends with regards to our move and get our plane tickets. We celebrated Chris' birthday on the 10th, and a few days later we found out we'd be leaving in less than a week. Then it was a whirlwind of packing, cleaning, and trying to figure out all the things you need to do when you're leaving the country for at least three years. Basically in the last 3 weeks we've slept very little and done an amazing amount of stuff. So it was something of a relief to finally get on the plane, even if I hate flying.

Luckily the flight wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Our direct flight from SFO to Frankfurt am Main was 11 hours, but it was also half full, so we got our own row. My cat traveled in the cabin with us, and was very well behaved, even going through security - where I had to remove her from her carrier and walk through the metal detector with her! I wore pajamas on the plane at the recommendation of my mom and some friends and Chris hasn't stopped making fun of me, but at least I was comfy and didn't set of the metal detector like someone else I know.

The weirdest thing was the short night we flew through - since we were heading east, it got dark very quickly even though we departed SFO at 2:00 p.m., and 7 hours later it was getting light again as we were just flying over Britain. Very strange, but exciting. We could see France as the sun rose!!

At Frankfurt we embarked on the runway and got on buses - at which point I realized I'd left my purse, with my passport and Chris' wallet - on the plane. I shoved through everyone, leaving Chris with the cat and 3 bags, to run back on the plane. I got the purse but saw the bus drive away as I was running back down the stairs. Luckily the crew bus went to the same gate, and were able to transfer to our Lufthansa flight without further incident.

The flight from Frankfurt to Stuttgart was very short, only about 25 minutes. The Stuttgart airoprt was small, but confusing, but we finally found our sponsor, the person assigned to help us acclimate and take care of the many, many things we need to do. We arrived at our hotel, and managed to stay awake long enough to have a typical Swabian dinner (more about that later!) and fell asleep around 6:30 p.m. local. We'd been up for 26 hours at that point, not to mention all the sleep we'd lost out on in the preceding weeks, and yet I still woke up in the middle of the night over and over and over. Jet lag!!

More to come soon, hopefully with pictures!