Thursday, August 1, 2013

You've been eating marshmallows again, haven't you?

Friends and I were talking about the interesting view of what is "American" food in Germany. Then my friend mentioned that he overheard some Germans talking about a German friend who had been in the US for several weeks and had gained 15 pounds.

They thought it was because of all the marshmallows there.

?? We had a chuckle over that one. I wondered if they thought that Americans eat a lot of marshmallows, or if their friend just really liked marshmallows and ate a lot while he was there.

I haven't really seen anyone eat just plain marshmallows in the US; usually they're in something (s'mores, the benign rice crispie treats, or that creepy sweet potato dish).

I have, however, seen Germans buying marshmallow treats here. There are these things called "Super Dickmann's," which are chocolate-covered marshmallows, and people ahead of me at the supermarket have bought them. The name might sound strange to an English speaker but it makes sense if one knows German. The word "dick" in German means fat or thick, and "man" means, well, man. So they're Super Fatman.  Fatmen? but then it would be Super Dickmänner; I need to give up making it sound good in English, I guess.

Regardless, they gross me out a bit since I'm not one for eating marshmallows that haven't had anything done to them and covering them in chocolate doesn't count in my book. (I find the Dickmann's website even more creepy because the caricatures of their chocolate covered marshmallows do not look like food. I'm just sayin'...)

2 comments:

  1. Actually a colleague of mine brought Dickmann's for his birthday and insisted that they are traditionally eaten squished in a brötchen. So you get sandwich with creamy stuff, chocolate bits and nothing else. I find this a little weird, but to me so is spreading Nutella on a slice of bread.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm, we have what is called marshmallow fluff, which I've seen at stores here. I've heard that people use it in sandwiches. Doesn't sound good to me!

    ReplyDelete