American food in other countries: Dresden, Germany

As we were shopping in Dresden, we came across Beyond the Pond, a cute little store that sells imported British and American foods. On the American end, there was plenty of our TexMex style foods. Of course, as imports, they were significantly more expensive than they are in the US.

2,30 euros; in the US the Old El Paso taco seasoning is about 89 cents.

3,65 euro tostada shells. I'm guessing they'd be about $3 or less in the US.

Eep! Pop-tarts for almost 5 euros.

The British portion includes things like Walker's crisps, British bacon, etc.There are books, craft beers, and wine too.

Dresden Christmas Market deliciousness: quarkbällchen

Since the end of November/beginning of December, Germany has been a Christmas wonderland. I'm not referring to snow as we really haven't received much of that yet (and I totally okay with that). The cause of the wonder is that the Christmas markets have been in full swing.

There are many traditional crafts to buy and delicious snacks to eat. In Dresden, I found something fabulous: quarkbällchen (little quark balls). They are soft and fluffy doughnut holes that have quark (pure deliciousness, a type of cheese used in similar ways for cooking in which cream cheese and ricotta cheese are used) in the middle. It's not so much that the quark is a filling; it is more like part of the batter. Either way, it's completely delicious. I ate one, since I usually don't eat fried food. However, I could see a person wanting to eat way more than that!

Thus far, I have only seen these at the Dresden Christmas market. I haven't seen any in the markets I've visited in the western part of Germany. I recommend trying some if they're available.

This guy is really happy about serving Grandma's quarkbällchen!

Willie der Weinachts-Stollen

Hoo-ee, am I ever behind on blogging! Yep, that's story of this blog's life.

Anyway, two weeks ago, a friend and I traveled to Dresden to visit the Christmas markets there. We saw advertisements for Willie der Weinachts-Stollen (Willie the Christmas Stollen [sweetbread/cakey thing]). I thought he looks more like a potato, but was amused nonetheless.

Apparently Willie is the star of Comedy Dresden's play about a Christmas stollen who was forgotten and had to make his adventurous way to the Strietzelmarkt (at least that's what Google Translate and my own basic German skills led me to believe what the website's description said).

Saw this guy in Dresden

Cute cute cute!

He was on a humongous advent calendar on the side of a Weinachtstmarkt hut.