Product review: Backwerk Vegan Sandwich

It's Germany.

If you're a vegan and you need food from a chain store that's not a grocery store, what are you going to eat?

That's a question I asked myself last month, as I reverted to be vegan for a new year's reboot. It's hard enough to find vegan food in the US; once I was reduced to ordering a bowl of oatmeal and some French fries from a diner. In Germany, it's even harder because this is the land of meat n' potatoes or salads drenched in yogurt dressing.

Backwerk, a chain of bakeries, offered a pleasant surprise with their new vegan menu. One can choose among wraps, bagels, and sandwiches filled vegetables, falafel, avacados, and/or tofu. Vegan yogurt topped with fruit is also available.

I bought the "Frische Schnitte Vollkorn Vegan" sandwich, which was on whole-grain bread with a vegan spread which seemed somewhere between a butter and a fake cream cheese, with tomatoes, rocket lettuce, and cucumbers inside. I enjoyed the nutty, thick bread and found it quite filling, though not calorie dense - a win! I think it could have used some more vegetables inside but it hit the spot and cost less than 3 euros. For vegans who need something on the go, Backwerk's offerings can help one avoid a sad and unhealthful lunch of pommes frites.

Shopping at the German Grocery Store

I stopped by Globus and ended up buying groceries. I thought I'd share what the trip to a German grocery store looks like for me.

 Globus is a chain mega grocery/everything else store. It's similar to a Super Walmart but somehow less creepy (maybe because it's German and there's a 19th [?] century likeness of the founder on the wall?). One can buy pillows, automotive supplies, health and beauty items, groceries, and a ton more.

I have been a thrifty person but one way that I am totally un-thrifty is that I never have set plans for what I'll buy for groceries and I don't plan meals. I wander around and pick out what looks good. I do have certain staples that I keep on hand so I can make things from scratch but for the rest of the groceries are chosen on the fly.

Below is about 20 euros' worth of groceries. It's somewhat representative of what I buy on a normal basis, even though I usually just pick what looks good at the time.

 

• 6 pack of sparkling water (usually I only buy 2 at a time but felt like being crazy)
• Head of lettuce
• 6 Granny Smith apples
• 3 red bell peppers (btw, these are almost always cheaper to buy on the economy vs. getting at the commissary!)
• Large package of pasta
• Pasta sauce (a staple I like to keep on hand, both for pasta and to use as pizza sauce)
• 2 containers of soy yogurt
• 1 package of snack cheese with dipping sauce (this was dinner)
• 1 package of cheese
• Vegetarian faux chicken schnitzel (this was an impulse buy and not something I'd get regularly)

This is the vegetarian faux schnitzel that I bought. I've never had real schnitzel before because I tend to avoid meat. The vegetarian version by Garden Gourmet was about 2,29 euros for 180 grams. I microwaved it. I thought it was decent enough for fake chicken schnitzel (not that I have eaten the real thing to make a comparison), but wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again. The patty doesn't have the juiciness that even other vegetarian meat substitutes have.

I've bought this tasty little snack a few times, a cheese container with a mustard-based dipping sauce (with grape flavoring - tasty and not Kool-Aid like), made by Grünländer. There's even a toothpick so one can eat from the package on the go!

And, to counter the real dairy products, I bought a soy substitute, Alpro soy yogurt. This particular container is strawberry with rhubarb. I have also had the blueberry and cherry versions from this company. They are all delicious!

So, there is a shopping trip that is somewhat representative for me at the German grocery store.

Dampfnudeln: German steamed buns

One way to get a German person or an expat with lots of fondness for Germany to sigh happily about inexpensive desserts is to mention Dampfnudeln. These are rolls/buns that are steamed in a pot and are commonly eaten in southern Germany and the Alsace region of France. The bottoms of them are cooked in a salty brine that creates a crispy crust while the top of the bun is very soft. They can be served as a main dish with savory sides, such as vegetables, or they can be served as a dessert with a vanilla sauce or jam.

They are definitely available at Christmas markets and can be seen at other places, such as food carts and sometimes at bakeries attached to grocery stores. People are quite fond of them.

I am not one of those people. I finally gave one a try at a Christmas market in December. It's a strange beast, this dampfnudel. Think of an undercooked roll that's incredibly doughy but with a very salty bottom that's crispy. The whole thing doesn't taste like much, other than flour and salt. The vanilla custard sauce that came with it didn't taste like much, either. Sorry, Mr. Dampfnudel. You just didn't do it for me.

Dampfnudel on left, uninspired vanilla sauce on the right.

Product review: Pillsbury Funfetti Glazed Chocolate Lil Donut kit

The mix, and the doughnuts, ready to bake. They don't look appetizing!

 
I picked up an interesting baked good mix at the commissary: Pillsbury Funfetti Glazed Chocolate Lil Donut kit.

German bakeries don't serve doughnuts and there isn't a wide variety of premade doughnuts at the commissary, so I thought I'd give the mix a try. All that one adds is margarine and water to the dough and milk to the glaze.

I ended up baking them longer than was called for because they seemed too mushy at the recommended time. They were really flattened on the bottom. After they cooled off, I coated them in the glaze and then added the sprinkles. I found that it's necessary to put the sprinkles on right after the glaze (no pausing) or they won't stick well.

I am not really enamored with these. They are okay, I guess, if one is desperate for a chocolate doughnut hole. However, they are sickeningly sweet. I have been cooking from scratch more often so I forget just how insanely sugary American mixes are. Plus, they taste sooo fake. Duh, what else could I have been expecting from such a mix, I know.

So, I'd give them a C+.

OKAY, edit is necessary: they don't taste that good when they're freshly baked/several hours after being done, but the next day they're much, much better.

I revise my grade to a B+ on them (they're still super sweet).

Product Review: Use-It (travel) Guides

I had found a really cool tourist guide for the city from Use-It Guides: www.use-it.travel/home  They are non-commercial guides written by locals. We also found one for Leuven and one for Mechelen and were totally pleased with both of them! We learned about sights off the beaten path and some offbeat things as well about both cities. I don't think I've ever been this pleased with a city guide before, and I couldn't beat the price: it was free to print off the internet. And no, I don't get any compensation for saying how happy I was with the guide; I just like to share when I find a great information source  ;) 

The only problem I have with the guides is that they don't give the exact address of the sight; a map is included, but we really could have used the street address when we were looking all over for a museum in Leuven. A couple of the restaurants we tried to visit were closed, but the weekend that we used the older edition of the map, apparently a newer edition came out. As with any guide books/maps, if you're really set on seeing something or eating somewhere in particular, it's never a bad idea to do your own checking ahead of time. We were still really happy with the experience, though. 

In fact, I'm considering making a trip to some of the cities they feature that I wouldn't have visited otherwise, just because the Use-It guides make it the visit so interesting.

How I communicate with the Motherland, or, how I keep in touch with America

I'm not the best person to catch on the phone. Where I lived before in the US, my cell phone's reception was horrible (darn Sprint! I need to write a rant about that company later; I don't recommend them, for many reasons). Anyway. It was rather difficult to actually have me pick up when the call came in since my phone usually wouldn't even ring or the call would drop as soon as I picked up, anyway.

Also, I was super busy with work (two jobs), volunteering, taking German lessons, and having fun with friends. I'm the kind of person who, if I'm doing something (especially with friends), I won't be rude and take a phone call for an extended time and ignore the people I'm with. I'm more of a excuse-me-while-I-answer-this, then I tell the person that I'm out and about and can I call back later. Or, most of the time, I just let the call go to voicemail. That's what it's for, right?

As a result of this, I'm not known for being very reachable by phone. Want to talk to me? Email or text. That's the way to go. Or, even better yet, let's just hang out in person and catch up, which is so much better!

It is still nice to have a voice conversation once in a while, though, especially now that I live so far from home. I had to find a way to do this. I only have my cell phone (no landline), so this is how I maintain contact with the Motherland (and most often, my Mother).

I use Skype, which is really nice because it's free. We both set up accounts and can talk for hours through our computers and the internet connection. We usually just do voice calls because sometimes Skype hiccups with video calls if the connection gets bogged down. Heck, Skype is so useful that I even interviewed for my current job with it!

The one problem I have is trying to reach people on Skype without an "appointment." My family doesn't stay logged into Skype or sometimes our schedules don't sync up because of the time difference. I need to have a way to actually call people to tell them to go onto Skype. It would be insanely expensive to call the US on my cell phone (I have a pay as you go plan so while it's cheap for limited usage, it would be expensive for anything beyond that). I plan to buy some calling credit on Skype where I can use Skype through the data plan on my phone or use wireless internet to call landlines in the US. This is where Skype would cost money, but it's still really reasonably priced.

Another calling service is Viber, which I've heard good things about but haven't used yet. It's similar to Skype.

A coworker set up a VoIP phone at home through Vonage, a powerhouse of VoIP. She had a US number so people could call her and she could call them in the US for standard US rates. Since I'm pretty much never home, that solution doesn't work well for me, but it did for her.

I also downloaded an app called Whatsapp. It allows me to text anyone in the world who also has Whatsapp. It works more like an IM service, I guess, but your "user name" would be your phone number. It's free for the first year then 99 cents for the next. It works really well and it's even what I use to text my friends locally since paying for regular texts is so expensive. It just uses the data plan on your phone, but it really doesn't use much data. We can send pictures and even create group texts.

As a result of all of these great free (or low-cost) services, I've used for my phone very little for what it's actually intended for: to make phone calls. Instead, it's more like a mini computer that I use to make VoIP calls and email or text friends.

I'm totally okay with that. 

Product Review: TSA Fast Pass Leash and Harness

For the move to Germany, I wanted to cross through security screening at the airport with Moo the Cat as smoothly as possible. It is a requirement for the animal to be leashed while the owner walks with or carries him through the security gate (and no, it's not allowed to run the cat through the x-ray machine). At the time I went through this, it was also an option to be screened in a separate room with the pet if the owner doesn't want to carry him through the security gate.

I decided to go through the gate, but doing so presented another problem: if Moo was wearing a traditional cat harness when I carried him through security, the metal on the harness would set off the alarm. I looked at three large chain pet stores and didn't find a harness without metal. Some of them had just one metal loop to attach the leash, but I didn't want to mess with trying to cut it off.

I did some searching online and found the TSA Fast Pass Leash and Harness. It is designed for dogs and cats and has no metal so it won't set off security in the airport. I watched some goofy videos about the product on the website, read how to size the harness correctly, and measured Moo several times with the help of my friend to make sure that I chose the correct size for him (plus he wasn't super cooperative; he kept trying to flop over dead because we were "torturing" him).

Re-enactment of Moo playing dead when we tried to measure him for the harness.

Dry Fur is the company that sells the harness as well as other accessories for pet airline travel, like cage liners, replacement hardware for travel cages so they can meet airline standards, etc. I decided to order the In Cabin Pet Airline Travel Kit, which includes the harness, leash, two collapsible bowls, a metal-free carrier tag and pet ID tag, as well as some food pouches. The whole set was $24.95; just the harness and leash would have been $19.99 so I thought I may as well get some other items with it too. I was especially interested in the collapsible bowls since I wouldn't have room in my luggage for traditional bowls.

Here's a review of the set:

TSA Fast Pass Leash and Harness
www.dryfur.tv

Shipping time: I received it very quickly, even though I didn't choose expedited shipping. I think it took about 2 days to receive it.

Pros: being able to get through security without setting of the alarm; thicker panels on the harness to distribute pressure. I really like the collapsible bowls that came with the kits.

Cons: Even though I measured and remeasured Moo and ordered a harness per the manufacturer's size guide, when I tested the harness at home he was able to slip out of it. I had to tighten the harness quite a bit so he couldn't slip out. I think a lot of his problem is that he's really pear-shaped. His chest is narrow but he gets wider past his shoulders, right where the harness sits. The harness gaps a bit in the front. Also, since the harness is sold for both dogs and cats, it isn't made to fit either one's shapes perfectly.

Verdict: I'm glad that I had it for moving Moo through security with ease. I don't know if I would trust the harness to take the cat outside of controlled environments though, since I have concerns about him slipping out.

Look how cute their TSA logo is; he looks like a SuperMoo!

Upper side of the harness (this part goes behind his shoulders).

TSA Fast Pass Harness and leash. Sorry, Moo, for making you wear what looks like a sports bra.

Note: these are my unbiased opinions on these products. I receive no compensation, merchandise, etc. from the company for the review.