Brotzeit

Normally when I come home, I like to make myself a hot meal. Sometimes they can be quite elaborate to the extent that Fabi sometimes comments that he doesn't understand how I can spend the entire day at work and then be bothered cooking myself something from scratch. Him, he doesn't do that so much. People who visit me and eat (hearty) Bavarian food often comment on how they don't understand how the local population isn't even larger. The short answer is that (from experience), they usually eat at least one cold meal a day - brotzeit.

Brotzeit (literally, bread time) usually consists of, you guessed it, bread with different types of cold cuts of meat, sausage, cheese, pickled vegetables, and spreads. Germany makes a huge variety of really delicious full-grain breads - as Riz said when she visited and observed the breads we had at brunch, "No bowel problems in this country!" I actually quite enjoy the individual things you can have at brotzeit but getting them and eating them within a few days is quite annoying. Also, not speaking the language particularly well made going to the deli somewhat scary.

But now that I'm a bit more confident in my language skills, work is kicking my ass, and I felt like upping my vegetable intake for winter, I've started to have brotzeit more! So here's an example of what I've been eating!

Top plate (clockwise) - carrots, olives stuffed with almonds, celery, pickled herring in dill sauce, goats cheese. 

Bottom plate - blutwurst (yes, blood sausage), a pumpkin seed roll, and a deli meat that has pistachios in it (the name escapes me right now).