Day 19

[feuervogel]

I got another annotation contract gig today, on top of the one I was already doing, so I'm splitting my time between them. They use very different parts of my brain, and the new one is easier, but more tedious. I can manage about an hour at a time on each type before nothing looks like language or grammar anymore, at which point I'm useless, so I take a break.

I went for another walk in the park today. There were fewer people, unsurprisingly for a Monday afternoon. I also went to Lidl for the first time. It's another German discount grocery store, so it's basically like Aldi: limited selection of brands, lots of house brand stuff, off-brand German chocolates. One thing Lidl has that Aldi doesn't, however, is fresh German bread. I heard about this bakery from a student, and I decided I'd check it out.

It was pretty amazing. I went for bread, and I returned with FOUR KINDS of bread: cheese rolls, pretzel rolls, Bauernbrot (yes, *real* Bauernbrot, I had some for dinner and it was wonderful), and bagels. Being me, I also left with chocolate, hummus, pasta sauce, sweet potato chips, and blackberries.

The one thing I had hoped for finding but didn't were Amerikaner, which are the German take on black and white cookies. (I've had American-made B&Ws, and I didn't like them as much. The glaze was different? And maybe the dough was too dry? I was expecting cakier.)

Lidl also seemed to have some rebranded Trader Joe's products, that or convergent evolution. Not that I'm complaining! Lidl is <10 minutes' drive; TJ's is at least 30.

Comments

[catherineldf]

Sounds pleasant!

[ckd]

Also possible: they both have house brand packages of the same regular brand item. I suspect this is also the most likely explanation.

I once had the easiest possible time figuring out the underlying vendor for a TJ's product line; when Stonyfield Farms changed from plastic lids to foil covers, TJ's also changed their yogurt packaging in the same way. Hmmmmm.

[feuervogel]

Some of the house brand stuff I haven't seen in other places (though I haven't looked very hard, I admit), like the harvest pasta sauce. I'm sure they get it from the same source, rather than Lidl getting it from TJ's, but I think the idea of convergent evolution is funnier XD

[ckd]

Indeed it is, especially when an "everything evolves into crabs" paper has been all over my friends' social media feeds lately.

[ruthling]

i was pleasantly surprised at how good the bread was when we visited Berlin. Now I want some.

[feuervogel]

omg German breaaaad, I love it so much. I know people associate Germany with beer and sausage, but German bread culture is WILD. Different regions have different common breads, and they all call rolls something different (and the northern and southern varieties are actually slightly different, it's not just the name). No matter where they're from, though, Germans complain about the bread when they go to another country. It's too soft. Too squishy.

And apparently it was added to UNESCO's list of intangible world heritage items?? wild.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/germany-best-bread/index.html