Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Hallo Döner Fans! It's nice to meet you...


Nice to meet you Döner fans!

Hi everyone!  It’s nice to ‘meat’ you  today !  My name is Jessica and I am a new fan/friend/family member of the Döner Bistro in DC!  I am a woman of many identities, Californian, lifetime student, world traveler, consumer of all things culture, and, most relevantly – a diehard Döner aficionado.
Frau Merkel slices up one of Germany's favorite foods (Today's Zaman)

I was born and raised on the coast of California, the land of ever ripe avocados and burrito’s the size of small children.  My family adopted our German half into our crazy brood with the marriage of my aunt Linda to one Herr Michael Sossenheimer.  Growing up I would play German games with my cousins, eat German food with the family and laugh about the time my grandpa got drunk at a wedding and tried to pronounce “Ich Liebe Dich” in front of the German half of the family.  My first trip to Germany was when I was 14, on a ‘camping’ tour from Frankfurt to Switzerland.  

It was a few years later however when I had my first sweet bits of Döner in between hiking in Schwarzwald, my fist discotheque, spaghetti-eis and total culture shock.  After a day strolling the streets of Stuttgart my German sister Verena took me to a Döner shop in an ally way.  Although not 100% convinced of the legality of said shop, I am never one to shrink from adventure.  One bite and I never looked back.  Succulent lamb, deep aromatic spices, cooling yogurt  and cucumber, spicy pickled vegetables…. to say the least I was hooked.
Ahh Berlin, the sweet smell of summer, bier and Döner (Jessica Bell)

Fast forward to my mid twenties (where I still reside) and you will find me in a sweaty Döner shop in Schöneberg underneath my Berlin apartment chowing down on my still favorite hand food – the juicy, complicated, epic Döner.  I find the Döner to be a beautiful representation of the European spirit of multiculturalism, a tribute to years of immigration, emigration and re-conceptualization of identity.  What are the favorite foods in Germany? Döner, kebab, curry wurst  and Bier (some things will never change).  As a student of politics, culture and identity, this intersection between traditional practices, changing demographics and newly created though processes is like the way that spiced meat, yogurt and fluffy pita go together – perfectly.
Follow me on the Döner bistro blog, facebook and twitter as I delve into the delicious realm of food, culture and newly formed identity  all wrapped up in soft buttery bread and served with and ice cold  Weihenstephan Pils while we dream of Berlin in the spring!

Prost - Jess
It's so good...


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