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US residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data.
Who knew??
I do miss having 30 kinds of peanut butters to choose from. π
Keep in mind that Germany keeps salmonella at bay by vaccinating its egg-laying hens. In the U.S., hens skip the vaccination step and have their eggs washed instead. Same result, different strategy.
And yes, the fact that Germany doesn't wash or refrigerate eggs means you might find a feather or two in your egg carton. NBD!
I repeat: Germany produces more cheese than France, the better known cheese-loving European country!! At most grocery stores, you'll find refrigerated aisles packed with tons of stinky, holey, and hard varieties. Next to the butcher, you'll often find another stand where you can get fancier cheeses sliced to order.
With the crazy number of sliced meat varieties, you'd think that excessively stacked sandwiches were a huge thing. But a simple butter-bread roll β topped with your cold cut of choice β is usually the move here.
Options are great, but carrying these heavy, impractically sized jars home truly requires a dedication to the stuff.
Protein muesli, muesli with seeds, chocolate muesli, fruit muesli, they've got it all. And yeah, I'll admit it, I've never been more regular in my life. π
When I think about all the "chocolate" I used to eat back in the U.S., I mourn for all the hours I spent trying to melt chocolate squares in my mouth. How could I have known that it's impossible to savor chocolate when it's usually just a few ingredients away from being a block of sugar? When I bite into a bar of chocolate here, it instantly melts onto my tongue, flooding my mouth with rich, creamy flavor. There's no comparison!
I'll be honest, despite the dozens of affordable chocolate varieties, I mostly stick with the tried-and-true Ritter and Kinder brands. Americans might know Kinder as the chocolate eggs containing kitschy little toys, but have you heard the good word about Schoko-Bons or Happy Hippos?!
Germans enjoy some of the lowest-cost groceries in western Europe, thanks to a prevalence of discount grocers like Netto, and lots of domestic agricultural products. (Once you live here long enough, though, you realize the cost of cheap groceries is offset by higher taxes on everything from retail purchases to income tax.)
I couldn't get a video of this because packing your groceries into your bag requires extreme focus and emotional resilience. But the thing to know is that German cashiers have the magical ability to scan like, 10 goods in a single second, and if you don't keep up with their pace, you risk experiencing extreme side eye, holding up the line, and general shame.
My proudest moment in the last year of living in Germany was March 23, 2020 at 6:34pm, when I packed all my goods in my bag BEFORE the cashier announced my total. *bows*