Sunday, April 19, 2009

Designer food made in Germany

Even when inhabiting a machine for living, the humble human body needs to eat. To satisfy these overrated physical cravings, the Bauhaus movement suggested experimental dishes such as barley sausages:
Wasche Graupen in Sodawasser, koche sie weich und schrecke sie mit kaltem Wasser ab, sodaß jeder Kern wie Glas glänzt. Das gibt die Grundlage zu vegetarischen Würsten aller Art, mit denen man sich bei Muskelarbeitern einen unsterblichen Namen machen kann. Überall sollten vegetarische Wurstfabriken entstehen.
[Translation: Wash barley in soda water, cook till soft and then rinse with cold water until each pip shines like glass. This may serve as the basis of all kinds of vegetarian sausages and will immortalise you with physical labourers. Really, vegetarian sausage plants should emerge everywhere.]

I also like the recipes for "Nerven-Brot" and "Knoblauch Kaltschale."

On that note, here's a rather different bit of German experimental cuisine that would seem to support this philosophical frugality (and its utopian message): a food-related snippet from the popular documentary series "Die Ludolfs" (background information in German/English) - a charming scrapyard-owning band of brothers who, thanks to their philosophical outlook on things and loving relationship to the bits of gutted cars that they hoard in their labyrinthine Valhalla of spare parts, have wormed their way into the hearts of numerous fans.

Wanna watch more, click here.

Here's Peter, one of the bros, cooking pasta:



You might also like his scientific contemplations of the comparative virtues of canned (or frozen) vegetables over fresh. They "trap" the vitamins in the juice, you know!

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