Story 7: Experience Gluttony

You know when your leg falls asleep or when your fingers all of the sudden turn numb? Today, my shoulder blade fell asleep. It was only for a split second, when I was biting into the latest version of fried carbs with fat. I was in the middle of spreading butter and melty beer cheese on top of pan-fried, dense Eastern European bread, when I felt the-ants-crawling sensation on my right shoulder blade. The logical part of my brain thought it could have something to do with any of the following: fat, fried, butter, carbs, oil, cheese, meat, potatoes, gravy, servings of 36-hour insomnia, etc., etc., etc. My brain told me to slow down, urged me to stop eating. The emotional part of the rest of me thought: This never happens. It's a sign that I must be eating all the right things. My heart told me to enjoy. You can probably guess what happened next.








Of course I'm going to enjoy. I almost left Germany without any strudel, and honestly, this filled me with panic. There is so much delicious food to enjoy and only three meals a day to enjoy it. What if I don't get to eat everything? It's kind of like when I wake up in the middle of the night sweating, thinking, "But I've never been to the Congo. What if I never get to go now?"
Samantha and I have a plan: Create little meals. It's kind of like snacking, but I don't like the word "snacking." It reminds me of orange-powdered leftover processed corn. This is more of a stop-at-a-pub, eat-beer-cheese-for-an-appetizer, walk-it-off-before-dinner kind of meal.

So, we stopped for beer cheese at a pub before dinner. Except this wasn't cheese, per say. It was a spread posing as something with an identity crisis betwixt and between the desire to be cheese and the reality of being butter. I couldn't taste the flavor of the beer--the primary ingredient. I just know it was especially delicious with the brewery's signature ale. Well, it was the brewery's only ale. (Samantha compares this place to McSorley's in New York.)
Two beers, beer cheese on fried bread and a 20-minute walk later, it was dinner time.