A constant source of humor this weekend was my relatives' utter inability to remember what, exactly, a vegan can and cannot eat. In principle, it should be simple - nothing that comes from animals. But if I had a nickel for every time I was offered an animal product being passed off as vegan (a fish sandwich, sauerkraut with bacon, German meat loaf for goodness sake), well, you get the idea. The entire concept of "vegan" is so foreign to both this culture and to older generations that it ended up being the main source of conversation for us the whole time I was visiting. I guess that it was better than the alternative conversation topic: Michael Jackson. Apparently, the Germans are taking his death pretty hard, too. Give. me. a. break.
Friday we took a boat across the lake to Konstanz and stopped at a café for a late lunch. I had a veggie sandwich on sun-dried tomato bread:
For dinner, we were planning on showing my aunt how to make baked potatoes (a dish she described to us with great difficulty as a "Northern Germany specialty" - when we found out what it was, both my grandma and I had to laugh). We got home so late, though, that we ditched my method (oven) and did it my grandma's way (microwave). They turned out surprisingly well, especially since we also baked two sweet potatoes. I was definitely wishing I could have had a dollop of the cucumber-yogurt sauce on top, though. Sigh.
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