Sweet Teeth

I buzzed through the Christkindlmarket downtown tonight after work since the arctic wind had, for a time, abated and given us a toasty 20 degree evening. This was just a sussing out trip since a future date with J to go and drink mulled wine out of a ceramic boot is in the works for later in the week. I went past the food stalls preparing to be tempted, and perhaps on another day some sauerkraut and potato pancakes will grab me (but by the looks of it I'll still prefer my own). One vendor remarking on my huge bag declared it perfect for carrying lots of bratwurst. I felt silly telling him he had the wrong frau, because how silly is it for a vegetarian to be loitering around a bunch of schnitzel anyway? Well, besides the heated structure that was erected to house a German candy store full of cookies and chocolate pleasures, and a compelling waffle/crepe tent and more stollen than you could shake a stick at, nothing edible was catching my fancy on this evening. Well one thing did. I ended up talking to a fellow peddling organic pumpkin seeds and soy nuts. Eh, what's so special about some nuts, I thought. They're organic, OK. They're organic and from Austria, that's better. I waxed a little EU-envy his way for a moment over their common-sense ban of GMOs. Yes, of course-- he looked horrified at my very mention of it. I asked him how the standards for organic were defined in Austria, but instead a number of sample cups of nuts were being cordially extended to me. And once I got nibbling on the chocolate-covered section of the nut repetoire, I was hooked. Having just consumed a 55 gram bag of chocolate covered roasted soybean snack mix I can roundly pronounce them sehr lekker! I hope these little babes get some distribution in the US soon so my sugar yen can at least keep me flush in isoflavones. The market's up until Dec. 24. I'll be going back for more.

Something else that's preventing me from eating all of the holiday cookies people are bringing in to work-- and soon to follow, vendor gift baskets-- are Larabars. There's an umlaut in there somewhere too. So far Pecan Pie and Cashew Cookie were perfect 10s, Ginger Snap however was a bit grody.