German table manners and etiquette might be like what you know, or they might be very different.

In German this is called Esskultur is the culture of food, dining, and manners.

For most Germans, Esskultur begins when they are in high chairs and their parents teach them to eat when the adults are eating, to wait until the adults are finished to be excused from the table, how to use a napkin, and how to use their eating utensils.

In the US, manners vary widely and the manners you learn depends …

Meet the Milwaukee Pretzel Company!

They make pretzels--German pretzels!

They make them here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

You can have them shipped to you!

These are the best pretzels I've eaten outside of Germany.

When you visit one of their stands here in Milwaukee you'll likely have a chance to eat their Obatzda, which is a delicious, Bavarian cheese specialty made with camembert, butter, a splash of beer, onion, and paprika. And yes, their Obatzda is also the best Obatzda I've had outside…

One of the hardest parts of shopping for authentic German food is actually your location. If you don't live near a city with a German supermarket or your supermarket doesn't carry international products, it can be difficult to shop for them.

Plus there are no surprises when you shop for it all yourself. Why not enjoy a surprise now and then?

What if you could get a box of authentic German products shipped to your door every month and each month it's a surprise? New products, different items, a…

When you grow up in Wisconsin, potato salad is a fairly common salad. But the "German Potato Salad" I had growing up was...not...what I ate in Germany.

I wonder if the recipes that so many of German heritage here in Wisconsin enjoy are from the generations that immigrated to the US?

I ate a lot of Kartoffelsalat in Germany. As in two servings (at least) at any party I went to. Except for one, that one Kartoffelsalat was not good. It was that bad that I remember it 15 years later. As we say her…

Have you ever had a Grillabend (grill evening)? If you haven't, there are two condiments that stand out the most: Soßen und Kräuterbutter. Sauces and herbed butter.

Sauces are fun, like Curryketchup and BBQ sauce.

But Kräuterbutter? Now that speaks to my dairy-consuming, Wisconsin-raised heart.

What is Kräuterbutter?

Kräuterbutter is simply a bunch of butter mixed with several herbs and some salt. It's really easy to make, easy to enjoy, and sehr, sehr lecker on grilled meats and vegetable…

What are they, noodles? Dumplings?

It doesn't matter--it's SPÄTZLE!

I don't believe you've really had German food until you've had homemade Spätzle.

Maybe you've tried dried Spätzle noodles? They're ok. You can find them at ALDI several times a year here.

Spätzle at many Germanic restaurants here is usually pre-made and then reheated in a pan. They're ok but usually they dry out quickly and then they're tough to eat.

The best Spätzle are made at home. They take time, it's effort, and if you…

Diese Woche machen Privatkunden eine besondere Aktivität, anstatt den normalen Unterricht zu haben. Sie backen, kochen oder machen ein deutsches Rezept (oder ein österreichisches oder ein schweizerisches Rezept) und schreiben etwas darüber.

Deutsches Essen zu machen ist auch Deutsch lernen. :)

Und Sie dürfen diese Woche mitmachen!

Diese Woche lesen Sie hier drei Rezepte für typische, deutsche Gerichte und es gibt sogar Rezeptkarten, die Sie herunterladen und ausdrucken können. Alles ist auf D…

and make German a part of your everyday life.

Sometimes it amazes me how quickly people can pick up German words and sentence structure, even though they've never been to Germany and haven't learned German before.

Clients come to a lesson and they have no idea what German bread tastes like, but they can talk about German breakfast: das Brot, die Marmelade, der Kaffee.

It can be a source of frustration, however, to learn German, but only to have all these North American elements around us:  sp…

ALDI is a world-wide discount supermarket store from Germany and they offer a limited amount of offerings for very low prices. Every week they have a different special on special purchase items, so check their weekly ad to find out what the specials are.

From what I've been able to discover, ALDI has German Week four times a year, so once a quarter. One of these times it's Oktoberfest - products imported from Germany to help you celebrate on this side of the big pond.

ALDI has their own brands…

The brothers Albrecht founded the discount chain Aldi in Germany after World War II. Now, four years after his brother Theo, Karl Albrecht has passed away, signaling the end of the first generation at Aldi.

The brand Aldi has grown to become a world-wide chain of discount stores, with their own Aldi-branded products and efficient store layouts, with weekly specials on special purchases--a different theme every week.

One of the things the brothers Albrecht were best known for was their incredib…