Aldi has a special "US" section going on right now, featuring products from Trader Joe's (not the dried fruit and nuts from Trader Joe's that Aldi carries all year round) emblazoned with an American flag and that are, as usual when discussing the "American" section in a German grocery store, a sort of hilarious take on how Germans see the American diet.
Hot dog buns, charcoal and pickle slices actually make sense. It's summer, after all, even if our Berlin July was much too rainy for grilling outdoors. Then there's cranberry sauce in a jar, which I thought about buying and saving for Thanksgiving, just for the kitsch factor, and fruit syrups for pancakes in maple syrup bottles, which just made me sad. Who the heck is putting that crap on pancakes?
I snagged the pickles, because German pickles continue to annoy me with their sweetness and lack of vim and vinegar, and also because I have been having a crazy hankering for cheeseburgers lately that is not going to let up until I just go ahead and eat one already, and since sandwich pickles, to me, are intimately linked with burgers, buying the pickles was almost like buying a cheeseburger.
(Let's not try to understand my thought process today, shall we? I'm missing my appendix.)
Ach, das hab ich wohl verpasst. War doch grad letzte Woche noch bei Aldi. Haben tuetenweise Haribo Colorado Mischung gekauft. Die gibt es naemlich in den USA nicht. Ich finde jedoch nicht, dass die deutschen eingelegten Gurken nun so viel anders schmecken. Ich bin aber auch nicht so der pickled Gurken fan.
Posted by: My Kitchen in the Rockies | August 1, 2011 at 10:32 PM
Ich bin aber ein Pickle-Freak. The more vinegar, the better. :) Deutsche Gurken im Glas sind eben nicht so sauer, wie ich sie gern hätte.
Posted by: Luisa | August 2, 2011 at 06:54 AM
Funny. We should make burgers inside. You know. Buy some nice beef, cut it up, make it tasty.
I've never been to an Aldi, but may make the trip for those sliced pickles.
Posted by: Suzy | August 4, 2011 at 03:25 PM
Suzy - Girl. Yes.
Posted by: Luisa | August 4, 2011 at 04:16 PM
I've never been to an Aldi either. I took a dislike when my mother decided to buy an Aldi computer instead of the gorgeous Mac I was cheering for and ended up with a clucky, black hulking un-user friendly PC that she needed to send to another country to get fixed when it broke after a month. But I'm sure that much can't go wrong with a pickle.
Posted by: Angela | August 6, 2011 at 04:35 AM
Too funny. We were in mourning here stateside when Trader Joe's discontinued the wonderful "Spree Gurken".
Grass is always greener and all that...
Posted by: T.C. | August 12, 2011 at 02:48 AM
Little fun fact - did you know Aldi OWNS Trader Joe's? Or the Albrecht family, Aldi owners bought Trader Joe's back before it blew up. Hence, the products. Great article on the inside world of Trader Joes here http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/20/news/companies/inside_trader_joes_full_version.fortune/.
Posted by: jif | August 18, 2011 at 08:12 AM
Jif - yep, I did know that. Such a mysterious family!
Posted by: Luisa | August 18, 2011 at 08:16 AM