00:01Dear Karambolage editorial team,
00:03I recently discovered a German peculiarity,
00:07which I would like to tell your French viewers about.
00:11I'm on a student exchange in Frankfurt.
00:14On the first evening, the girl I'm staying with calls me to dinner.
00:19At 6 p.m., a bit early for a Frenchwoman.
00:22On the table: bread, sausage and cheese.
00:26That's definitely the appetizer, I think.
00:28But no, there's nothing more.
00:30Well, my hosts probably didn't have time to cook.
00:34Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
00:35The next day, the same thing happened: sandwiches.
00:39Now I understand why dinner in Germany is called Abendbrot.
00:44German bread is cold in the evening.
00:48Thanks to my host family, I now know practically everything about this evening ritual.
00:52The traditional evening meal, served between 5 and 7 pm,
00:59One eats slices of bread, ideally 8 mm thick, butter, cold cuts and cheese.
01:06It's a bit more exciting than it sounds.
01:09Germans have an incredibly wide variety of breads.
01:12Grey bread made from rye and wheat flour, normal white bread, then this pumpernickel made from almost black rye meal and 297 other varieties, which I will not all list here.
01:26There is also a lot of variety when it comes to sausages.
01:30Jagdwurst, Leberwurst, Bierwurst, Gelbwurst, Schinken, Salami and so on.
01:36Unfortunately, the cheese selection is less exotic.
01:40Gouda, Tilsita and a somewhat bland, so-called butter cheese.
01:45And now it's time to get to work.
01:47Some garnish their bread with pickles, radishes, cucumber, or a hard-boiled egg.
01:53Northern Germans enjoy eating their pickled Bismarck herring or smoked kipper, and in the south, they sometimes have sausage salad in the evening.
02:05The custom of eating cold food in the evening dates back to the 1920s.
02:10In contrast to rural France, industrial centers developed quite early in Germany.
02:16Canteens will soon be introduced in the factories and companies there.
02:20Because the workers eat a hot meal at midday, they don't necessarily need a second hot meal in the evening.
02:28Especially since their work has become somewhat less strenuous thanks to technological progress.
02:34So, in the evening, you just make it easy for yourself.
02:36A few slices of bread and that's it.
02:39Incidentally, instead of plates, Germans use small boards made of plastic or wood.
02:45They are completely flat and therefore ideal for topping bread slices.
02:50The funny thing is, I had already won one of these little boards in the carambolage puzzle once, without really knowing what it was for.
02:59Sincerely, Chloé Ribota.
03:15See you next time.
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