"german" news and stories

A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

Kentucky might be better known for its whiskey distilleries than its beer prowess, but like most cities with more than a million people in its metropolitan area, Louisville has seen growth in its specialty and craft-beer market over the past few years due to the average American's increased awareness of the variety of beer available.

Louisville's beer scene is "getting better," says James Donald Gunnoe, co-owner of one of the reasons that scene has gotten better: the small beer outpost known as The Nachbar. "There are about five microbreweries in town and I think there's room for more."

About two and a half years ago, Gunnoe and his wife, Heather Burks, opened Nachbar with the intention of creating a "place we'd want to go to ourselves." Working from faith in their own tastes and desires, they focused on stocking the beers they drank and loved, attempting to offer the beer at prices they knew people could afford. Gunnoe puts it best when he states, "We cater to ourselves, and from there we're just really fortunate that people appreciate what we like."

Read more about Nachbar and see this past weekend's draft list after the jump...

These days the European Union is being looked at as an inept "taste police" by many chefs and food enthusiasts. While working in the cheese industry, I spoke with many French cheese makers who felt threatened by the strict laws regarding cheese aging facilities and feared anti-raw milk legislation. This week, bakers in Germany were angered by a proposed regulation on the salt content in their products.

An article from the New York Times states that Androulla Vassiliou, the European commissioner for health, decided on Wednesday to postpone making a decision on new regulations due to the intense reaction from the German bakers, represented by a federal association and by regional lobbies. Commission spokeswoman, Nina Papadoulaki, defends the EU by claiming, "Our aim is to provide consumers with better information so that they can make informed choices. The commission has no intentions of prohibiting any bread. We have decided to continue our talks with the stakeholders."

It seems that one of the major issues that's not being addressed by the EU, thus far, is the preservation of cultural traditions in the various EU countries. Culinary cultures that date back hundreds of years are at stake. The negligence on their part to fight to maintain cultural diversity within the EU is astonishing when related to food concerns. Perhaps, there needs to be another organization to express these issues to the EU. What do you think?

Perhaps with an eye towards ballpark munchies and the upcoming grilling season, someone asked Yahoo! how hot dogs got their name. They directed the questioner over to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council which has come up with a (semi) definitive answer, since no one really seems to know the exact origin. One thing is clear: it's an American name, even if the sausages themselves were German.

Apparently, the name originated in the 1800s, when a large number of German immigrants began to move to the US. With them, they brought lots of sausages, but they also brought long, thin, dachshund dogs. The similarity in  shape between the two is what probably prompted someone to dub the sausages "hot dogs" and the name stuck. No one person can be attributed to this, but the name was so popular that for many years, when someone said they wanted a "dog," they were inevitably referring to the frankfurter and not to a puppy.

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If you thought that the country most likely to have its residents eat pre-prepared food was the United States, you would be wrong. While the sheer number of people dining out in the US might be greater than in most countries, the average Briton will eat 365 meals a year out of home - one every day. In comparison, the average person eats out only 306 times per year in the United States, coming in third after Italy, where the Italians dine out 308 times each year. Also high on the list were the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, France and Germany.

The survey, conducted by the group Datamonitor, showed a link between a stronger work ethic and the likelihood of eating outside the home. The reasoning for this is that in countries where employees work longer hours and seem to have trouble tearing themselves away at the end of the day, the employees eat out more frequently. They also show a stronger inclination for fast, snack and pre-prepared foods that can beat eaten on the go or at a desk, as opposed to choosing to dine restaurants.

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