Spiced wine on a chilly evening
Christmas markets transport
you to a land of fairies and elves, as you munch on centuries-old treats
Laughter echoes from the
old fashioned pretty carousel dazzling with lights as children run around the
Ferris wheel. I am in Bavaria, in the medieval town of Nuremberg, “the little
town of wood and cloth“, lost in the spirit of Christkindlesmarkt, the Christmas
market, launched by the angel, Nuremberg Christkind. No wonder the angels stand
here, blowing the bugle.
The Nuremberg
Christkindlesmarkt is as old as the hills and I can see quaint old wooden
stalls, some dating to the 1890s.My guide takes me to the Church of Our Lady
where the angel had stood on the balcony to inaugurate her market. “It's a
tradition,“ tells my guide “as the angel is elected by the people and she
becomes the Christkind for a couple of years.“
GLOW OF FIRE
There are more than 180 stalls
here painted with red and white striped roofs but I am drawn towards a
fiery-red stall, with a warm glow of a fire. There are huge pots on the table
brimming with wine. I wonder if it is the traditional mulled wine or the
gluhwein of Germany, the signature spirit of every Christmas market. Heated
with spices, a bit of cinnamon and cloves along with aniseed or vanilla, a
tinge of lemon is added to the glass of red wine as locals and tourists raise
their glasses to gluhwein. But this seems to be more potent and it has a tongue
twister of a name -Feuerzangen -Bowler, a drink made popular by a hilarious
German film of the 1940s with the name Die Feuerzangenbowle. The film is about
a middle-aged man, who gets so drunk that he decides to get dressed up as a high
school boy and goes back to school. This hot spicy red wine punch is a spirited
concoction of red wine, rum and spices like cinnamon, cloves and orange peel. A
sugar-coated cone dipped with strong rum is placed atop the cocktail and lit by
fire. As the sugar melts and caramalises, more hot rum is poured into the pot
while it blends with the wine. I raise a toast and take a sip and can feel the
warmth seeping down my throat.But my nose wanders around to get a taste of
Germany. Almost every dish served here is a speciality. There is the
traditional Bratwurst or the sausages, but in Nuremburg you get a smaller
special version grilled on charcoal called Nürnberger Rostbratwürste.
Gingerbread is quite a favourite here and I find flocks of people buying Lebkuchen
heart shaped gingerbread biscuits with messages in icing on them.
HEART GETS `STOLLEN'
Bratäpfel, or baked apples,
along with Gebrannte Mandeln and Maronen referring to roasted almonds and
chestnuts are served here as well. And then there are chocolates and fruit
loaves, cookies and cakes, everything that you need for your sweet tooth with
plenty of nutmegs, cinnamon and ginger around. But the most delicious is a
Christmas speciality that has come all the way from Dresden the
quintessential Christmas cake called the Stollen. No German Christmas or
Christmas market is complete without it.Adorned with nuts and fruits, the other
ingredients include yeast, flour, butter, raisins soaked in rum and orange
peels.
In a little wooden stall
are small men and women, some wearing pretty hats, carrying baskets and holding
weighing scales filled with sweets. Meet the Little Plum People of Nuremberg.
If you get up close, you will notice that they are actually made of prunes and
plums, raisins and figs and nuts. These Prune Men are called Zwetcshgenmännle
and they are as old as the Nuremberg Christmas Markets themselves. In the 17th
century, locals believed that if they kept them at the windows of their homes,
no harm would come to them.
I am thirsty and cold and a
glass of gnog is what the doctor orders hot water with rum. By now I am a bit
heady. More stalls beckon me with pretzels and varieties of bread. For
vegetarians, there is plenty of potatoes and cheese with fried mushrooms;
Germans love their variety of cabbage, what they fondly called kraut.
The stalls in the
traditional market sell a flavour of Germany through these traditional wooden
toys. There are gauntlooking nut crackers with thick moustaches and smoking men
on bikes letting off steam from their pipes who beckon me. These nutcrackers
and smoking men, traditional toys from the Ore Mountains created by miners
several centuries ago, have come all the way from the quaint town of Seiffen.
Along with these wooden toys, are hand-made muppets and soft toys, candles made
of glass and bee wax, spinning churches lit with candles, pyramids and
carousels, fairies and elves on cups and glasses and music boxes, all offering
a feel of Christmas.
|
Lakshmi Sharath
|
BT20DEC15
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