The Berger Straße Market

Every Wednesday and Saturday, this...

turns into this...


I live on Bergerstraße (pronounced "bagger strasse"<--the little beta sign is equivalent to a double "s"<--shout to the real "Double S"). This street is quite possibly the BEST street for a foreigner to live on because everything I need (and I mean everything) is like within 2 blocks. There's the American sports bar ("Yours Sports Bar") that's two doors down from where I live, "Saturn" (which is basically like a Best Buy) that's two doors up), "Rewe" (the supermarket) that's not even two blocks up, Woolworths (the department store) that's near Rewe, etc. I could go on, and maybe I'll cover that in another blog, but today's is about the open air market that happens on my street every Wednesday and Saturday.

After seeing various fruits, vegetables, eggs, olives, chocolates, breads, cheeses and meats as I passed through during today's morning jog, I came to the conclusion that it was time to break my reluctance to "break out" my kitchen's pots and pans and it was time to make breakfast (hows that for a run on sentence, Josh). So after catching my breath from a rather exhaustive jog (partly because I didn't really know where I was going, I just jogged til I found home again), I headed up to the marketplace.

So as an American, what's the first thing you think I did...comparison shop. And it was then I realized that the idea of "efficient markets" really hasn't made its way to Frankfurt yet. Take grapes for example, there was one guy selling these smallish grapes (kind of like the ones they use to make wine from) for 2,50 euro per 500 grams (you do the conversion to $/lb.). But you walk a little further down (now mind you he was sort of in the cut though), and he was selling grapes at 1,90 euro per kg. Yeah, but here's the thing...

Now I'm not sure if this is German custom or if they're just trying to get a sale out of the non-german speaking american. But I would ask as best I could (via my handy-dandy english-to-german pocket translator) how much ("wie viel") something was by pointing. They would then say extremely fast some indiscernible number that has eurocents greater than 10 and then proceed to bag it up. Now me being the American I am, I would tell them that I would try to say no and that I would come right back, and they would say the german version of "ok", but I could see it in their eyes like they expected me to come back and purchase what I had only asked (in german mind you) how much it costed.

Take for example the olive guys. I figured since they were selling some fresh olives that they might have some fresh olive oil from the rolling meadows of the German country-side. Nope, that isht was from Greece and it was 4,90 euro. I figured if I'm going to get some pre-bottled oil, then I'm going to go to Rewe and probably cop the same thing, only cheaper. But when I said I'd come back, the guy smiled and said no problem...but didn't take the olive oil back out the bag. I thought that was a bit strange, but people say I think too much so I thought nothing further about it. But when I returned, after purchasing cheaper olive oil from Rewe, the dude recognized me and got the olive oil (still in the bag mind you) from one of the tables in the back. So here's where it gets interesting.

The guy spoke a little english, so I told him that I didn't want the olive oil but was curious about what looked like mozzarella (matter fact, that was the only reason I came back to his stand in the first place). He said it wasn't mozzarella but was feta cheese and if I wanted mozzarella that I should go to the stand directly across the way that sold all types of cheeses. I "danke-d" him up and went over to the other stand only to find out they only had those fresh mozzarella balls that are submerged in all that liquid. I was looking for the mozzarella that was in the same rectangular shape as the feta cheese. But they did have "English cheddar" (which I wanted for my scrambled eggs) so I bought that. But then, as I was leaving the stand, the olive guys then yelled out to me telling me that the mozzarella was over at the stand I just left from (as if they had been watching the entire transaction at the cheese stand). I told them I wanted the mozzarella to have the same shape and consistency as the feta cheese at their stand, and that they didn't have it. Then I left. And people think I overthink too much cause while I was purchasing the cheddar, I though to myself that if those olive guys were peeping, they would think I was bullshitting them on the olive oil...when the truth of the matter was I did want some manageable mozzarella but they were selling feta...and they charge too much for olive oil.

Then there's the lady who sells eggs. Thanks to Rosetta Stone, I know that 3 is "drie" in german. BUT STILL, I put up 3 fingers then pointed to an egg. The lady kept trying to sell me 6 and 10 at a time. then I figured "oh", 6 is the least you can purchase. At the time, I had forgot how to say "how much" in german ("wie viel"), so I figured I'd use the universal signal for how much...rubbing my fingers together then pointing at the eggs. She didn't get it. Then I took money out of my pocket, then pointed to the eggs. She didn't get it. Luckily, a young girl who spoke decent Englih helped us out and told me that I could in fact purchase 3 eggs. I then told the lady I'd be back. But when I returned, the lady had FOUR eggs boxed up for me. I'm telling you, they keep trying to get the foreigner.

Then there's the meat lady. They already had the bacon packaged and it was simple enough to find because one of the words on the label had "spreck" in it ("bacon" in german). But they had all these types of sausage. Luckily, she spoke decent english, so I asked her what types of sausage do they eat for breakfast. She said they don't discriminate...all types of sausage are fair game. She then proceeded to ask me what types of sausage do I like. I said "polska kielbasa". Not sure if she knew to what I was referring, but then she started pulling out some sausages. I told her that I wasn't going to buy sausage today but on saturday. She acted as if she understood, but then proceeded to have me sample some sausages. One of them was rather good and I told her so. She then asked me if I wanted a half link or whole link. I though to myself "damn...", then said "gimme a half link."

Man, I don't know what the moral is. Is it that things are just done differently in other countries? Is it that I need to beware cause if they can, they will try to get the non-german-speaking american (i.e. next time at the market I need a translator)?

Take from it what you will...but they do have a lot of good stuff at the market (ex. they have absinthe-filled chocolates).