Spaghettieis
And it is a German word, so you pronounce it shpaghetti-ice.
I learned about spaghettieis at the middle school curriculum night. Lena has German last hour, so we’d been there a while and I was starting to doze off when I heard the teacher say something about spaetzle. Well that perked me right up because I loooooooooove that stuff and I have even cooked it myself.
Spaetzle isn’t very hard to make, actually. You just have to have the right equipment. You make a very simple, sticky floury eggy dough and then send it through a spaetzle-maker into boiling water. The spaetzle-maker works like an oversized garlic press, and it sends out long strings of dough that cook like dumplings. Spaetzle is the most fabulous thing in the world, especially if you serve it alongside a roast chicken with lots of gravy.
Well the German teacher was talking about the spaetzle-maker, but she wasn’t talking about spaetzle. She was talking about sending VANILLA ICE CREAM through the thing so that it comes out in long strands, looking like spaghetti. Then, she said, you should put some strawberry jam on top, and a little shredded coconut, and it looks just like a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and parmesan.
The thing is, though, you have to eat it fast before it melts and loses it shape. We’re going to conduct an experiment to figure out which brand of ice cream works the best. It’ll be a tough job, but we’re ready to suffer through it.
Wow, now I want a spaetzle-maker! I suppose that freezing it just before using it with ice cream would help. That is so cool that Lena is taking German — I think the only foreign language offered in my district at the middle school level is Spanish; would be nice to have more options.
Actually, Val, you don’t really need a spaetzle-maker to make spaetzle. You can push the dough through a colander, and I think that’s what “real” chefs do. I think the spaetzle-maker is sort of a novelty item. But you do need one to make spaghettieis.
That is a bummer that your district doesn’t offer more languages! However, what Lena has is called “Exploratory” and it is six weeks each of a variety of different subjects. I think next week she starts French for 6 weeks, and then art, shop, etc. So it’s not like she’s learning a whole lot of German.