Blaukraut

J.E. Shields jshields@indy.net
Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:02:36 PST
Hi all,

Now you're touching on two non-bulb interests of mine: German/Swiss food 
and the German language.

Graubünden is a Canton or State within Switzerland.  Graubünden is in the 
most southeastern corner of Switzerland, and borders on northern 
Italy.  The language of Graubünden is Romansch, and is much more closely 
related to Rumanian and Portuguese than to Italian.  There are only about 
20,000 native speakers of Romasch left today.

In Swiss-German dialect, red cabbage is called either Blaukraut (but with a 
peculiarly Swiss pronunciation) or Rotkabis.  It tastes very good by either 
name and is one of my favorite vegetables.

Best wishes,
Jim Shields, Swiss by marriage

At 05:49 PM 12/21/2008 -0500, you wrote:
>......
>Pizzoccheri are new to me; I had to Google that one. I noticed that they
>also have the German name Graubünden. That's very northern Italian, isn't
>it? Do they taste anything like soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)?
>
>I knew about Rotkohl; if someone sent me out for Blaukraut, I probably would
>have brought back a green cabbage with a heavy glaucous bloom - in other
>words, the wrong one. I know this is wandering more and more off topic, but
>cabbage is one of the culinary delights of my maturity. I hated it as a kid
>because no one I knew knew how to cook it. It turns into a disgusting,
>stinking, slimy mess when boiled too long, and that's all I got as a kid.
>But blanched briefly and then sautéed in seasoned fat or oil - wow!
>.......
>Jim McKenney

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344     or      toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA



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