Across the Cornfields – Holiday Edition

by Reneé Gordon Holley

As we all prepare for our respective holiday traditions, it is difficult to escape the festive decorations and flickering shop windows. Even in little Champaign-Urbana, our city streets are adorned with wreaths, lights, and trees. For me, however, a new crucial holiday tradition involves traveling to Chicago each December to take in more of the big city treats.

In addition to the fine shopping and dining spaces in Chicago, anyone taking a Christmas trip to the Windy City should pay a special visit to the annual Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza in the Chicago Loop. Since 1996, the market has been attracting thousands of visitors each year. Chicago’s market is an initiative of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, and its original visionaries conceptualized the Midwest version of the German tradition based on the Christmas market in Nuremberg, circa 1545. For a quick introduction to the German Christmas traditions, including the Christkind, the Nuremberg market, and others, watch this video, hosted by European Travel Guru Rick Steves:

The Chicago Christkindlmarket includes vendors from Germany, in addition to some from the United States, Ireland, Poland, the Ukraine, and Austria. This is a one stop shop for hand-carved Christmas tree ornaments, traditional crafts from Germany, like votive houses, painted glass, and coo-coo clocks, or recordings of German Christmas music.

Alternatively, the market provides an ideal mid-day and early evening stop for a quick meal and festive drink. In addition to several German bratwurst options, the Christkindlmarket boasts German holiday favorites like spiced nuts, baked apples, pancakes, potato salad, chocolate-covered everything, strudels, traditional German Stollen cake, sauerkraut, hot soups, and potato pancakes.

To warm up, visitors enjoy hot chocolate, spiced cider, and, my personal favorite, Glühwein, German hot spiced wine. This brew features flavors of oranges, cinnamon, and cloves, infiltrating the steaming cup of red wine. Consumers of these hot beverages invest in a bit of Chicago market lore; each year the market features newly-designed mugs, shaped like boots and decorated with scenes from the market, Daley Plaza, and Chicago.

To aid in your own holiday selections, below is a list of other German-inspired Christmas markets in the United States. If you are unable to visit one of these fine establishments this year, try out some Glühwein in your own kitchen with the recipe listed below!

• Christmasmarket - Union Square, 14th Street, New York City
• Christkindlmarkt - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
• Christkindl Market - Denver, Colorado
• Christkindlmarkt - Baltimore, Maryland
• Christkindlmarkt Front Royal - Front Royal, Virginia
• Christkindl Market - Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania
• Christmas Village - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Christkindlmarkt - Lovettsville, Virginia
• Christkindl’s Markt - Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Weihnachtsmarkt - Sparta, New Jersey
• Canandaigua Christkindl Market - Canandaigua, New York
• Old World Christmas Market - Nashua, New Hampshire Coming in 2012!

Glühwein – Adapted from allrecipes.com 

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 orange
• 10 whole cloves
• 1 (750 milliliter) bottle (cheap) red wine

Directions

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer.
2. Cut the orange in half, and squeeze the juice into the simmering water over a juice strainer. Push the cloves into the outside of the orange peel, and place peel in the simmering water. Continue simmering for 30 minutes, until thick and syrupy.
3. Pour in the wine, and heat until steaming but not simmering. Remove the clove-studded orange halves. Serve hot in mugs or glasses that have been preheated in warm water (cold glasses may break.)

Makes six 4 oz. servings. I usually buy boxed wine and double or triple the recipe.

Happy Holidays to all our EUC Blog readers!

Reneé Holley is a PhD Candidate in Musicology and an EU Center Graduate Assistant. She is working on a dissertation that addresses the influence of EU cultural policies on contemporary German musical life.

Across the Cornfields – Holiday Edition

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Celebrating Oktoberfest: Across the Cornfields Edition

by Reneé Gordon Holley

Every September, millions of people flock to Munich, Germany, eager to take part in the annual Oktoberfest celebration. Tourists and locals alike overrun the city, spending hours in festival tents, sipping fine brews specially formulated for the occasion, and consuming innumerable pretzels and pork shanks. Among the smells of people, beer, meat and sweets, listeners are treated to traditional folk bands, which blast Bavarian classics and entice children to dance.

For those unfortunate souls who are unable to make the yearly pilgrimage to Bavaria (myself included), you may be able to catch a local party. Communities scattered throughout the United States put on their own, home-grown versions of the “Fest,” complete with Dirndl, Lederhosen, and traditional Bavarian decor.

In Central Illinois, residents have the option of making a culinary pilgrimage to experience the closest thing to German Gemütlichkeit on this side of the Atlantic. Travelers heading north on Illinois 47 encounter corn, soybeans, and the occasional pumpkin patch. But, when an old drive-in theater peaks over the horizon, you have reached a town that serves the best slice of Germany, complete with Oktoberfests, May poles, and enough apple strudel to satisfy any appetite. In Gibson City, you are transported to a Bavarian hunter’s lodge when you eat at Bayernstube.

This experience of European culture “across the pond” is really just a few miles away, across Illinois’ golden sea of corn, bending in waves with the cool harvest breeze.

On Friday, September 30th, the EUC staff paid a visit to Gibson City, complete with jovial German folk tunes, appropriate for the journey. (Those of you with UI library access, check out item number CDISC M1734 B38 – Bavarian Holiday – for a unique German music listening experience, complete with brass, yodeling, and some culturally puzzling moments that might spark larger musicological debates, if you are interested in that sort of thing.) As we approached Gibson City, we caught a glimpse of Twin Groves Wind Farm, one of the largest wind farms this side of the Mississippi. Wind farms are a staple in many regions of Germany, and since seeing my first windmill in my high school German textbook, I associate one with the other.

The EUC staff regrouped at the restaurant in the Dietrich Hall, named after the original owner’s father. Father Dietrich’s hunting legacy was readily apparent; restaurant guests enter the bar, which features walls of many fine examples of taxidermy. Before entering the beer hall, I was tempted to select one of the hundreds of steins adorning the main dining room to serve as my beverage glass for the evening.

Bayernstube maintains an Oktoberfest menu, including pretzels, traditional Munich “Weisswurst,” Rouladen, and a special Camembert and dark beer cheese spread. The regular menu boasts eight varieties of schnitzel (breaded, pan-fried pork or veal filets); red cabbage and sauerkraut so tasty that the pickiest eater might need convincing that they are indeed consuming cabbage; and potatoes that are served in salad, pancake, mashed, and sautéed forms. Each meal is accompanied by a basket of Bauernbrot, or farmer’s bread, plus Bayernstube’s homemade smoked sausage spread. Be warned; one slice is not enough. After selecting your entrée and drink from the list of German beers on tap, remember to save room for dessert. At the end of the meal, Dirndl-adorning waitresses display dessert trays at each table and feature an assortment of cakes, inviting guests to select a slice.

For as authentically German as we perceived our experience to be, we were glad to have a resident expert with us to provide a running commentary on the finer qualities of the meal. EUC Visiting Scholar Gregor van der Beek, along with his son, gave rave reviews of the food and atmosphere. Dr. van der Beek commented that Bayernstube embodied the style and feel of a restaurant that his grandparents would choose if they were to take the family out for a nice meal. After spending almost three months in Illinois, our German guests enjoyed the Bauernbrot and entrées, which reminded them of home, and Bavaria of course!

Although Oktoberfest has nearly drawn to a close for this year, plan on partaking in next year’s festivities, or perhaps make the pilgrimage to Bayernstube for a family meal or a get-together with friends. Bis dann!

Stay tuned for the next “Across the Cornfields” edition of “Across the Pond” – Chicago’s Christkindlmarket!

Reneé Holley is a PhD Candidate in Musicology and an EU Center Graduate Assistant. She is working on a dissertation that addresses the influence of EU cultural policies on contemporary German musical life.

Celebrating Oktoberfest: Across the Cornfields Edition

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