Weird German dairy products - part 2

Next up in the dairy adventure is quark. I think a quark in English is some kind of nano particle. I never went far enough in science to know any more than that, but in German it's a dairy food.

Quark is a soft cheese native to central Europe and especially popular in Germany. It's used as a  spread on bread, baked into cakes and pastries, and rubbed on sore knees. That's right, sore knees. As technologically advanced as the Germans are, they have some goofy home remedies. One of my cross country runners had issues with sore knees. A coach from her other running club advised her to rub quark all over her knees before going to bed, cover them in plastic wrap, and leave the quark on until morning (more on German home remedies and witch-doctoring to come in an upcoming post).

I bought cream-quark once early on in our German experience, thinking it was yogurt because the picture on the label looked yogurt-like. This is how you make decisions when you have no language skills. It's all about pictures and guesswork. What I encountered was some kind of pastey pudding-cheese, a little rich to eat with a spoon. I haven't bought it since, but for this experiment I tried regular (not creamy) quark with herb flavoring, on bread. It was good - kind of like a thick sour cream or a thin cream cheese. Brian had some too. We rate it as a 4 on the taste scale and a 3 on the would-you-buy-it-again scale. At least we will probably finish this one, unlike the kefir which is still lingering, unwanted, in our fridge.

Now for the final taste test: Milchreis (milk rice). I think that this is something like rice pudding. That doesn't help me much because I have only had rice pudding a few times. It was always overshadowed on dessert menus by superior deserts like cake and ice cream. Milk rice is often served in a cup or a little tub. I decided to skip the plain milchreis for being too plain (and potentially gross) and the chocolate flavored milchreis for being too chocolatey (and potentially masking the true milchreis flavor), and instead chose the cinnamon flavored milchreis. The package says it can be eaten warm or cold, so I try both.

Its sweet, creamy, custard-y, with little grains of rice in there too. I actually like it better before I mix the cinnamon part in, and I prefer it cold to warm. Not bad. The verdict on Milchreis? 3 on the taste scale - as in it's ok but I can think of many more exciting deserts. And on the buy- it- again scale, probably also a 3.

That concludes our weird dairy product taste test. Drinkable yogurt is the winner. Drinkable Kefir is the loser. It's only a taste test. The medicinal properties of quark and other dairy foods are yet undetermined.