#german things

now, to preface this, a successful cultural reference, to me, has always been a little detail that, to people outside of the referenced culture, accurately albeit at a surface level signals that the character in question is indeed a member of this culture. but what seperates a decent from a well-made cultural reference, in my opinion, is whether or not the actual real-life members of the referenced culture can glean some sort of more deep-seated information about the character, based on what the presence of this specific little detail within them implies about who they are; it's a little peak behind the curtain for the very select few people that have the cultural understanding to know how to pull that curtain back, if that makes sense.

so when caleb widogast - a man from a fictionalized version of my own home, the central german countryside - eats a biscuit that is magically enchanted to change its flavor to whatever taste he likes best, decades of stereotypical representation of my culture in american media lead me to expect a successful but mediocre, predictable reference like bratwurst, sauerkraut or beer.

but that's not what happens, man.

instead, that fucking biscuit tastes like streusel. it's not just random internationally know german food item number 873 because haha get it he's german- no, it's goddamn streusel. it's the cheap ass butter-sugar crumble we put on top of some yeast dough to make a cake when we don't have the time and money for all that fancy buttercream and chocolate shit but still want our loved ones to have something sweet. it's as simple as simple gets. it's humble, it's uncomplicated, it's honest and you know what makes it even better? he doesn't even think of 'streuselkuchen'. it's not even the taste of a proper slice of the whole damn cake, it's just the taste of the topping that i know damn well his mama used to yelled at him for snatching off the cake while it was sitting on the windowsill to cool. you wanna know how i know that? because that's what mine did. and that is the power of a well-made cultural reference.