My worktrip to Germany (4 of 7): So much meat.

It was absolutely astounding to me the sheer volumes of meat that seemed to be incorporated into everyday (German) life.

The hotel had this lovely breakfast buffet, one of the best I've ever seen, with cereal and muesli and scrambled eggs warmed up next to a thing of bacon, and there was a basket of rolls near these big jars of really good jams with huge pieces of fruit inside, and then they had this like total coldcut lineup, with pieces of salami-type stuff and cuts of liver and slices of ham, and even these like reddish-brown sausage bits that were quite chewy, that turned out to be a blood sausage, and maybe a few more slices of rotating stuff that they didn't have every morning that I can't quite think of right now.

(Those meats were next to some smoked salmon, and slices of cheese and a little jam jar full of horseradish; once there was also what they called an "egg creme," that was like an egg salad with a ton more mayonnaise than we'd use here, and some random-ass herbs mixed in.)

That shit was so good, to wake up to over coffee as you have like this ham and cheese and horseradish sandwich you made for yourself on a tasty tasty crusty bun, but still, it was a lot of meat.

When I got the newspaper, too, it was just astounding, like so many of the ads for supermarkets were all about specials on meat, a lot more than you'd expect compared to the specials on other food products.

Too, the bus stop ads had some giant prosciutto campaign going on, telling people that the way you could tell your family you loved them this holiday season was to serve them a giant tray of prosciutto, and there was a picture of like a three generation-family smiling as a (German) mom-type figure in an apron held out prosciutto to them and to you as well, the way the camera angle was shot for the ad.

This is above and beyond the doner kebab shawarma-type stuff that they have like everywhere, like gyros here, but just everywhere, like at shops that you'd run across pretty darn often, instead of some special shop that you make a special trip to.

Honestly, it was like everywhere you turned around in Germany, there was meat.

Their carbon footprint has got to be simply staggering.  I've never seen anything like it.