Brunch!

And I don't mean a Sunday activity that condones alcohol before noon. Brunch is a spread made from cream and yogurt. And it's one of my weaknesses. My BFF in Wien, Liz, first introduced it to me about five years ago. We used to eat it on bread, on eggs, on chicken, and with two to three thin pretzels (weak pretzels call for strength in numbers). OK, maybe once I ate it off my finger.

Either way, it's just delicious. It comes in many flavors, but I have eyes only for Feine Kräuter (herbs). You can imagine my delight when I discovered this variety also came in "light".

I will not pretend that I can read nutrition labels here. It's better that I don't know.

I love it so much, that a couple of years ago, when I was experiencing reverse homesickness, my mom and I looked into a company that imports and ships it in dry ice. We did not follow through. But my mom and sister helped support me through my withdrawal. My sister spent some time in Germany herself, so she knows exactly what we're missing. We tried shopping at international stores and bought similar items, but it was to no avail.

So you might wonder why I didn't have the taxi take me straight to the super market instead of the hotel once I landed. Duh, it was Sunday and the stores weren't open. But really, I have waited a whole month to satisfy my craving because I was afraid. Brunch is sitting high on a pedestal and I was worried it wouldn't be the same. And I was a little worried my pant size wouldn't be the same if I jumped back on that train.

Last night for dinner, I rounded up the usual suspects - pumpkin seed bread, garlic salami, Brunch - and attempted to recreate my favorite meal. Almost. They were out of pumpkin seed so I went with another seed (can't go wrong with bread here), the garlic salami looked different, and the Brunch packaging has been refreshed.

I took one bite and cheered. It was better than I remembered.

This is good and bad. I could seriously eat this for every meal of the rest of my life. It would be awesome if I could change up the types of bread, the types of salamis (I'm totally having another meat party...), and the flavor of Brunch, but even if I couldn't, this would hands-down be my one and only meal that I could eat for ever and ever.

In honor of the good old times, I also dipped a few pretzels.

Guess what I had for breakfast?