America has been called the “melting pot” of cultures. Many different ingredients go into this soup pot and each adds its unique taste and flavor to the final outcome that fills the bowl. The delectable taste of a globalized soup has left us wanting more of it and has set us on a mission to find variety in the foods that we consume. We as immigrants have redefined the way America eats; today food is more multi-ethnic than ever. But, however universal our food choices may be we still hanker for our unique and authentic dishes that remind us of our home country. We may be the true child of the world but we also have an ethnic identity, and this reasserts itself powerfully nowhere else than on our dining table.
For a long time now we at Mosaic have wanted to do an article on Ethnic Foods, a write- up on where to find authentic foodstuff from our home countries. Remember those first weeks in the DC area when 
you were frantically on the look-out for the real good bread or a cheese. The desperation of your husband or kids who craved for food that you could not find. And then the joy when you finally discovered the small shop that sold real Italian mozzarella and pasta; true Indian curry and spices; genuine French bread and wine?
Food is an eternal theme, and very often at WBFN we hear each other tipping: “I discovered a terrific store where they sell.....” In the coming weeks we will be making your lives easier by publishing snippets of Ethnic Foods that you can track down in the DC area…Read how our members lay out their inside knowledge on this universal theme. Maaike le Grand, Vidya Rangan, Mariel Escudero, Annette Kinitz and Catherine Labaste have contributed to this series, and we hope that in the coming weeks many more of you will write to us with your information. So check out where to find the real deal….This month Annette Kinitz gives you a German culinary snap-shot.
It isn’t bread after all! It is the Bread!
In Germany, bread plays an important role in our daily diet. Many Germans eat bread for breakfast and for dinner too. When one leaves Germany, he or she will be forced to change their eating habits since the kind of bread Germans produce is not found anywhere else in the world. So far, this has been my experience!
Surprisingly, after having bought Whole Foods bread for a long time which is actually not that good, I accidentally got to know a store called Bread Unlimited where almost real German bread is sold. Especially the German Rye bread is almost of the same taste as in Germany and the first one I bought I ate it completely the same day. Not long after that I came across another even better bread store called Le Pain Quotidien. All the breads they sell are yummy. My favorite is the round leaf bread (pain paysan). You can find this bakery in Alexandria, Bethesda, in Georgetown and other locations in Washington DC.
The German Gourmet has the most interesting freshly produced cold meat selection, and the famous sausages along with a variety of other selected products that makes the shopping trip worthwhile. Café Mozart, a cafe in downtown DC sells Quark, a dairy 
product that is barely found in the US supermarkets. My weekly shopping tour almost always also leads me to Rodmans, a grocery store on Wisconsin Avenue with products from all over the world. They have Asian, Latin American and European products and food. Here you can also find rare and very good wines as well as German beer.
Use the links to get more information.