Pastry

One of the great things about living here is the never-ending supply of good pastries and other baked goods. (I should have known I was hooked when I was walking to the elevator at lunch the other day and one of our admins asked in a very matter-of-fact way if I was going off to get a pastry--can I really be that predictable? Wait, don't answer that. Is it any wonder my waistline is expanding at an exponential rate?) Other than the regular, everyday pastries, there seem to be special pastries for every season--you can almost set your calendar to it. Over the New Year weekend, for example, we walked past bakeries that were filled with bread shaped like a pig with a four-leaf clover (don't ask, because I don't get it either). Then all of a sudden today the bakeries were filled with bread that was topped with a crown. Turns out it's called something like Dreikönigskuche, which makes sense since January 6 is Three Kings Day (Dreikönig means "three kings"). Three Kings Day is supposedly huge in Spain (possibly even bigger than Christmas), but it's not like we get a day off work here or anything. Anyway, we think you're supposed to pull apart the Dreikönigskuche, and if you find a ring cooked into your piece then you get to wear the crown. So you can imagine my excitement when I got home tonight and found that Gretchen had picked one up at the bakery! It's a non-stop party with our Dreikönigskuche! I don't know if we're supposed to wait until tomorrow or not, but we decided to rip into it tonight. No ring yet so we'll have to try again tomorrow--oh, to get to wear the crown!