The Merkeling

The Merkeling: An old German pickling process involving pigs shit and stale beer. Although the end product, the Merkelkraut, was only meant to be used as animal feed booster during food shortages, and never for human consumption, certain restaurants catering to the rich and infamous are known to often feature it as a special delicacy. Indeed, in the United States, the Trump family seems to have a monopoly on Merkelkraut distribution and it is often found on the menus of Trump-owned restaurants. In political parlance, the term refers to letting certain decrepit political figure stew in their own fetid juices until the moment comes and they are unceremoniously dumped into that old dustbin of history. The invention of the Merkelkraut is attributed to a distant ancestor of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Helmut Merkel is considered a German folk hero and is often publicly toasted during Oktoberfest, seeing that his invention has often helped German farmers stay afloat during economic hard times. It’s the rise of Mrs. Merkel as a public figure that gave the term Merkeling its modern political connotation. But, while Mrs. Merkel’s list of merkeled political foes keeps growing the Chancellor herself seems to have long adopted a rather “meh” attitude about the whole thing.