what a lovely idea, eileen! i think you live in a much more urban area than i and hope that you may have access to a specialty shop or two so you can pick and choose some of your goodies. if you see a brick-like package of either "jacobs" or "idee" coffe, buy it! wonderful stuff! i'd never heard of westphalian ham before we spent a couple of years in germany but it became a real hit with my husband. a few slices of that on a brotchen (hard roll) with some "gundelsheim" barrel pickles (which we can even find in our regular grocery and are very close to a pickle he used to buy there) and he's in heaven. proscuitto is very close if you can't find the ham... and that gundelsheim company also makes a sauerkraut that is like what we had there!

and i'm sure your local liquor store could help you pick out a riseling (the grape was native to germany) or a nice gewürztraminer or liebfraumilch or others--that ought to be easy!

we ate our way around the area and don't remember a bad meal--really. and i'd hate to disappoint you but... 2 of our VERY favorite taste treats were noodles with browned butter and little pots of some sort of pate/liver sausage spread that my neighbor made. i wish i knew what spices she used because that stuff really was outstanding! anyway, i'll be very interested in seeing what other responses you get! your idea really sounds like fun!

If he has the same tastes as my German husband, I would definitely pick up some German sausages and pates for spreading on bread - deli style, not for cooking. Germans are accustomed to having a light evening supper....called "abendbrot" or evening bread, rather than a cooked dinner around 7 pm. My DH makes himself up a tray of soft cheese eg camembert, or a soft white German spread cheese with herbs, German Teewurst which is a nicely spiced spread pate which comes in a plastic sausage-shaped package, sliced blood sausage or jellied tongue, small flat tins of Scandinavian herring in mustard sauce, or herring in vinegar. These are all deli items which depending where you live, shouldn't be too hard to find. Along with that, a nice dark very thinly sliced country style German rye bread and some good Irish butter. If he's a typical German, he'd like a good German beer to accompany that. Warsteiner is one that I've seen in N. America but there should be other brands too. Give him 3 or 4 bottles. These items would make up a perfect care basket to take to an elderly German man.

Good luck!

SharonCb

I agree with Sharon Cb - skip the German wine and go with a good German beer instead. German men LOVE their beer. Maybe some brats or knautwurst and some of Annie's homemake saurkraut. My hubbie would be in heaven. lol!
Barb