Schmatz-O-Fatz

Do you happen to know what “schmatz-o-fatz” means?

Don’t worry, if you don’t – it’s not an expression you will hear too often unless you are working together with (crazy) Germans.

Well, it was one of these days in the office when everybody seems to be in a silly mood.
The boss was in a meeting and Elesa, Jeremy  and myself came to talk about our favorite ice cream flavors. Obviously Elesa is a great fan of black raspberry, Jeremy loves cinnamon and cookie dough ice cream (something we don’t even have in Germany!) and I like Stracciatella, an Italian ice cream speciality, that looks and sounds so tempting – no one can resist. It mainly consists of white chocolate, milk, sweet cream and chocolate rasps. Simply “to die for”. And this is how the ““schmatz-o-fatz” story developed …

I asked my two American co-workers what people in the States say when they really like a certain meal or dish. Elesa and Jeremy immediately came up with terms like “yummy”, “awesome”, “excellent” and “amazing”. Of course they then wanted to know the German translation for yummy which is “lecker” (pronounced correctly, it sounds somewhat like “liquor” only the “e” is pronounced like an “a” (as in “track”). Pretty complicated language, I admit. So, “lecker” is the official, correct German term for yummy but there is this nice little slang word which sounds so funny and which is a tongue twisters for most non-Germans. Most probably, you already have guessed it:

“Schmatz-o-Fatz”.

I won’t bother you with the correct pronunciation (Elesa and Jeremy had a blast trying it) but the next time you come to our office please ask me and I will gladly do it for you. Until then, enjoy “yummy” food and whenever you need crazy little German words, let me know. I’ll be glad to help you.