Wondering what to eat in Germany? You must search hard to find the right place!
I am a fan of good eating. I must enjoy my meals, and the food must have a real taste. And sometimes I find it hard in Germany, because some Germans (some of them only) cannot care less about food and taste. As long as it is a bread and has something inside, it is enough.
On the other hand, it was in Germany where I learned about flavour enhancer. Not because Germans use it, but because it is a sort of a law that restaurants that use Monosodium glutamate or other sorts of enhancers in the food they prepare, they must indicate it on their menus.
Now at least I am aware that when I am in a asia restaurant, the food I am eating tastes good mostly because of the flavour enhancers. Nothing to do with quality food.
Going back to the food in Germany, in specific about restaurants, it is not as easy as when you are in France, Italy or Spain (Europe is where I've lived in the last 8 years, my home country is similar), if you walk for 10 minutes, sooner or later you will find a restaurant with the typical food: tapas, pizza, moules, etc.
That won't be the case in Germany.
If you walk around, you will find Döner Kepab, Asia Imbiss (asian fast food, mostly noddles), Pizza, and Gyros. Also depends in which city you are, you will find more of each one of these. In Köln for example, there are lots of Italian restaurants. In Berlin, many Turkish Imbiss. In Hamburg, Asian Imbiss as well as the already mentioned Portuguese coffees.
But then comes lesson number one: do you see the bakeries? Well, that's a good starting point for German food. German bread is amazing. Germans have as many sorts of bread as French have cheeses. Not only the famous bretzel, but many more sorts. And like in any new country where you are, you must experiment.
Lesson two: the language. You must at least know some words in German when looking for a restaurant. If you see Pizza on one side and "Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat", I wouldn't blame you if you would go for the pizza.
In this case, Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat, is fresh small mushrooms, called chanterell in English, with potatoes. That's the first picture above. If you, just like me, are a fan of mushrooms you don't want to miss this.
Then again, if the Pizza is 6 euro; and the Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat 12 Euro. Again, the Pizza is a very good and safe option. That's lesson three: genuine German food is relatively expensive.
Lesson 4: ask a local. Normally they can tell you what to eat and where to eat it. In the second photo you can see: "Matjes mit Sahnemeerettich und Bratkartoffeln". If you like fish, you will love: "Soused herring with a horseradish cream".
Guten Apetitt!
2 comments:
Nice blog by the way.
I have German colleagues in Frankfurt and all they talk about is food food food food. They get excited when the canteen has their favourite meal, and on Monday they will be still discussing what they ate last week Wednesday and how good it is. It really annoyed me at first, but now learning from them I appreciate good tasting food more, I was just a bread and bologne guy before I can here!
Thanks for your comments.
In Germany you find people who appreciate food and people who are fans of McDonalds and actually want to go to eat there.
I will go to MacDonalds as a last resort, but I will never go there willingly and looking forward to it. I have some colleagues as well who eat their cheeseburguers as it would be a great italian pizza or french crepe.
But some other Germans appreciate food and meals as family time.
And don't forget to tell your colleagues "Malzeit" when you go for lunch or when they go for lunch. A word I still have not found translation for in any language.
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