German Food

[CraigC]

My Oma made food from her region of Germany. I grew up eating it until she passed. There was nothing "light" about the food. What have you had and what did you or didn't you like? Austria would probably fit in here as well.

 

[Morning Glory]

I think @Elawin has knowledge of this subject. I have very little! I've never been to Germany and my impression of traditional German food is not good. Sausages and sauerkraut comes to mind.

I am quite sure there are many gastronomic delights which I don't know about and I think I saw an episode of Paul Hollywood's City Bakes located in Germany (Berlin?) where some of the pastries looked lovely.

 

[Duck59]

As a vegetarian, I always enjoy seeing what types of local cuisine I can find on my travels. I certainly recall having some very nice potato pancakes in Germany. I also recall spending a thoroughly enjoyable evening at a pancake house called Palatschinkenpfandl in Vienna, where they serve a bewildering array of pancakes and some very pleasant beer. I'm pretty sure I had sheep's cheese and spinach in my pancake. Very good, too.

One thing I liked about Vienna was the old-fashioned pubs, of which there are many. A lot of the coffee houses are also old-fashioned and we were astounded that you could book tables in them simply for having a coffee or two.

On the subject of "lightness" of food, I think I had the biggest plate of macaroni cheese I have seen in my life in Berlin. I couldn't tell you what the German name of this particular dish was, but it was certainly filling!

 

[Duck59]

Oh, and that place in Berlin also served draught Köstritzer, one of my very favourite schwarzbiers. Mmm, drool...

 

[CraigC]

As a vegetarian, I always enjoy seeing what types of local cuisine I can find on my travels. I certainly recall having some very nice potato pancakes in Germany. I also recall spending a thoroughly enjoyable evening at a pancake house called Palatschinkenpfandl in Vienna, where they serve a bewildering array of pancakes and some very pleasant beer. I'm pretty sure I had sheep's cheese and spinach in my pancake. Very good, too.

One thing I liked about Vienna was the old-fashioned pubs, of which there are many. A lot of the coffee houses are also old-fashioned and we were astounded that you could book tables in them simply for having a coffee or two.

On the subject of "lightness" of food, I think I had the biggest plate of macaroni cheese I have seen in my life in Berlin. I couldn't tell you what the German name of this particular dish was, but it was certainly filling!

Was it actually macaroni or was it spaetzle?

 

[Duck59]

Was it actually macaroni or was it spaetzle?

It might well have been the latter, though I don't remember for certain. There was certainly a lot of it.

 

[Elawin]

When I was in Germany, I lived just outside Stuttgart. Most of the food was either German, Greek or [then] Yugoslav. I don't remember any of the German food being particularly 'heavy' but it was definitely as case of Spätzle with everything as far as German and Yugoslav food was concerned - good job I'm addicted to them! A lot of meat too including horsemeat (we learnt early on that steak often meant horse and not beef), and salad. The Greek food - mainly peppers, green beans, octopus, or meat - was accompanied by potatoes, rice or pasta more often than not. and salad. Any sort of pita (not just spanakopita) went down well too. Most of the sausage we consumed was there Greek (very spicy), except for Currywurst when we were out and about and needed a snack. It was in Austria that sausage reigned supreme, and cheese and pancakes and sweet or savoury dumplings (Knödel) and sautéed potatoes and apple pie and the most deliciously extravagant creamy cakes you have ever seen. In both countries, vast quantities of beer were drunk. @morning glory I've never eaten Sauerkraut. I don't even know what it tastes like - it doesn't appeal to me at all .

 

[Yorky]

I've been to Germany a few times but no particular meal sticks in my mind. However, I have cooked Bratkartoffeln a couple of times and enjoyed it.

 

[MrsDangermouse]

I love German and Austrian food - I fell in love with it on the school German exchange to southern Germany and my semester abroad in Austria when I was a student. Favourites (in no particular order) are Spätzle, Weißwurst, Käsekrainer, Kartoffelpuffer, Leberkäse, the huge variety of cured and dried meats, and of course Schnitzel. I quite like Sauerkraut occasionally - I wouldn't say its a favourite, but it goes well with fatty meats. And don't get me started on the wonderful variety of breads......

Last year I convinced hubby to take the motorhome to Germany and Austria - he's totally converted and we ended up visiting Germany twice last year and we're going back again this year .

 

[Morning Glory]

The impression I get is that a lot of the traditional dishes are rather meat-centric. Is that right?

 

[Elawin]

I love German and Austrian food - I fell in love with it on the school German exchange to southern Germany and my semester abroad in Austria when I was a student. Favourites (in no particular order) are Spätzle, Weißwurst, Käsekrainer, Kartoffelpuffer, Leberkäse, the huge variety of cured and dried meats, and of course Schnitzel. I quite like Sauerkraut occasionally - I wouldn't say its a favourite, but it goes well with fatty meats. And don't get me started on the wonderful variety of breads......

Last year I convinced hubby to take the motorhome to Germany and Austria - he's totally converted and we ended up visiting Germany twice last year and we're going back again this year .

Pumpernickel (the proper dark brown, almost black stuff), with butter and Leberkäse was a favourite lunch time snack in our office. (We opted out of the usual 2 hour lunch break so we could start later and go home earlier - we still used to have the 2 hour breakfast break but this was usually a working breakfast - reading and discussing the technical stuff that would be translated or got ready for print in the next few days.) The local baker's was right opposite our office, and the coffee shop (where they blended and sold coffee powders - not where you drank it) was a couple of doors away. We had our own office blend of coffee. That and the freshly baked bread and rolls were superb. But the hot chocolate we used to drink came from England - the boss used to travel over a couple of times a year and would always pick up plenty of supplies

 

[Master Cutler]

I'm a regular visitor to Germany through work. Out office is in Baden-Baden, so I have become a big fan of their food. The best value food I find though is in the many Turkish restaurants dotted about the place. There seems to be a meld of styles where both cultures influence the menus.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I love Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes) with sour cream. These are very easy to make. I made spaetzle once in a cooking class, and it was much better than the boxed variety (which I still liked, but was a bit gummy by comparison).

 

[flyinglentris]

My Oma made food from her region of Germany. I grew up eating it until she passed. There was nothing "light" about the food. What have you had and what did you or didn't you like? Austria would probably fit in here as well.

German food tends to be different from other cultural foods in that it is more everyday and has less festive feel to it. That is not to say that the Deutschland gente do not party and have specialties for that purpose. Much of German food is related to hunting and farming, fishing along the North Sea. I sometimes wonder whether this has something to do with an absence of wealth generated by the mercantile class during the Renaissance. But maybe it has more to do with the Northern Latitude not allowing longer growing seasons and wider variety of crops. It seems to me that many northern latitude countries have more everyday cuisines. In the US, we call it continental cuisine.

Meats, Dairy, Cabbage, Potatoes, Cheese, Beer and Wine are some of the big items that contribute to German cuisine.

It is different and unique and that is the great thing about German cuisine. And it is good.

 

[Elawin]

Friday lunch times at the office were a bit longer than we normally had, provided we took our boss to a pub in a nearby town. They used to serve Scottish venison on Fridays.....