German food au naturale

I'm going to Germany for 2 weeks. What "native" foods do y'all recommend I look for when I am there?

Avoid all tourist traps & be sure to take plenty of pics of the food you did eat. When you get back post the pics HERE.

If the temps are low, must you still eat au naturale?

Have a couple of semmelknoedel for me

Ah, but it will be springtime.....

...for Hitler, and Ger-ma-neeeeeeee........

Unlike most places here in the states, the best restaurants are in the local hotel.

Pork, beef(veal), sausage, potatoes, beer, white wine, bread. The red wines you can get are very nice but they are Italian. Fish and chicken are not German staples.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.

Cakes

(Almost) any kind of sausage anywhere anytime. It's all good, though there are some unusual exotics. A good place to get them can be a beer hall, many of which also serve heavy German "roadfood" (sausages, kraut etc). For the Hofbrauhaus, Munich menu see http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/01/speisekarte_schwemme_en.html . "Speisekarte" incidentally mean "menu" which is good to know.

You should try to learn a little basic food German before you go. First time I went there I flew into Luxembourg and crossed the Rhine on a train, then had to switch trains from one down the Rhine. Found myself in a little German town with a nice restaurant but, of course, the menu all in German. I was afraid to order. I quickly bought a phrase book and educated myself on such things as "schinken" (ham), kase (cheese), schwein (pork), kartoffel (potato) and so on.

That said, veal dishes are common and good, the classic being, of course, Wiener Schnitzle (pan-fried breaded veal cutlet with lemon). If you don't eat veal, many places also serve pork "schnitzle".

Germans don't seem to eat salads like we do--raw veggies dressed at the table. But they have lots of "gemischtesalats"--literally "mixed salad" I believe--of veggies of various sorts chopped up and often mixed with a viniagrette type dressing.

http://ingeb.org/Lieder/deutsch2.mid

quote:

Originally posted by Cakes

Fish and chicken are not German staples.

Interesting. I vaguely recall a chain of German fast food chicken places existed when I was there in the 70's but I can't recall the name. They don't eat a lot of commercial seafood, it's true, but they do like anything wild ("game" meat like venison is big) including fish caught in the many rivers and lakes when they can get it.

I've been to Germany several times as my mother is German, and I love the spaetzle, all the schnitzels (especially the Jaegerschnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln und Rotkraut) , the rouladen, the salads, all the sausages, and well just about all of it. They also tend to have very good Pommes Frites (french fries) there! Happy dining!

Andrea

Did I mention beer?

I had to stop at a McDonalds just so I could say I had a beer at the Golden Arches.

I did forget venison and asparagus. We stayed in a small town north of Munich that claims to me the asparagus capital of the world. Strobenhousen (sp?), they have a museum there.

Cakes

quote:

Originally posted by AndreaB

I've been to Germany several times as my mother is German, and I love the spaetzle, all the schnitzels (especially the Jaegerschnitzel mit Bratkartoffeln und Rotkraut) , the rouladen, the salads, all the sausages, and well just about all of it. They also tend to have very good Pommes Frites (french fries) there! Happy dining!

Andrea

Great suggestions Andrea. I love schnitzel and rouladen; and spatzle (and knodel) too.

A few general recommendations? ...

Leave your diet behind. Travelling is not the time to worry about calories. Eat, drink and be merry.

Frequently ask the locals what to eat to remember their town the best.

Keep an eye open for a restaurant in a "Gasthof" (a type of modest hotel) as they are likely to have local German food in it's more typical "rustic" surroundings. Restaurants you might see with a similar name are a "Gasthaus", "Gastube" and "Gastwirtschaft". (note that "Gaststatten" is a general term for restaurants)

Also, the local pubs (a "Lokal" or a "Kneipe") might have good local food.

There are so many great sausages it's hard to know which to try. One thing you might do is try to sample the sausages that specific areas are known for ... Thuringian Rostbratwurste ... Frankfurter Wurstchen, Bavarian Weisswurste ... get em where they are the specialty (get the weisswurste before midday on the day they're made if possible)

You didn't say *when* you are going ... that has a bit to do with what you eat. If it is later this year around September try to hit the 570 year old Wurstmarkt festival in Dürkheim ... now *that* is a sausage event.

If you are going soon ... Munich has a spring festival (fruhlingsfest) April 21 to May 7 this year. May also has a bunch of Asparagus festivals going on.
It's definitely worth figuring out what events are going on as a clue to what will be on the menu.

(BTW: Expect to also have a chance to try a Turkish Restaurant or two as well. )

I will be in the Swabia area of Germany (between Stuttgart and Bavarian Alps), staying with friends. I know there are local specialties, like noodles. We will probably do a lot of hiking, so I'll walk off all these noodles! Last time I was in Germany, I enjoyed the tomato paste, ketchup and mustards the sold in tubes (like toothpaste) and also a drink sort of like a mixture of grapefuit juice and sparking mineral water. The family I visited ordered it by the case, like we used to do with Coke and other soda pops. Also, when my friend made coffee in the mornings, she put a teaspoon of cocoa in the coffee drip (delicious) and sprinkled nutmeg in mashed potatoes. Meusli was also big for brekfasts,
All these little day-to-day things make a difference.
I'll let you know after the trip....