German food recommendations?

[Campfire]

I've been to Germany quite a lot & used to live there in the - shhhhhhh late 60s!

As I'm veggie German food is quite difficult for me but I think when you go one of the delicacies is Asparagus (Spargel) which come served in a variety of ways. I quite like it fortunately. I can't say about the meaty dishes as I avoid them.

Very fattening but delicious are Kartoffelpuffer with Apfelmuss. Not to be eaten too many times.

Enjoy the trip - the beer's good & so is the wine.

 

[ChrisKH]

Sorry Arch - I fear you'll have to put up with German food - not good generally except pastries, and a nice time away.

People who eulogise about German food (if such people exist) have obviously never eaten in Italy / Spain / Greece / Turkey / Southern France. It's purely a produce thing. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear and you can only make a limited amount of delicious fresh things if you live in middle/northern Europe compared to the Meditarranean diet.

Still I'm sure you will enjoy some hearty fare. I love saurkraut and sausages if you want an unimagaminative option

Horses for courses surely.

It's fallacious to suggest that German food is not any good compared to say a mediterranean country. By comparison I often find Italian food rather limited and limiting and none of the countries you mention, France aside, can compete on the Patisserie front. That doesn't mean Italian food isn't of the same quality. It's just diferrent. It is really a question of taste, appetite and what you are accustomed to eating. You can eat well in Germany if you know what to look for. Equally you can eat badly if your choices are poor. No different from any other country. Personal diet preference is another matter entirely - Germany is not the place for a vegan but will suit the carnivore down to the ground.

 

[MichaelM]

Spezi is at Germersheim:

"Germersheim is a district town located in the south of Germany between Speyer and Karlsruhe (near Heidelberg)"

I lived in St Leon-Rot for 4 years (worked in Heidelberg) - best years of my life. On the food front, we ate far too often in a local haunt and I'd often ask the waitress to bring something different off the menu - the pork medallions were one of my favorites. The area was well known for its asparagus though.

 

[montage]

if I weren't drunk I would remember the name of the best ever puddings.....kinda like a dome with lots of custerd.

Also....their soups their are pretty damn wierd, really really watery with some random dumpling/other solid (such as noodles) in them

 

[mangaman]

Horses for courses surely.

It's fallacious to suggest that German food is not any good compared to say a mediterranean country. By comparison I often find Italian food rather limited and limiting and none of the countries you mention, France aside, can compete on the Patisserie front. That doesn't mean Italian food isn't of the same quality. It's just diferrent. It is really a question of taste, appetite and what you are accustomed to eating. You can eat well in Germany if you know what to look for. Equally you can eat badly if your choices are poor. No different from any other country. Personal diet preference is another matter entirely - Germany is not the place for a vegan but will suit the carnivore down to the ground.

Up to a point I agree, but there does come a point (the Mediterranian climate) where the fresh, local produce is just.... nicer, tastier.

I agree if you don't like veg/fish that's not an advantage though, and a cafe in Germany or the UK may be... OK. I also think Northern Europeans are better at sweet things and meat. But that rarely translates into great cafe food in Northern Europe. (Away from overpriced Viennese cafes)

I do believe in some degree of relatavism.

Go to a rural Southen Italian / Greek cafe and and an English / German cafe. The former will have fresher, seasonal food being grown outside and is likely to be better.

As a result there's also much more of a food culture in Southen Europe. Try stopping in a Spanish motorway service station - everything will be fresh, local, seasonal, made to order, cheap etc. Stop in a British/German service station and compare

 

[Andy in Sig]

If you want dead normal but basically OK food then go for a Jägerschnitzel.

If you see a restaurant offering schwäbische cuisine then try Maultaschen.

The best tip if your visit is only a short one is to buttonhole one of the locals and ask them to recommend an above average local restaurant which also offers a good selection of local wines.

A quick google shows that the restaurant at the Hotel Germersheimer Hof meets the bill. If you need any of the menu translating, let me know.

There's also a Greek restaurant in the town. They are great for attempting suicide due to too much meat.

 

[XmisterIS]

Wiener Schnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat

Schinkenwurst (or any kind of wurst) mit Sauerkraut. Except Weisswurst - it is next to being the food of the devil himself. The actual food of the very devil himself is Speck - even my German friends all hate it! They say it's old man's food.

Also, if you're going more towards the south (Baden-Wuerttemberg or Bayern kind of area), you can try Spaetzler - it's a kind of noodle which they put in all sorts of dishes. I'm not sure how poplar it is in the North, but it's lovely!

 

[Andy in Sig]

Spätzle (FWIW) pronounced shpetsleh.

They are very good and soak up the gravy nicely.

 

[XmisterIS]

They are totally gorgeous! I make them with a potato ricer here in the UK too, having been shown how by a German friend

(EDIT: It's those pesky "e" and "er" endings that I often get muddled up!)

 

[Andy in Sig]

The traditional way to make them (they originated in the region where I live) is to make the dough and roll it out about 1/4" thick on a chopping board. You then use a sharp knife to chop thin strips off which fall straight into the seething water. There are a number of variants on the basic egg mixture. Just google Spätzle Rezept and you should get some.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Here you go:

http://www.spaetzle.de/rezepte.html

And here's one in English (with pics for the hard of thinking)

http://cook.dannemann.org.uk/sidedishes/spaetzle/

In English you just need to do a search on "spaetzle recipe".

 

[Speicher]

Slightly off topic, but someone might know what I mean. In Austria once, where the cuisine is similar to Germany, I had a delicious pudding.

It was a light fluffy pudding like a thick (about one and a half inches thick) fluffy pancake, with raisins, I think. It was served in one piece, as opposed to Kaiserschmarren, which is in little pieces. I cannot remember the name of it. Have you any idea what I am talking about?

 

[Aperitif]

Tyrolmisu?

 

[Speicher]

Tyrolmisu?

 

[Andy in Sig]

Slightly off topic, but someone might know what I mean. In Austria once, where the cuisine is similar to Germany, I had a delicious pudding.

It was a light fluffy pudding like a thick (about one and a half inches thick) fluffy pancake, with raisins, I think. It was served in one piece, as opposed to Kaiserschmarren, which is in little pieces. I cannot remember the name of it. Have you any idea what I am talking about?

Damn! I was going to say Kaiserschmarrn until you got to the unchopped bit. Maybe it was Nicht Gehacktes Kaiserschmarrn..

It's worth remembering that Kaiserschmarnn is only known because a farmer's wife offered it to Franz-Josef (or similar) when he was out hunting one day and because he liked it, it caught on. You can bet your life that the lady at the next farm didn't serve it chopped up. It is regarded as a kind of pancake and there are as many recipes for pancakes in Germany and Austria as there are Grandmothers.