All About the Food

So since I’ve been here, I’ve gotten a lot of questions that I’m not sure how to answer. So I’m to address my next few blogs to answering these seemingly easy but surprisingly difficult questions. This blogs question is… How is the food in Germany? I know, I know; it’s completely natural filler question that everyone, including people who don’t even care about my abroad experience, will ask me. And really it seems like I should have a good answer since I’ve been here for over two months, but since I make my own food, I would say my choice of food is probably different than the average German (yes I do eat peanut butter and no my German roommates do not). But for those who are really interested, here’s my best explanation of food and cuisine differences:

1. Germans, and all Europeans from what I’ve noticed, REALLY love bread. They eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And by bread, yes, I mean just slices of bread. Literally any kind of bread from French bread, to dark bread with nuts, to sunflower seed bread, to bread that has the weight of a small elephant, to regular wheat bread, is a choice. Germans freaking love bread and apparently are not affected by it’s weight consequences.

2. What do Germans put on their bread? BUTTER! That’s always the bread basis. Then for breakfast on top of the buttery bread: marmalade, jelly or cheese. For lunch and dinner? Cheese and thinly sliced meats (ham or salami). Delicious, I know.

3. Döner. It’s true. I’ve never seen so many döner kabob places in my life. What is döner? Lamb or chicken meat that’s put into flat bread (yes of course, bread) and mixed with beans, salad, onions, and tziki sauce.

4. They love coffee. And they love to enjoy their coffee. Germans never walk around with to go coffee thermoses because they take their sweet time in the morning enjoying their carefully made coffee. Me, on the other hand, makes instant coffee as quickly as possible because I’m usually running late.

5. Pastries. My goodness, I eat so many pastries here! Chocolate croissants, butter croissants, cheese pretzels, jelly filled donuts, the odd slice of cake that takes so delicious, you name it (except not cookies because they don’t have those). Their pastries go far beyond the typical American bagel or muffin. They’re carefully decorated and delicately displaced, which only makes me want them so much more.

6. More bread like food. Pretzels, pizzas, sandwiches, they love it all. And these aren’t like American alternatives. The pretzels aren’t nearly as salty, softer, and generally are covered in cheese. The to-go pizzas are so much more doughy and have barely any tomato sauce. The sandwiches are essentially some slice of meat or schnitzel stuffed between and entire butter covered baguette.

7. Mayonnaise. It’s everywhere, and it’s disgusting.

These are for the most part the greatest food differences I’ve experienced. Surprise! No meat and potatoes. I mean, it’s entirely possible that real German families eat delicious meat and potatoes for dinner every night, but I’m an American student on a budget, so I’ll stick to my peanut butter sandwiches thank you.