Crumbs from Germany

Crumbs - the tasty small bits broken from the whole. Thats what this blog is - bits and pieces of food pictures and trivia from our River Cruise through the Netherlands and Germany that didn't fit with the other blogs (Apple Strudel 10/12; Sweet Dishes 10/11; The German Table 10/10; German Beef Rolls 9/13; and Garnished! 9/9).

I'm not sure there are still 'traditional' German foods as food preferences everywhere are constantly evolving. Some regional dishes have blended to become national or international. Other cultures have added flavors. Lifestyles and health concerns changed preferences. But we still found unique food trends and deep held traditions in the 'street food' of Germany.

People in Germany, like in the U.S., buy much of their food on the street. Whether it is a local bakery, a sandwich shop, or a small grocery store - convenience, location and taste are important. The grocery stores we saw were much smaller than our supermarkets, but I'm sure there were larger markets farther away from the town centers where we were touring.

Pretzels always come to mind with German food - Pretzels, sausages and beer.

Pretzels are often served with mustard - we did a bit of shopping for things to bring home and bought German mustard (senf). Mustard, and many jams and other condiments, are sold in tubes. Just be sure you don't brush your teeth with it!

At lunch during a Frankfurt tour outing, we ate at a local restaurant, the food served was similar to a German ravioli. It is called "maultaschen", supposedly developed by monks in the 16th century who wanted to eat meat (and hide it from the Lord) during Lent, so they mixed the meat with spinach and herbs and hid the mixture in dough pockets.

 Many shops and stores have large signs to illustrate what they offer. Makes it much easier than trying to read German! This is a pretzel shop.....

Bakeries are on many streets, as everyone likes sweet treats. The Berliner is a popular German, and Dutch, jelly-filled donut. When President Kennedy visited Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War, he meant to express solidarity with the people of Berlin, but instead he said "I am a jelly donut".

Other sweet treats were Schneeballens - Snowballs. It seems every cuisine from the State Fair to fine French cooking has a favorite fried dough recipe. The Snowballs were strips of dough formed into a ball, deep fat fried and coated with powdered sugar.

We like to look at grocery stores when we travel, even if its Dillion's in Wichita! Just to see what other people might be buying for their foods. We always check out the meat counter. In Karlstadt we compared the milk products and meat . "fleisch" is meat, Hackfleisch is ground meat. 

In Nurnberg we saw representations of tradition and today. Saturday's activity filled the town square with street market stalls of fruits, vegetables, flowers and baked goods. The McDonalds (also know as the unofficial American Embassy) was right behind the street market. Guess where the tour group headed on a rainy morning! 

Sampling the food and learning about a country's culture through food are part of the fun of traveling. We sometimes find things we like and will adapt at home (German Meat Rolls) and some we won't try again (roasted duck). I'm sure our Taste of Germany was only a small sample of the foods German families enjoy, just as I hope travelers to the U.S. don't think that we eat hot dogs and popcorn all the time (although popcorn is one of my favorite foods!)