One of my favorite parts of traveling is the food! Since I did an extensive post on our fantastic food in Paris, I thought I should give equal attention to what we’ve been eating on a day-to-day basis in Germany. To be honest, I really don’t care all that much for traditional German food. Pork is the staple meat and there are more sausage varieties than you can possibly imagine. Not really being much of a connoisseur of pork products, it was a bit of a challenge finding things that I liked at the beginning. However, over time, I did learn to find some German favorites and we have discovered a lot of non-German things that we love.
Traditional German
As I said, I haven’t really fallen in love with the schnitzels and bratwursts which dominate the traditional German food scene, so I can’t really comment too much on those things. But, if you do like those things, by all means, come and visit! The Brauhaus (brewery) is probably the most traditional type of German restaurant. Many regions (and sometimes individual cities) will have their own special type of beer particular to that area. Restaurants will serve that type of beer along with all of the traditional foods of that area. My favorite Brauhaus in Cologne is The Früh.
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| Dinner at the Früh on my very first day in Germany in March 2014 |
Some of the other German foods that I like there are:
Putensteak
Turkey meat seems to be a lot more popular here than in the US and restaurants will often have a grilled turkey breast or turkey tenders on their menu. It does taste different from a Thanksgiving turkey, but it’s still good.
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| Putensteak at The Früh |
Potatoes
With all that meat that’s consumed, you need some nice starchy sides to go with it. Germans are masters of the potato. From baked, to fried, to boiled, topped with cream, bacon, or mayonnaise you can’t go wrong.
Pretzels
Really all of the breads/rolls are great here, but the pretzels are especially good. Although usually reserved for ballpark fare in the US, soft pretzels are readily available here in bakeries, snack shops, and cafeterias to accompany soup or salads or to just be eaten plain.
Currywurst & Pommes
Although I typically steer clear of sausages/bratwursts, I do enjoy the fast food treat, currywurst and pommes. Currywurst is simply a thin sausage (very similar to a US hotdog) sliced into coin-sized pieces and doused in "curry sauce," which falls somewhere between a spicy ketchup and barbecue sauce. It's usually served with a side of pommes (french fries) topped with mayo. It's certainly not the fanciest of dishes, but it's pretty tasty.
Döner
Döner is a fast food obsession in Germany. Döner shops are like Starbucks in the US—nearly one on every corner. Döner Kebap is a Turkish-inspired dish that became popular due to the wave of immigration in the 1970s. It is very similar to a gyro: Chicken or lamb meat, veggies, feta cheese, spicy sauce, and tzatziki dressing all stuffed inside a grilled pita pocket. And when I say stuffed, I mean STUFFED and overflowing. I am still slowly working my way up to being able to eat a full döner sandwich, because they are so large and overwhelming. Most döner places also serve other Middle Eastern dishes like falafel, lentil soups, and spicy meats.
My favorite döner shop is close to our house and called “Sam’s Mexican Döner.” It’s a tiny shop, without any place to sit (just a counter where you can stand and eat) and there’s nothing remotely “Mexican” about it. Instead of the traditional pita bread, they make wraps with flat bread and have about 10 different flavors of sauces that can be added. In a Pittsburgh-esque twist, they also put french fries on some of their sandwiches. My favorite thing to get at Sam’s is called “Pomm Döner” which is a base of fries, topped with chicken and the yogurt sauce (which is so close to ranch). It is super unhealthy, but delicious!
Other Restaurants
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| Döner Meat |
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| Pomm Döner |
We have also found some other great non-German restaurants in Cologne and the surrounding area and I’m sure that you could probably find any type of cuisine you were looking for here. Some of my favorites include: Bugerlich, Bay Area Burritos, Café Extrablatt, Café Von und Zu and Thai Basilikum.
American Chains
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| Burgerlich |
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| What's Pizza |
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| Thai Basilikum (Photo Credit: Ankita!) |
As can be expected, there's also a ton of American fast food chains around to help combat homesickness. It might be caused by nostalgia, but I think they taste better here. :) Some places, like McDonalds and Starbucks, have additional menu items based on the local city that aren't available in the US.
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| Not found in the US, this cream cheese muffin is TO DIE FOR. |
I also cook a lot at home and have had the time to try a lot of new recipes. It can still be challenging sometimes because some basic ingredients (flour, butter, dairy products like cream, sour cream, and cream cheese) are just a bit different from what's found in the US. They don't react the same way and I've ended up with my fair share of deflated cakes, too thin chocolate chip cookies, and runny cheesecakes. In these cases, you just have to pick yourself up, wash off the feathers off your uncleaned eggs, and keep going!
Who's hungry and ready to visit??
