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The One & Only Nuremberg Bratwurst

January 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I love how one of Nuremberg’s main claims to fame is a sausage and a little sausage at that. The Nuremberg bratwurst or sausage to us English speakers is a thin pork sausage around 8cm in length. You’ll most likely find it as street food, grilled and served three in a bun with your choice of sauce, typically mustard. The Nuremberg bratwurst is so famous that it’s protected by EU legislation and even has its own festival, the Nuremberg Sausage Village!

Nuremberg Bratwurst Sausage

I don’t usually eat pork, simply because I don’t like it, but seeing as I was in Nuremberg to visit their famous Christmas market, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try the local speciality. I picked a vendor who was giving the sausages a nice dark grilling and I covered my three little sausages with curry ketchup sauce which was new to me too. I was thinking I wouldn’t be able to eat the whole thing but I have to admit it was very tasty. The sausage meat is flavoured with marjoram which I could definitely taste, at least where the sausage wasn’t slathered with sauce.

I didn’t spend long in Nuremberg as I was heading south to Munich to continue my Christmas market tour. Wandering around the Munich markets, I saw a couple of stalls selling the Nuremberg bratwurst. Did I dare try it again? I did and this one was even better than the one I had in Nuremberg! It was cooked over hot coals which gave a bit of a smoky flavour to it. Very nice.

Nuremberg Bratwurst in Munich 

I am determined to eat more street food from now on as I think by avoiding it I’m missing out on some amazing meals. I might even have another bratwurst next time I’m in Germany.

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Coffee & Cake in Dresden

January 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

German cakes have a special place in my heart. Or should I say stomach? Light, creamy and sweet but not too sweet is how I like my cakes and thankfully the Germans make them just the way I like them. The afternoon ritual of going out for coffee and cake is one I could easily get used to. In Dresden I sought out one of the oldest, most traditional cafes in the city for my afternoon treat, Grand Cafe Coselpalais, where they serve both French and German style cakes as well as light meals.

Grand Cafe Coselpalais

Originally built in 1765, the building was destroyed during the war and then rebuilt in the original style before finally reopening in 2000. I love the baroque building and in summer you can sit out on the terrace and admire the beautiful Frauenkirche located just opposite.

As soon as you step through the entrance you are presented with a huge glass showcase with cakes and desserts. This is the hard part. Do you want chocolate cake, vanilla, something fruity? In the end I went with a light yoghurt lime slice, the kind of thing I always choose.

Yoghurt Lime Slice

Service was swift and my pretty (and tasty) dessert was served on Dresden’s famous Meissen porcelain. Nice touch. I can’t speak about the coffee because I don’t actually drink coffee. I don’t know why I always say I’m having coffee and cake when I skip the coffee part but I do.

I felt like I had gone back in time at the Grand Cafe and I could have lingered for hours (and ordered another cake) if I hadn’t been in a hurry to head off and visit the Christmas markets.

Now that Dresden is my new favourite German city (it changes each year) I will be heading back soon and back to the Grand Cafe Coselpalais as well as a couple of other traditional coffee houses I spotted around the city.

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Dresden’s Christmas Market Snacks

December 25, 2011 by 2 Comments

Seeing as things are quiet here on Christmas day, I thought I would share the fantastic food I had at this year’s Christmas markets in Dresden. I spent 3 days in Dresden which was no where near enough to explore the city but it gave me the chance to sample plenty of snacks the Saxon’s have on offer at their wonderful markets.

Savoury Christmas Snacks

It’s tempting to go straight to the sweets but I had some amazing savoury food at the markets including what was possibly the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my life, a fladenbrot sandwich. Fladenbrot is a flat Turkish bread and at the markets they prepare it with vegetarian fillings including three types of cheese, pickled chillies (one of my favourite things in life), sundried tomatoes and olives. Super lecker.

Fladenbrot in Dresden

Next best snack for me was the Dresden Rahmklecks. It would have made the top of my list if it didn’t have ham in it but Germany is the land of pork so it’s quite hard to find vegetarian food, especially at the Christmas markets. I just ate my way around the ham. Hot, freshly cooked bread stuffed with cheese.

Dresden Rahmklecks

If you’re feeling peckish you could get the 1/2 metre sausage. There is no way I could eat that but the line to buy them was the longest in the entire market.

1/2 Metre Sausage

Another great vegetarian option (although I don’t know what they fry it in) is langos. Langos is a Hungarian specialty eaten just out of the fryer. It’s a crispy fried dough brushed with garlic butter and topped with cheese, sour cream and various other ingredients. You can also eat it with sweet toppings.

Hungarian Langos in Dresden

Sweet Christmas Snacks

These delicious Dutch pancake-like bites are know as poffertjes. No, I have no idea how to pronounce that. You can have plain ones with butter and powdered sugar (as I did) or indulge a little more with apple sauce, caramel sauce or Nutella. I really should have gone back and tried the Nutella ones.

Poffertjes

Another of my favourite desserts in Dresden was the baked apple available from the little Christmas market on Münzgasse. It’s baked with jam, cinnamon and honey and served with custard and whipped cream. It’s served in an edible bowl (used at quite a few of the stalls) so you need to eat it quickly, which you would anyway.

Traditional Baked Apple

I thought these krappelchen things were not nice at all but they were hugely popular so I guess I don’t know anything.

Krapfen

Nougat is another popular sweet at Christmas but I’m 50/50 whether or not I like it. It had a delicious hazelnut flavour but it’s so, so sweet.

Christmas Nougat

A marshmallow wafer sandwich. At €1 a piece you can’t really go wrong.

Schaumschnitte

Where to Stay

On this trip to Dresden I stayed at the Hotel Am Terrassenufer which is a 7 minute walk to the Christmas markets near the Frauenkirche and Schlossplatz and it’s a few minutes further to the main Striezelmarkt. I would definitely recommend this hotel if you are planning to visit the Christmas markets this year.

Dresden’s Christmas Market

I was surprised by the diversity of food at these markets with a great mix of local and international cuisine. This was also the cheapest of all the Christmas markets I have visited in Germany and if you could get a cheap flight or train ticket here it would make for a great value getaway.

Dresden is such an amazing city and out of all the Christmas markets I have visited this is most likely the only one I would return to.

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German Chips

March 6, 2011 by 4 Comments

German street food typically consists of curry wurst or other kinds of sausages and chips which you can get from little Imbiss stands found in every city. I find the thought of these kinds of sausages to be pretty disgusting but these kiosks do usually make decent chips. Some of these places seem to do more trade in chips than anything else and you see people standing around the street eating huge paper cones filled with thick chips topped with sauce. Those are my kinds of places and the best I’ve found are in the main shopping street in Cologne.

In my opinion, these are far better than the Belgian chips I’ve tried, especially when topped with tzatziki. The first thing I do whenever I visit Cologne is head to the chip shop and buy some freshly cooked chips for a couple of euros. I usually won’t need to eat for the rest of the day after eating them. Sometimes I really miss Cologne.

German Chips with Mayonnaise

Chips Pre-Sauce

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Hofbrauhaus in Munich

January 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Established in 1589, Hofbrauhaus is one of Munich’s oldest breweries. I find it incredible to think about what was going on in some parts of the world 400 or 500 years ago. In places like Munich, the dilemma of the day was how to get good beer in the city, while in other places the locals were trying to figure out how to get their meal for the day. My own country, Australia, hadn’t even been ‘discovered’ while the Duke of Bavaria was having council meetings to arrange the construction of the Hofbrauhaus brewery. Life is weird.

The Hofbrauhaus in the centre of Munich is no longer an active brewery and while I am sure there are better beer gardens in the city, Hofbrauhaus is such an institution it shouldn’t be missed. Yes, you’ll most likely be surrounded by other tourists while you’re there but what the hell, it’s a lot of fun.

It pretty much goes without saying that drinking beer is the thing to do. I never drink beer but made an exception here and while I couldn’t manage to drink the entire 1 litre I got, it did make for a good photo op.

Andrea Drinking Dark Bavarian Beer

The food is traditional German which means a lot of sausages, roast pork, pork knuckle and other meats. Not my kind of food. They have a few vegetarian options but they’re not very appealing. You can see the full menu here. I don’t remember what I ordered but I know I didn’t like it.

Hofbrauhaus Munich Food

If you like meat and potato type dishes I’m sure it’d be alright but I suspect there isn’t too much love and attention put into the meals, it’s all about feeding the masses.

Bavarian Meat and Potato

Even though I didn’t enjoy the food and I don’t drink, the atmosphere was great and I’d go again.

While I always knew Hofbrauhaus was big business, I didn’t know just how big until recently. Hofbrauhaus pub franchises can be found all around Europe, in the US, Dubai, South Korea, Thailand, and even in Melbourne. I wonder how successful they are outside of Munich.

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