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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.