Just for fun: Food culture in Germany

There isn’t really a street food culture in Germany.
The food scene (in restaurants) has a great variety of international cuisines, which seems to overwhelm traditionally German dishes (which tend to be heavy on meat, mostly pork, and potatoes).
German breakfast, however is the best in the world (according to my completely unbiased opinion). It consists of hard, dark bread with butter and slices of sausage or cheese, served with coffee.
Traditional festive dishes are goose or carp for Christmas and lamb for Easter.

Beppi is right that there is no tradition of street food in Germany. Recently there have been “Street Food” festivals popping up however. Germany is still a real meat and potato based cuisine but over the last decades the inflow of foreigners has brought a lot of variety. There is still not a lot of vegan or vegetarian restaurants but for people like myself that don’t eat meat but one can usually find something on the menu especially in Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese or Turkish eateries. Most places serving traditional German food usually won’t have anything veggie other than a salad.

I mostly cook myself and make veggie fusion versions of Spätzle or Schupfnudeln which are traditional noodles from the south of Germany. And one of the things that make German breakfasts so good is the many varieties of breads and rolls which I don’t think is matched anywhere in the world. And supermarkets in Germany also have quite a variety for generally good prices and there are many ethnic food shops in any decent sized city as well; so if you cook yourself you can find most anything you want

Hey, I can agree that there is no good German street food. German food is really the only thing on which they cannot be proud of... I am vegetarian, which makes it even harder for me.
But speaking of breakfast, I love their toast, butter and orange juice tradition. Comes from France I would say anyways, there are many cool street food places around Schanze (Hamburg) where you can find great Portugeese, Chinese, Thai and similar dishes. I personally prefer Indian and Portugeese cuisine. You will find a lot of good restaurants here in Hamburg.

Germany have so Bad tasty food just potatoes and  Sausages omg 😒😏
But one time i test Zwiebel kuchen
And its was better than potatoes 🤣🤣

I can't answer about street food because I don't do that except for fish-n-chips when I vacation in Scotland. Here in Swabia I have yet to try saure Kutteln (sour tripe), but I'd say that qualifies as unusual. My mother-in-law had to make brain soup for her daughter for a while when she was growing up because of some health problem she was having. I don't think I need to try that, but again - counts as unusual to me.

At our house typical breakfast for me is coffee, and for my husband coffee and a cigarette. When I'm trying to impress guests I do the typical German style: fresh bread and Brötchen, sliced Wurst/Schinken/Salami & cheese, juice, Marmelade & honey, and coffee.

Our favorite dishes (we both love to cook): Rehrücken (venison tenderloin) with a herb-nut crust, Züricher Geschnetzeltes (pork tenderloin in a cream sauce) with Rösti, like American hash browns, lamb stew, grilled pork tenderloin with potatoes gratin or Bratkartoffeln... Clearly we are not vegetarians, but when I dine out I very often order Kässpätzle (cheese Spätzle).  I have found many of the recipes we make in the little free weekly magazine our local butcher provides.

Essential ingredients in German cuisine - nutmeg. We/They put nutmeg in nearly everything. And pork and potatoes, of course. But what makes German cuisine unique to me is their seasonal focus. Right now, chanterelles, in Spring white asparagus, in fall wild game and pumpkin, etc.

We live in a tiny town (pop. 1800) where there is a fabulous restaurant run by a local boy. He is a brilliant chef, and always has offerings that are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free... If you tell him your special needs, he will cook something fabulous for you. He has an open concept kitchen, so you can watch him cook as you dine - it's like dinner and a show. He also has seasonal menus, as every decent German restaurant does, and I'm looking forward to "Wild" season; the wild game he cooks comes from our local forests.

One last comment about German restaurants. I'm from the midwest of the US, and since moving here 7 years ago, I don't like going out to eat "back home." Restaurants are chains, and the food tastes like it arrived frozen on a truck and was just heated up, which is probably the case. In Germany most restaurants are family-owned, and often it's been the same family for generations. The restaurants have atmosphere and old-world charm. When I ask the server to recommend a wine, s/he knows what "dry white" means and what wine would go well with what I'm ordering. In the US you better know exactly what type of wine you want (i.e. Pinot grigio or Merlot) because the server likely won't have a clue ("We have both kinds - red and white.") :-)

German street food?  You guys never use a Schnellimbiss for a bratty?

Cynic wrote:

German street food?  You guys never use a Schnellimbiss for a bratty?

We meant the word “culture” in that context, which a typical Schnellimbiss cannot be accused of (unless you mean bacterial and fungus cultures ...).

beppi wrote:

Cynic wrote:

German street food?  You guys never use a Schnellimbiss for a bratty?

We meant the word “culture” in that context, which a typical Schnellimbiss cannot be accused of (unless you mean bacterial and fungus cultures ...).

ROFLMAO