Thought For Food

You read it right. Lets give a little thought to the food here.

Like in most of Europe, food in Germany is comprised mainly of non-vegetarian items. Pork and beef dominate, although fish, chicken and turkey are also eaten. Egg is common place. Vegetables and salads are meant to go with the meat and are mostly not eaten by themselves.

Naturally, vegetarians from India have a tough time here due to this limited choice. If you are a strict vegetarian and manage to find an item with none of the above, I have some more bad news for you. The vegetables in it are probably cooked in animal fat or oil! Vegetarians suffer most during travel and are usually found searching for a bakery or the 1.1 Euro veg burger at Mc Donalds! Over a period of time, many learn to make peace with the oils and some even learn to eat eggs. When close to home, they prefer to cook their own food. And thanks to the 'Indian Stores' in the vicinity, they get the groceries to cook almost all items they were used to back home.

Being a 'choosy' non-vegetarian myself, I can vouch for the fact that life is not easy for the likes either. That's because non-veg for me means egg, fish and chicken, with the occasional mutton. But you hear these names very sparingly here and I pounce on it when I do hear! One can argue that once you are a non-vegetarian, eating some other meat is just a matter of getting used to. But eating beef is a religious issue for the Hindus, like Pork is for the Muslims.

Frankly, I am not the right person to be getting a view of German food from as I have hardly eaten anything that is very german! But what I have explored, is a wide variety of icecream and bakery items like breads and cakes that can tickle the taste buds of all. Also a popular german fast food is the 'Curry Wurst', a sausage dipped in a (supposed to be!) spicy curry. I mean, spices are using very miserly in german cuisines and most dishes are bland or sweet. A typical eat out worth mentioning is the friendly neighbourhood 'Turkish' Döner Kebap Shops. Turkish are large in number in Germany and you always find one of these shops everywhere you travel. A Döner Kebap is the turkish version of the 'Shavarma' with meat of turkey or beef and salads stuffed into hand made bread.