Central Europe: Food Compilation!

Alright, so the title is a bit of a misnomer. For the first few weeks, I ate the sort of food that could barely be called “central Europe”. Like doner kebaps, train station couscous (albeit really delicious!), and grocery store sushi. Yeah. I went there.  If I can remember correctly, it wasn’t until week two or three that I walked into a restaurant and made a conscious effort to try local dishes. This was the time I mustered up the courage to walk into a restaurant and order food in some strange language I didn’t know. And then consequently sit there eating alone feeling kind of like a loser. I got over that by the end though… but, I digress.

These are my food thoughts, by country, chronological order:

Germany

Bottom line of German food: meat. Especially sausages. Nearly every area I went had its own sausage specialty: for Berlin, it was currywurst (sliced up sausage smothered in curry sauce); the state of Thuringen had their ridiculously long rostbratwurst; and Munich had weisswurst (white wurst) served in their traditional breakfast. Along with beer. They all have their special place in my heart, though currywurst the most so because the stuff was found everywhere (at anytime!), and served as a surprisingly good catalyst for getting to know people. It’s true!

I wasn’t sure what the sausage specialty was for Dresden, though (does it even have one?); I feel that is one more reason to get my butt back there.

Last meal in Berlin: currywurst from the Hauptbahnhof

A Thuringen rostbratwurst, from Weimar

This stand claims the best weisswurst in Munich – but, since it’s highly perishable, it’s not served after noon! We had some bratwurst instead (below).

Czech Republic

Alas, I didn’t have a camera on me on this night, so you’re just going to have to believe me when I say that I had a massive 1-something-kilo pig knuckle for dinner at a Czech restaurant in Olomouc. It was served with freshly cut horseradish and a stack of whole pickles, so you know this thing means business. I shared it another girl from the hostel, but in the end, it was the skinny guy from Dresden who finished it off for us. On our bewilderment, he just said, “I’m German! What do you expect?”.

Yep, this looks about right. (Photo source is at the clickthrough)

Other than vast quantities of meat, we also had some traditional stinky Olomouc cheese. All I can remember about the flavour of it was that it felt like your tongue getting a tap dance from a little man wearing soccer cleats and whacking at the roof of your mouth with nunchucks. I don’t think it stunk as much as it kind of took over your whole oral cavity.

Also: Czech beer at bars is as cheap as water. That is all.