Here's my last post about our trip to Germany. I've blogged about Germany a zillion times before, so rather than going on about everything in great detail, I just wanted to share some pictures with you. Enjoy! (If you want any more info on any of the pictures, just hit me up in the comments section and I'll do my best to respond!)

View from Cafe Talblick

Lunch at Cafe Talblick: schnitzels, meat platter, spaetzle and more

Dinner at the local Greek restaurant, Paradies

Beer!

The hottest Currywurst in Ludwigshafen

Crumbed fish, potato salad, remoulade

Lunch at a local family restaurant for Susan's confirmation

Pork schnitzel with potatoes, asparagus and hollandaise sauce at Kreuzhofbauer. Literally the best schnitzel I have ever eaten!

Vintage ads

Different grades of Spargel / asparagus at the Lampertheim market. Well, Lampertheim ist der Spargelstadt!

Sausages being cooked at the local farmer

Freshly made sausages and smallgoods at the local farmer

Homecooked: smoked and natural pork ribs with Sauerbohnen (sour beans)

Rindfleischsuppe mit Dampfnudeln (beef soup with yeast dumplings)

Smoked and natural pork belly, with Sauerbohnen (sour beans), Sauerkraut and mashed potato

Kartoffelsoße - bread dumplings with potato sauce

Spaghetti-Eis

Ice-cream with chocolate whipped cream

Sahne-Puff (Cream puff),Rahmskuchen (cream cake), Marmorkuchen (marble cake), Apfelkuchen (apple cake)

Prost! Cheers!

If you can't get enough of all things related to German food, or just want to marvel at my incredible consumption of pork and bread, check out my previous posts about Germany!

• German (general posts about German food, including travel posts and posts about German things I've cooked/eaten in Melbourne)
• Germany 2006
• Germany 2007/2008
• Germany 2011
• Germany 2013

Brezel

German bread post! I love, love, love German bread, and the three weeks we spent in Germany were like a continuous carb fest. Jawohl! Each morning, Sandra's dad would go to the local bakery, and purchase a selection of frischgebackene (freshly baked) bread rolls and pretzels for us to eat at home with Sandra's mum's homemade Kirschmarmelade (cherry jam, made with cherries from their tree!), or perhaps some porky products from the supermarket or local farmer, all washed down with a strong mug of filter coffee. Oh lecker! In addition to the breakfasts, we had quite a few Aufschnitt dinners (cold cuts, bread and cheese). So much Teutonic deliciousness!

Here's the pretzel machine in the front window of Grimminger bakery.

Raw pretzels

Brezel

Just to get things straight, a Bäckerei is a bakery, whilst a Konditorei is a cake shop. Most Bäckerei I've seen will focus on bread, with some pastries, donuts and a small selection of cakes by the slice, whilst Konditorei sell cakes, chocolates, biscuits and similar sweet treats. But just quietly, I think I'm over German cakes, which tend to be a bit bland for my tastes. (Contrast this to Sandra's mum, who found French pastries way too sweet! Zu süß!)

The Cake fridge at a local Konditorei

The K&U Bäckerei

Pretzels, Brötchen

Schoko-croissant, Berliner, Streusel, Amerikaner, Käsekuchen, Kirschenplotzer

Berliner

Clockwise from bottom left: Pretzel, Brötchen, Rosinenbrötchen, Quarkplunder

Clockwise from top left: "Milchwek", Salzbrötchen, Brötchen, Mohnbrötchen

Vanilleschnecken - vanilla scroll

Let's talk about pretzels in more detail. In Germany, the big soft pretzels are called Laugenbrezel. "Brezel" means, well, pretzel, and "Laugen" is the lye solution in which the bread dough is dipped before being baked. (Or, for home cooks, a bicarbonate of soda solution, which is what I use when making homemade pretzels... although now I wonder if it would be more accurate to call my bicarb-dipped homemade pretzels: "Doppeltkohlensäuresnatronbrezel").

Breakfast basket, including a Laugenbrezel

Laugenstange

Breakfast basket, including Laugencroissant

Frischkäse

Potato Bread

Aufschnitt supper!

Sausagefest

Bauernbrot

Bauernbrot, Frischkäse, Bratwurstfilzl, Knackwurst

Dr Oetker Vitalis Knusper Schoko mit Vollmilch-Schokolade

Next up was a simple apple with peanut butter (my addiction!), as well as a Stroopwafel from Hema. I wasn't a fan of the Stroopwafels - too sweet and not crisp enough - but perhaps I need to make the trip to Holland next time, and have a freshly baked one at a market!

Apple & peanut butter, Stroopwafel

Stroopwafel on tea

Bringing it back to the Germany posts!

BBQ!

Mmm... meat. Today's post is going to be about the different barbecues and parties we enjoyed whilst on our trip. I thought it might be interesting for y'all to have a look at - when overseas, I personally find it can be hard to get an insight into a country's regular eating habits unless you're staying with a family for an extended period of time, like with your own friends and family, or on an exchange. Let's roll!

For Sandra's mum's birthday, we had a Fleischkäse Party. Fleischkäse (known as Leberkäse in Bavaria) is a spiced meatloaf, which you can buy in slices at the deli. You can eat it thickly sliced, wodged into a bread roll (like in my German Supermarkets post), topped with an egg and cheese in a "Strammer Max", or in thin slices as part of an Aufschnitt supper or in a sandwich. For this party (with about twenty guests, from memory), they bought three raw loaves, and baked them at home.

Raw Fleischkäse loaf

Slicing the Fleischkäse

Fleischkäse

Haha, my fifteen-year old pork-avoiding self would have hated this sight. Now I'm just like: "Give Me All Of The Pork!"  (N.B. you can buy Fleischkäse here in Melbourne - I normally get it from Andrew's Choice in Yarraville or the The Wursthütte on Glenferrie Road. I can't remember if the Polish deli in Victoria Market sells it, but if they do, I assume it'd be pretty good there too. Everyone here calls it Leberkäse though, how Bavari-centric!)

Accompaniments to the pork were ciabatta bread...

Ciabatta bread

...and salads! I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory, but a few comments: these were all homemade, and not purchased; mozzarella balls are super cheap in Germany, like €1 per ball; and Sandra's mum's potato salad is my favourite German food of all time! (More on that later).

Salads

Mini-Keg: "Eine Konigin unter den Bieren" - A Queen among the beers

Ingredients for white chocolate and raspberry mousse

Desserts: white chocolate and passionfruit mousse, Bailey's tiramisu, chocolate mousse

The Gulaschsuppe pot

Bubbling away

All the flavourings and secret ingredients

Dishing up the Gulaschsuppe

Mmm... tasty

I love the rich, paprika-spiked broth (extra rich from all the marrow bones it's cooked with!), the soft potatoes and carrots, and the tender meat.

The accompaniment for this delicious stew were some fab caraway bread rolls that Sandra's sister made herself. Don't they look great? Super professional and artisan-looking!

Kummelbroetchen - Caraway bread rolls

Of course, we had a couple of barbecues. Here's one we enjoyed at a (different) uncle's house. (The same BBQ from the pic at the top of this post).

BBQ

This one was relatively small, with just two salads (pasta salad and Sandra's mum's potato salad), a bowl of tzatziki, and a loaf of türkische Brot (Turkish bread), which was also heated through on the BBQ.

Salads

I know I've gone on about Sandra's mum's potato salad a lot before, but ZOMG it is so good! I just wanted to share a picture of it being made. Look at all that bacon! Bacon, potatoes, onion - pure deliciousness.

Kartoffelsalat - Potato salad

The following pics are from a barbecue we had at home the day we left - when the sun finally decided to come out! Totally dorky, I know, but I had so much fun choosing the different meats at the supermarket the day before. So many options! Apart from the amazing variety and quality of sausages that you'd expect, there were heaps of different marinated steaks, chicken wings, chicken skewers and, thrillingly, pork belly rashers. I must, must remember to buy pork belly rashers and marinate them the next time I barbecue!

BBQ at home

This time, I had a go baking some bread and made a Fladenbrot (flat bread, or focaccia), which I kneaded by hand, thank-you very much!

Raw Fladenbrot

Baked

And... phew! It was cooked all the way through and fluffy. Super yay!

Fluffy, fluffy Fladenbrot

Now that we're back in Australia, I can't wait for the weather to warm up a bit so I can enjoy some barbecues and beers in the sun!