German Food: Lunch and Dinner

My favorite mealtime in Germany is clearly breakfast, as I wrote about last week. But some of the more uniquely German dishes that comprise lunch and/or dinner are worth noting, too!

First up: Bratwurst. I'm sure most people are familiar with this quintessential German food. The delicious, fatty, salty sausage that just melts in your mouth and goes well with a piece of Broetchen fresh from the oven. Most people will eat it with sauerkraut and mustard, but as I'm not partial to either, I prefer mine plain. A lot of the time, the spices in the sausage make it so tasty, you don't need to detract from it with condiments!

Next: Schnitzel. Typically pork or chicken, hammered flat and tenderized before being breaded and fried. My favorite is schnitzel smothered in a brown mushroom sauce, with big pieces of mushroom in it. Delicious!

Most Schnitzel is eaten with (as pictured) french fries, but I prefer mine with...

Spaetzle! This is a noodle made of eggs, so the consistency isn't quite as "tough" as normal pasta. The shape is puffier, and the texture is softer and a little reminiscent of scrambled eggs. It's often served coated in cheese (Kaesespaetzle), but I enjoy it plain, too.

Frikadellen are another favorite that my mother used to cook from time to time. They are basically meat patties, where the ground meat is mixed with egg, chopped onions (my mom's version includes chopped potatoes) and bread crumbs before being molded into balls, flattened slightly, and fried. They're a little more akin to flattened giant meatballs than to hamburger patties :-) But they are infinitely more delicious than either :-9

This next dish is one I've only eaten at our local (now closed) German restaurant, Brummi's, where its owner hailed from East Berlin and provided the best eats: Kartoffelpuffer, or potato pancakes. The closest American equivalent might be hash browns, except that the potatoes are grated to a much finer scale than with hash browns. The outside is fried brown and crispy, leaving the inside soft and mealy. They're best served with a little side of applesauce!

Looking back at my list, I realize that just about every single food item here is fried. Probably not the healthiest to eat frequently, but soooo delicious. Maybe the arteries won't approve, but the taste buds do, and with gusto! :-)

What are your favorite foods?

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!