Overview
Lunch is the main meal. Around 7:00 p.m., dinner is eaten, mostly sandwiches and various salads. Breakfast generally consists of boiled eggs, different types of bread or rolls, jam, honey, muesli, sausage, ham and cheese. In snack bars, cafés and butcher shops you can get grilled and fried sausages, crackers and bockwurst with rolls or potato salad. Sandwiches are also offered. They are either topped with ham, different types of sausage, meat loaf, »Hackepeter« (raw minced pork with onions), cheese or pickled herring and garnished with onion rings, pickled cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs, etc. The bakery has a large selection of different breads and rolls, Sourdough, rye, caraway and wholemeal breads as well as pretzels are popular. A complete daily special in an inn or restaurant usually consists of three courses. Soup is often served as a starter, the main course consists of meat with sauce, potatoes, vegetables or salad. Potatoes are prepared in many different ways as boiled or fried potatoes, as potato dumplings, mashed potatoes or potato pancakes. Pudding, ice cream, compote or fruit are served for dessert. In the restaurants you can drink beer or wine with your meal. The confectioner has a large selection of cakes, tarts and pastries, filled or topped with cream, buttercream, fruit or quark. In the afternoon, people like to meet at home or in the café for coffee and cake. Table service is common but there are also numerous self-service restaurants. Light meals are also available if you feel hungry.
Regional specialities
There is a multitude of regional specialties: Hamburg and northern Germany: Hamburg eel soup, Labskaus (corned beef or salted beef with mashed potatoes, Rollmops herring and fried egg), pears, beans and bacon, roast Heidschnucken, cabbage and Pinkel (kale and sausages), cod with green sauce, farmer’s breakfast (omelette with fried potatoes and onions), Hanoverian blind chicken (stew made from bacon, potatoes, vegetables and fruit), Katen smoked ham, herring, smoked eel, fish and shrimp rolls as a snack, red jelly (fruit puree with vanilla sauce or cream ), Rumtopf (fruit pickled in rum), Lübeck marzipan. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Plum’n un Klüt (plums and dumplings), Spickbost (smoked breast of goose), Rügenwald tea sausage. Mark Brandenburg: Teltower Rübchen, Mohnprielen and Mohnstriezel, morel dishes, Oder shrimp, Eberswalder Spritzkuchen, Schwarzsauer (with prunes and dumplings). Berlin: pork knuckle with sauerkraut and potato or pea puree, meatballs, Berliner liver (with onion and apple rings), pancakes, potato pancakes, Berliner (sugar-dusted lard with jam filling) and Berliner Weisse with shot (top-fermented beer with woodruff or raspberry syrup). Westphalia and Northern Rhineland: Rhenish sauerbraten, potato pancakes with applesauce, heaven and earth (apple and mashed potatoes) with Plünz (blood sausage) and roasted onions, Pfeffer-Potthast (spiced beef with bay leaves) and Moselle pike in a creamy cheese sauce, as well as rye rolls Liverwurst and Halver Hahn (cheese roll). Smoked ham, excellent Mettwurst sausages and pumpernickel (black wholemeal rye bread) come from Westphalia. Apple cabbage (syrup), plum jam, Aachener Printen, honey cake. Saxony-Anhalt: Loam and straw (sauerkraut with mushy peas), cabbage soup (bread cubes, kidney tallow, onions and mushrooms), bacon cake (with eggs and caraway), Zerbster Brägenwurst and bitter beer, tree cake. Thuringia: Thuringian grilled sausages, yeast pancakes (pancakes with raisins and sweetened with sugar or jam), crumble cake (with apple, plum, poppy seeds, quark or onions). Various »sponge« dishes (mushrooms are called sponges here). Saxony: Leipziger Allerlei (mixture of vegetables), Dresden Stollen, bacon cake, Quarkkeulchen. Frankfurt and Hesse: ribs with sauerkraut, Frankfurter sausages and ox breast in Frankfurt green sauce (cold herb sauce with mayonnaise), onion tart and Frankfurter Kranz (buttercream cake decorated with almond brittle). Palatinate and Baden: Saumagen, slaughterhouse, liver dumplings, wine sauerkraut, meatballs, ox breast with horseradish sauce, potato soup with plum cake, steamed dumplings with wine sauce, red wine cake, onion cake, wine soup, Riesling chicken with wide tagliatelle, tarte flambée, Baden snail soup, brook trout, preserved veal (veal fricassee with white caper sauce), Black Forest ham and Black Forest cake. Stuttgart and Swabia: Maultaschen, spaetzle, lentils and spaetzle with silk sausages, Bubenspitzle (made from potato dough), roast onions, Swabian Schäufele. Munich and Bavaria/Franconia: Leberkäs’, various dumplings, suckling pig,
Tip
Service is already included in hotel bills. In restaurants and cafes, a 10% service charge is expected. Taxi drivers, barbers, and restroom attendants also expect tips. Taxi fares and at the hairdresser’s are rounded up, toilet staff and cloakroom attendants receive around 50 cents.
Regional drinks
In restaurants and pubs, you are served at the table. Minors may only enter restaurants when accompanied by an adult, but are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. The opening times are quite different, the restaurants in the resorts and cities are i. Generally open all day until around midnight or later. Only in Berlin and Hamburg are there no statutory curfews. Beer is the national drink and comes in all different strengths and flavors. There are numerous light Pilsner and strong dark beers. The Bavarian wheat beer or wheat beer is particularly refreshing. Unusual specialties are Bavarian G’frornes (frozen beer), Mumme (a bitter-sweet beer without hops) from Braunschweig, Altbier from Düsseldorf, Kölsch from Cologne, light or dark bock beer from Berlin and Köstritzscher Schwarzbier from Saxony. In summer, especially in southern Germany, numerous beer gardens invite you to linger. The Munich Oktoberfest is the most famous beer festival in the world. German wines are among the best in the world. The best-known come from the valleys of the Rhine and Moselle, but the wines from Baden, Franconian wine, and the wines from the wine-growing regions of the Ahr and Nahe as well as Saale and Unstrut are also worth trying. You should try the Frankfurter Äppelwoi (apple wine), the white Cannstatter in Stuttgart, the dry Würzburger or the German red wines Dornfelder and Trollinger. At the time of the grape harvest, New Wine (fermented grape juice), also known as Bizzler or Rauscher, is offered with onion cake in many places. In summer and autumn, numerous wine festivals take place in the towns along the German Wine Route and other wine-growing regions. At German Christmas markets, the best-known of which is the Nuremberg Christkindlmarkt, people like to drink mulled wine, sweetened with sugar or honey and flavored with spices. There are also numerous high-proof drinks: Korn (clear schnapps made from grain or caraway) in the north, bitters and herbal liqueurs from central Germany, eggnog and brandy from the Rhineland and fruit brandies (cherry brandy, raspberry, plum, pear and Mirabelle spirit) from the northern Black Forest.
Minimum age for consumption of alcoholic beverages
In Germany, you can drink beer and wine from the age of 16 and spirits from the age of 18. In restaurants and pubs, alcohol may not be served or sold to young people under the age of 18.
