When Good Food Goes Bad

I'm sure this isn't news to you if you've even glanced at a newspaper lately, but Germany's going through a *small* health scare.  It's not just "oh, gosh! I got food poisoning, was sick all night, but felt good the next morning" kind of food poisoning, but the scary "organ failure, you may die" kind of nasty E.Coli food poisoning.  While it's primarily an issue in North Germany (think Berlin), many places down in Bavaria have pulled lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from their food offerings as a safety precaution.  While I appreciate the proactive approach from restaurants and grocery stores, it has turned salads and anything else green and normally "healthy" into being characterized as unhealthy and dangerous. It also has resulted in slightly less desirable food.  I was standing next to a girl in a sandwich shop and she ordered a BLT sandwich.  The result was a piece of bacon between two slices of bread... yeah.  So this normally healthy green loving girl has resorted to trying out the less than healthy delicacies of Germany.

First - the Pork Schnitzel

Breaded and fried pork with french fries.  Kind of like a pork chop, but the seasoning makes it delectable.  It's actually pretty light for a fried food, but still it's fried and not something that should be eaten daily.  But boyyy is it tasty (especially mixed with a local Hefeweizen).  PS - The famous Jaegerschnitzel is when they add a mushroom sauce to the schnitzel.  Germans LOVE their mushrooms, not so much for this non-fungi fan.

Second - The Döner Kebap

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Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany the Döner Kebap and it has became as big a part of the German cuisine as the Schnitzel. The bare hunk of meat rotating on a pike seems kind of scary at first, but trust me, it is amazingly tasty.  Usually you add tomato and lettuce to your döner, but since that ingredient is currently hard to come by, döner and onions with garlic sauce it was!

Döner macht schöner ( Döner makes you beautiful).

YUM!  Sidenote: I got the "small" size.

Third - Anything from a backerei

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 The French have their croissants, the Belgians have their waffles and the Germans have their pretzels.  And trust me, you haven't had a pretzel until you've had a German pretzel.  Ohmygoodness.  Even if you aren't a pretzel fan, the options avaliable at any backerei around Germany are enough to send you into a carbohydrate coma.

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So now I know why everyone warned me about how hard it was to avoid the "Bavarian Bulge" when you live in Germany.  Here's hoping we get veggies back soon, otherwise my waistline doesn't stand a chance against this amazing food!  On the flip side, it is better than contracting a deadly strain of E. Coli.  Oh the sacrifices...