Travelling to Germany soon - Munich-Stuttgart-Berlin-Hamburg
To all Intl. Chowhounds:
I will be travelling to Germany next month (Jan.'05)and I am a vegetarian, and I would like some pointers/tips as to some good restaurants-food shops there. I will be landing in Munich, driving to Stuttgart, then drive to Berlin for a week, finally, I will depart back to NYC from Hamburg.
Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Martin Olsen
Martin Olsen
Dec 29, 2004 01:57PM
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if you want a pointer - try suspending your vegetarianism for the duration of the trip, it will be hard to find good vegitarian food in germany.
if you aren't up for that, the term for a health food store in germany is "reformhaus". that is where you can buy vegitarian stuff. note that a lot of the things that you would assume are vegitarian (beans, potato salad, potato pancakes, dumplings, vegitable soup, etc) will probrably be made with pieces of meat and or lard.
good luck
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I'm not a vegetarian but I do eat mostly vegetables. You can eat pretty well in Germany just with vegetables. They are pretty big vegetable eaters, and not just potatoes. They make pretty good salads. They make pretty good vegetable soups. I've never been offered bread with lard on it and don't know any Germans who would eat it (though their parents probably would). All the cities you are going to have immigrant communities. You can always have Italian food and pizza. You can always have salads By the way, Stuttgart is one of the least friendly cities in Germany, but it is otherwise a nice city. Munich and Hamburg are quite great places.
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Here is a list of some places:
http://www.happycow.net/europe/german...
I agree with Zach -- it's going to be an uphill battle. If you speak German, you can check the ingredients on market products.
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This is simply not true. Haven't you ever sampled spargel? Extraordinary sweet white asparagus that is only one of many outstanding German vegetables available. Even with spargel in the spring many restaurants have spargel festivals with 15 even 20 variations of this. I think the image of German food as heavy and lard laden is a real misrepresentation. Today, for a vegetarian, there is as much variety as there is in America. If being a vegetarian allows fish I would note that one of the most successful chains in the country is NordSee, focused exclusively on fish.
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I'm not sure how you mis-read into my post implying that Germans don't eat vegetables. This is a case of being so hyper-reactionary that you're well into the territory of un-realism. There was recently a similarly hyper-reactionary post by Joe H. -- but very few Germans eat at Schwarzwaldstube. To say that there exists anywhere in Europe a vegetarian culture (or any food culture that is artistically and nutritionally progressive) equivalent to what you can find in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York is, I think, simply unfortunate lack of awareness of American food culture. I think the fact that you're saying, "if being a vegetarian allows fish..." kind of proves my point. Where is the Quintessence (NYC) or Millennium (San Francisco) of Europe? Not to belittle the glory of white asparagus, but these places are more interesting than that.
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true, and more to the point, what sauce will be on the asparagus, and what oil with the fish be fried in? if being a vegetarian means enjoying the occasional seasonal vegtable, then count me a vegatarian. if it means not eating any animal products, then most main stream german resteraunts will not have much to offer. it is not uncommon to be served bread studded with lard, for instance, and nobody would think for a second that they should warn you about it.
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I've lived there for 2 years & travelled all over Germany... and have never encountered bread studded with lard. In Munich, Prinz Myschkin is vegetarian (Hackenstrasse 2, by Marienplatz); closeby, Kay's Bistro often offers a couple of vegetarian dishes; as does the Garden Restaurant in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel (it's also a very pretty room);any Italian, of which there are many good ones, will have caprese salad & the like that is non-meat.
I would just take a German food guide & ask the server if there is any kind of Fleisch - schwein, rindfleisch, kalb, fisch, Tier Fett (animal fat I think!) in the dish - they are pretty good about health concerns now, except in the most old-style of restaurants. The word 'ohne' means 'without' & 'kein' means 'no,' so armed with this, you should be ok. Also check out the grocery stores - the like the top story of the Kaufhof, Allois Dallmayer's (for very upscale food), the Viktualienmarkt is my favorite - great outdoor market with all kinds of different offerings & people-watching) - staff at all of these will be helpful if you explain you are a 'Vegetarier' (vegetarian). Have fun and as another posted mentioned, don't miss the spargel, especially the white asparagus - yummm!
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Vegeterian and Germany do not make a good match. In Stuttgart there is a very good one star at 61 Hauptstatter Strasse called Delice, phone 07 11 6 40 32 22. It is small with seating for about 15 or 20 guests. The service is very personal, the chef takes your order, cooks for you and presents the dishes at your table. Most everyone seems to order the fixed price menu that has 6 or 7 courses. If you call ahead he may be able to offer a vegeterian dinner for you.
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The German equivalent of the Zagat guides, Marcellino's Restaurant Reports, includes indexes of vegetarian restaurants. I have only the Berlin guide since that's where I'll be going, but there are also guides for Hamburg, Munich, and Stuttgart. They're in German, of course. You can pick them up in bookstores after you arrive or order them online from amazon.de.
Marcellino's/Berlin lists only two vegetarian restaurants: Abendmahl and Hakuin. There may be other such places in Berlin that the raters didn't visit; how to find them I don't know. Some details:
Abendmahl, Muskauer Strasse 9, Kreuzberg. Open 6:00 to 12:30. Prices: 11-18 Euros.
Hakuin, Martin-Luther-Strasse 1-1a, Schöneberg. Open 5-11 Tuesday-Saturday, 12-11 Sunday. Prices: 16-19. Accepts credit cards.
Marcellino's raters say the food in both places is quite good.
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I've eaten several times at Suryel in HH/St. Pauli. I'm not vegetarian, so I can't compare it to other restaurants of that sort. Still, the food is quite good. And the neighborhood's pretty groovy, too.
The link contains a pdf of their menu.
Link: http://www.suryel.de/
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I've found that many restaurants in Germany offer a Gemischter Salat on their menus, which is their version of a mixed salad, and it is usually vegetarian. What you usually get is a hearty salad with a selection of 5 or 6 different prepared salads, such as beet salad, coleslaw, corn salad, bean salad, marinated cucumbers. Occasionally they will serve a fried egg with the salad.
Another tasty vegetarian dish I had in Czech Republic, but also saw on menus in Eastern Germany, was a dish with broccoli, garlic and gorgonzola, served as a main dish.
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