this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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I spent a month in Germany last year. Turns out the most authentic German food is currywurst and middle eastern food lol.
But maybe that's just in Berlin. They probably have good potato based dishes in Bavaria.
Bavaria is probably the most "German" german region. That's where all the lederhosen stereotypes come from.
Basically it's the Texas of Germany. Old school, religious, and conservative.
Edit: in the very rural parts, they even have their own dialect that to some Germans is almost completely unintelligible. I realized this when I took German language classes in high school in the USA and what they were having me learn was very much NOT the way my Bavarian mother spoke to me. It felt kind of irritating when they told me I was pronouncing things wrong and my grammar was wrong when I fuckin' lived there as a child and spoke it fluently.
Well it's the part where after the second world war Americans temporarily governed and American soldiers and their families where stationed. So all they ever saw of Germany was Bavaria. They took their experience back home and so the image spread.
Northern Germany is nothing like southern Germany. Yes they like their beer, but Bratwurst and pretzels? More fish and bread.
I was with you in the first half. But northern Germany still loves their beer and brats. We had bbqs almost every weekend and if you didn't have beer and brats, you might as well not have a party.
Although there almost always way just a full fish on the grill at some point only in northern Germany so I will give you that.
It's so funny to me that you all have your own interpretation of what's liked in what parts of what I would say is a small country in relative terms. You know what Americans eat in all 50 states? Burgers and fries.
It seems to me that cultural homogeneity is a principle in the US though. I think it's good though because it promotes mobility between states and holds what is a really massive nation together
It's really only homogeneous at the high level. Every state has areas of vastly different culture depending on what the major immigrant groups were. A city founded by the Dutch, Polish, Finns, or French are all vastly different even in the same state.
I must insist that it's very different beer though.
Hey, if Germany can call America a bunch of corndog-eating cowboys, then we can call Germans tiroler hut-wearing yodelers.
There are a few other dialects in Germany that the rest can't understand. For example Plattdeutsch and Friesisch. (Both in northern Germany)
Both are independent languages though. While they do have some similarities with German (Platt more than Friesisch), they are more closely related to Dutch and English.
In Bavaria the favorite snack of locals while there was way to big of a sausage in a way to small of a fresh bun. Not a hotdogs but, like a small sandwich roll. Tasted fantastic
There's was one time I ripped the sausage in half and made it so the sandwich was a double decker, and I got some mean looks.
If you spent your month in Berlin, you didn't visit Germany. Common mistake.
Lol.
It's like saying you didn't visit the US because you only went to NYC, but not Texas.
Only that Berlin is probably the "least German" place to go, while NY is not.
But that's not what OP said. OP Made a stupid claim about how only visiting Berlin means one hasn't really visited Germany.
To your point, my analogy works quite well - If you go to NYC expecting to find the stereotype of cowboys, massive steaks, and barbeque, you'll be disappointed, because that shit is in Texas.
It's all relative to how one defines a country's culture and the lens it creates. Just because someone has myopic expectations does not mean that NYC is less American than anywhere else in the US. The same holds true for Berlin and the rest of Germany.
I think you're missing the point. NYC doesn't have cowboys or anything but it's representative of other aspects of American culture.
Berlin is in fact the least German town in Germany. It has its own kind of culture that is vastly different from the rest.
Berlin is just as German as NYC is American, both have big city cultures that don't really fit with life outside them.
Lived in NY for a while (manhattan) and travelled to a lot of other states. The comparison rings true for me, NY has it's own culture for sure.
No, I fully understand the point. By "German" you mean Fachwerkhäuser, Oktoberfest, Lederhosen and Dirndls, Bier Steins and Weißwurst, and you're correct, these cultural symbols are not characteristic of Berlin - these are Bavarian. There is so much more to German culture than Bavaria though, despite what the Bavarians think.
Fachwerkhäuser are not Bavarian, it's just that Bavaria has many old townships that kept them intact. You see them all over Germany tho.
No, I don't.
I am German, so I know what German culture is I guess.
It's literally the capital of your country and the seat of your government. How that "isn't Germany" is beyond me.
Because you don't know anything about German culture apparently.
Berlin is an extreme cultural outlier and thus not somewhere you should go to experience German culture in general.
How you don't understand despite me trying to explain it to you multiple times is beyond me
How so? NYC is also significantly different than the rest of New York, let alone the rest of the country.
Nah you are close. We eat "Döner" (a turkish dish modified for Germany, basically a german invention) curry wurst and "Wiener Schnitzel" with french fires.
We drink beer all over the country but about every 50 km you have a different kind of beer that is prefered and don't you dare to say a different beer is better.
Also the glasses in which the beer is drunken grows from north to south.
The Döner is a German food though, it was invented in Berlin.
When I was a kid it was more common to have German restaurants and Imbiss. But they can't compete in price and speed with cheaper alternatives in the cities. That's why they were gradually replaced. When you want to eat some more traditional German cuisine, you'd have to go to smaller towns or a hotel restaurant.
There is no german fast food except curry Wurst in Berlin. That doesnt mean there is no good german food. Just in Berlin there are viewer Restaurants selling german food than asian/ middle East and italian food and there is a lot of fast food. I dont know why there are so few German restaurants. In Munich you find more of them...
I feel that's kinda the point of Berlin though, its culture is formed by the patchwork of nationalities that migrates there. Much like the UK with its Indian food
In Munich you'll find more Bavarian restaurants.
I hear it's a good place for munchin'.
Yeah I found it so weird how much international food there was in Berlin. I had to go looking for more traditional dishes.
Also, graffiti..... graffiti, everywhere.
Well...It's a captital alright.
Kind og expected to assume there will be a more international audience in comparison to the country side.
Uhhhh? Doner kebab?
Never mind that was dumb. Wasn't reading correct
*fewer restaurants