Here are some of Germany’s most famous food cultures

What kind of food culture do Germans have? Many people know that Germany is notoriously grumpy, but what about other aspects of the diet? Let’s have a taste of German food with Bian Xiao!Characteristics of German food culture German food has its own peculiarities. Germans, who are mostly Germanic, like to “eat a lot of meat and drink a lot of wine”. Per capita annual pork consumption of 66 kg, ranking first in the world. Germans love to eat pork and raise their own pigs. In the Ruhr region, Germany’s largest industrial zone, residents set up pig farms in between high-rise buildings. Every year, they hire a butcher to slaughter their pigs and eat them for half a year. Due to the preference for pork, most famous German dishes are made of pork. The most famous dish is sour cabbage covered with various sausages and ham, sometimes replaced with a pig’s hind leg. Apart from pork, Germans have the highest bread consumption per capita in the world, eating 80kg of bread per person per year.

When people think of Germany, they immediately think of beer. Indeed, German beer, like cars, electrical appliances and soccer, is the world’s most famous beer kingdom today. Germany has the world’s largest beer belly per capita.

German food culture is very unique, in terms of “eating” and “hospitality” there are a lot of practices worth thinking about.

Breakfast in Germany is the most abundant compared to lunch and dinner. In the hotel or government office restaurant, breakfast is mostly buffet. The staple food is bread, meat, vegetables, drinks, fruits and so on. The variety is very rich, bright colors are pleasing to the eye. Bread is made from refined flour, rye, oats, white flour and grains. Honey, jam, cream, cheese, butter, etc. All in a small box slightly smaller than a matchbox. Tear off the surface of the soft paper can be eaten, convenient and not waste. Most offices have rooms dedicated to making coffee and tea. Employees are given 20 minutes to drink coffee or tea at 10am and 4pm, and they must also eat some cake. This embellishment, which can prevent overeating due to hunger at noon and evening, is the scientific “eating habit”.

Lunch and dinner in Germany are usually pork chops, steak, barbecue, sausages, raw fish, potatoes and soup. When drinking beer in Germany, people who don’t drink a lot don’t have to worry, because at a banquet, Germans will not persuade or force each other to drink, and people who drink wine do what they can. Even if you drink beer, they’ll ask you if you want it first, and if you don’t, they’ll never serve it to you. A meal for one. Most diners dip minced meat or soup in bread on the plate and never waste it. German diet is characterized by rich nutrition, convenience and time saving, civilization and science, eat well.

Germany has a lot of street food stalls, station squares selling fried sausages, pizza, burgers, etc. There are many restaurants, large and small, as well as Italian, French, Turkish, Greek and Spanish restaurants. Of course, Chinese restaurants can also be seen. In Chinese restaurants, however, Chinese food has become westernized, and every dish comes with the usual set of knives, forks, spoons and chopsticks. Each impromptu person eats from his or her own plate with regular cutlery and then with his or her own chopsticks.

Germans are, in our opinion, almost mean. At a banquet held by a German state organ for the graduation of a Chinese study class, there were only three big plates in grand style. During the evening break, a German friend who had been to China said: “You may think that lunch is not rich enough, but this is how our state secretary treats you.” At state banquets, only officials above ministers have the right to entertain and give gifts on official business, while other officials will treat at their own expense. In Germany there is a rule that anyone who asks for more drinks and beer at a banquet must pay for it himself.

Germans pay attention to economy and simplicity when entertaining guests. Food only enough for the host and guest to eat, enough nutrition. For example, the head of technical engineering at a large industrial group gave a formal dinner for visiting scholars. There were many people to meet and discuss before the feast, but at the beginning of the feast, the host accompanied only five people, the others had gone home for dinner. There was only one soup and two dishes at the banquet, just enough to eat. Nothing was wasted, and the host didn’t think it was petty.

Germany is one of the few rich countries in the world. They not only have a variety of social welfare, but also provide assistance to many developing countries. In this sense, Germany’s penny-pinching is admirable.

German special diet sausage Germans are really a “big meat, big drink” people – eating pork and drinking beer. Germany consumes 65 kilograms of pork per person per year, the highest in the world. Due to the preference for pork, most famous German dishes are made of pork. Germany’s most famous food is sausage, sausage, ham, there are at least 1500 kinds, all made from pork. The most famous “Black Forest ham” is sold all over the world. It can be cut as thin as paper and it’s fantastic to eat. Germany’s national dish is a variety of sausage, ham spread on the sour cabbage; A whole pig’s hind leg is sometimes used instead of sausages and ham. A whole cooked leg of pig, a German can kill it with a straight face.

The variety of sausage is famous all over the world. The main ingredients range from pork and beef to vegetables or animal offal, often with a variety of spices to create a unique local flavor. So, you’ll find that most sausages are named after regions, like Wiener, Wiener, Nrnberger, etc. In the way of eating, sausage is also reflected.

In addition to sausages, there are more than 100 meat dishes in Germany, such as ham and bacon, which vary subtly depending on how they are prepared and spiced. Most meat products are sliced cold and eaten with mustard.

German beer In 1516, Grand Duke William IV of Bavaria issued the “German Pure Beer Decree”, which stipulated that German beer could only be made from barley malt, hops and water. So German beer has been synonymous with pure beer for the last 500 years. Today, Germany is the world’s second largest beer producer, with 1,300 breweries producing more than 5,000 beers. According to official statistics, the average German drinks 138 liters of beer per year, and no nation in the world loves beer more than the Germans! Especially during the annual Oktoberfest, up to 6 million liters of beer can be consumed. The beer culture that Germans have cultivated over the years is unique in the world.

Bread and potatoes.

The Germans believe that bread is a nutritious natural food that is most beneficial to health. When you eat sausage, make sure you have bread to go with it. When it comes to bread production, Germany is also the world champion in quality and quantity. German bread is made of refined flour, but also rye, oats, refined flour, mixed grains. More than 1,500 types of bread are baked in Germany every day. Bread is the most important staple food for every meal in Germany. According to statistics, Germans consume 81.5 kilograms of bread a year, the highest among EU members.

There are more than 300 types of German bread. The common ones are brown bread, sourdough bread, whole wheat bread, loaves and rolls. Sometimes bread is delicious with cheese, ham, sausage or some pate. In addition, potatoes have been a staple of the German diet since the 18th century. They were stuffed with meat, seafood and vegetables during the only hot meal at noon.

Germans eat 6 kilograms of fish per person per year. Sales of sweets, chocolates and cakes are also booming.

Wine (wine).

German wines are noble and unique because they are made from grapes that absorb minerals over time. 85% of white spirits are sweet and slightly dark. The label of the bottle will say “thick” or “semi-thick”. If not, the wine is generally mild. Premium wines must come from 13 designated wine regions. After reunification, Germany was also added to the old East German regions of Saxony, Meissen, and Naumbrugg. The taste of the wine varies depending on the type of grape, the region where it is grown and the year it was made. Commonly known as Qualitatswein and Kabinett. A late-picked grape called Spatlese is the best. In addition to the above two, there are sweet wines after the meal, such as Ausless and Beerenauslese.

German food culture and customs.

There are bakeries everywhere in Germany. Christmas cakes and the like are famous German desserts. The lemon-flavored fruit cake, dusted with powdered sugar, is great when paired with a cup of sweet German coffee. In the afternoon, people usually go to a cafe to have a date, eat dessert, drink coffee and chat.

Germany is best known for its beer, and the most distinctive is stout. My visit to Bavaria was deeply impressed by my family’s brewed German stout. The equipment alone is said to cost 5 million yuan, and it takes two weeks to brew a barrel of stout. As the black liquid slowly pours under the faucet and the coffee-colored foam billows in the cup, a faint fragrance begins to drift toward your nose. Of course, home-brewed stouts are fresh and pure, and the wine has a distinctive sour, bitter taste, very similar to the rich aroma of coffee, with an endless aftertaste. This is great.

In the cold winter, Bavaria has a special hot drink called “warm wine”, made of cloves, cinnamon, fruit and red wine. It literally means “light wine” because drinking it will make you blush!

Bavarian wines, especially white wines, are also world famous. One of the reasons why it has maintained its value and high quality is that the production of German white wine follows a long family tradition of rigorous testing from the planting, picking and brewing of the grapes to bottling and entering the market.

There is also an ice wine in Germany, also called ice wine. In the winter of 1994, there was an early frost in Franks, Germany, and the grapes seemed to have been ruined. Wine farmers press semi-frozen grapes to make wine, which actually produces a unique flavor unlike any other wine. Grapes used in wine generally contain about 80 percent water, but the late-harvest grapes after the wind and frost hit significantly dehydrated, sugar and acidity greatly increased. Ice wine made from this grape is naturally sweet and mellow. Since then, ice wine has become a specialty of Germany.

True icewine must come from premium grape varieties that have been frozen completely naturally after months of wind and rain. In order to make icewine, German winemakers must take an expensive gamble every autumn: in addition to hoping for frost, they must also watch every day to see if the branches and vines that might be used to make the wine are intact. This requires not only greater patience and experience than Chinese embroidery, but also hard work and strong will. When the wait becomes a reality and clusters of frosty little ice beads form at -8 to -12, the sifting of these little ice beads, one by one, must begin that dark, cold morning, and the subsequent juice pressing must be completed at the same temperature.

The resulting ice wine is of course very precious, and the labor value, process cost and risk investment contained in each bottle of ice wine are fully in line with the characteristics of its taste. Even in Germany, ice wine is rarely enjoyed. No wonder Europeans and Americans often praise it as noble as love.