Can I be alone in finding german supermarkets and food generally dull and uninspiring?

[diyxyz999]

Having to cook everyday, nevermind think what we will eat and hence what I need to shop for - bores me rigid, but goodness do find german supermarkets boring and uninspiring. I have been here nearly 3 yrs and can I find a potato big enough to bake? I cannot find fish stock cubes - just some liquid in a jar for 3 euros!

Fastfood - always a variation on a sausage and fries with a spicy salt mixture on them. No chance of a baked potato.

I do like the germans and I like living here but goodness their cuisine leaves a lot to be desired.

Having just returned from a frustrating trip to the supermarket, rant over!

[Gremlingirl]

Waldmeister is green flavour, according to my DC who always choose it at the eis cafe. It's really hard to describe and I think it's weird, but they love it.

[EBearhug]

It's a herb, gallium odorata. It's pretty - I have it in the garden, but I've never used it for cooking. I think green is a good description of the flavour. I have a sachet of jelly in the cupboard still. Might put it in an Easter rabbit mould.

[PicardyThird]

We're currently in a small town in deepest rural Thüringen and my life improved x100000 when a shiny new Rewe opened just down the road. Between that and Aldi/Lidl, plus a weekly Biokiste delivery, I find we can get most stuff we need. The local Edeka and Kaufland have Heinz baked beans and Kerrygold mature cheddar in blocks. I let dh do most of the supermarket shopping because he sort of likes it and I hate the experience, apart from aforementioned Rewe. Tea and Marmite, and, rather crucially right now, creme eggs/mini eggs, we import via Amazon. When we lived in Baden-Württemberg in a flat on what had once been a US army base there was a little supermarket there that still sold catering-size bags of PG Tips
Yy to lack of decent baking potatoes and often rather limited choice of veg. And what's with the lack of online food shopping?

Bärlauch grows wild in enormous quantities in the park opposite our house - it stinks of it in the spring. Wouldn't pick it, though, that park is a dog playground and beer-drinkers' hangout. And I don't really 'get' it anyway.

[PicardyThird]

I also miss being able to get decent veggie sausages and burgers (not the fake meat kind, the kind with cheese/veg). Rossmann and dm do a packet mix, but it's no substitute.

[mrssprout]

I was born in Germany & am now on the other side of the world. I would love to be able to go to a German supermarket. We have Aldi here but it carries mainly local stuff with some German type stuff & occassional German specials. I remember as a little girl going for a visit & mum taking a frozen & well packed leg of lamb in her suitcase for my Oma (nan). It arrived still frozen. I'm sure you wouldn't get away with taking something like that now. At Sydney airport they looked in mums bag, saw a big wrapped lump, asked what it was & mum explained so they didn't unwrap it or investigate further.

[AphraBane]

Hi Picardy, sorry for the lack of reply to your latest PM, will get round to it soon. I want to ask you something anyway...

[diyxyz999]

Thanks for all the replies! I thought I would be called a whinging Brit but clearly the jacket spud comment got people on side - I spot a business opportunity for me if I could wean the germans off their 47 varieties of wurst :)

I totally accept the comment about looking more at german recipes and I did get out my magazines yesterday. And making a better list for my trips to the UK.

[MmeLindor]

I agree with Aphra, on the ready-meal thing. I got so used to cooking from scratch in Germany and only use the ready-meals to give me an idea of what to cook.

I am much too Scottish to buy a ready-meal of Spag Carbonara when I can make it for less than half the price!

I did the same when we lived in Switzerland - cooked more local recipes and just did British or German food as a treat. I discovered our local Tesco had Fondue this week, so that is what we are having over the weekend!

[Caterpillar2001]

As for the fish stock, look out for this product: www.lacroix.de/produktuebersicht/pasten.html

[diyxyz999]

thank you Caterpillar for the link.

went to Real this morning, like a rabbit caught in car headlights - it was so big, but got JACKET SPUDS - pretty good ones anyway and proper bacon - not that fatty, streaky stuff.

I am chuffed to bits :)

[Schmedz]

Love Rewe - good range of gluten and lactose free foods too!

[horsetowater]

Miffy Ebear Waldmeister is god for the stomach, possibly why it's served as a dessert. I love rote gruetze, brilliant instant pudding.

www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/w/wooswe31.html

For those of you in Germany, do what you can to learn proper german cooking - it really is excellent. The reason there's nothing in the supermarkets is because they all cook from scratch.

[Mepmep]

I find German food dull as dishwater too (lived there) but I can say the same about English food too. Both are scared of flavour! But then, I do compare them unfavorably to Mediterranean food, with which I grew up.

[Mepmep]

But, I do love, love German bakeries - bread, cakes, the lot. Christmas biscuits, gingerbread etc. Germany excels in baked goods, I have to admit.

[EBearhug]

Waldmeister is god for the stomach

It's good, but it's not that good!

Actually, my first introduction to it as an edible thing was at a party, where it was made up with cream and some alcohol, possibly Korn.

A young man called Florian went on to prove it can be very bad for your stomach. And it's still pale green when it reappears.

[NaturalBaby]

Another Swiss resident who shops in Germany here. I'll come back and read up on tips later but now it's time to cook up some Wurst and potatoes of some description.
We're living off pizza, fish and chips, pasta and pesto.... Our kids are young so we don't eat exciting food at the best of times.

[BakingEating]

We've been here in Germany for 18 months and I agree, the supermarkets are rather uninspiring. I like the fruit & veg section, especially the seasonality, but it frustrates me that the meat, fish and dairy sections can be very limited unless you want to buy 400 different types of yoghurt and flavoured buttermilk. There are some lovely things about living here, just not the supermarkets.

[PurplePunkPrincess]

I live in the uk and rarely find big potatoes to bake unless I go to the farm shop! Which I don't, I should though!

[Lifestooshorttosleep]

We've become very excited recently as our Edeka has started selling cathedral City and proper English back bacon. However, I generally find food shopping in Germany is ok. I love that the fruit and veg is seasonal, therefore fresh and often locally grown. The bakeries are amazing and I find plenty of choice for everything we could possibly want. We cook a lot from scratch and bake a lot too and never really have any problems, though it's taken time to get used to different brands and find alternatives to stuff you've known since childhood

[schokolade]

Oooh I had a rant about this to my DH the other day. Turned out to be a mistake seeing as he's German!! It sent him into a rage where he declared that NZ, the UK and USA (other places we've lived) don't have enough yoghurt varieties. Wtf?! There are tons...

I find the German and Swiss supermarkets fine, providing I get to do the shopping. My DH has been doing it for the last few months because we have a newborn. And he has come back with some very odd stuff. Weisswurst in a tin, anyone?!

I've had issues finding proper Mexican food ingredients. I was happy to discover some taco kits etc in Edeka but for a hell of a price. I miss a good taco or burrito.

Does anyone else find German food very, very fatty? It could just be DH and FILs cooking, so I'm not certain enough to make a sweeping declaration! But there seems to be absolutely gallons of fat in everything. If you put left overs in a tupperware dish you can scrape whole serving spoonfuls of white fat of the edges the next day . FIL is of the opinion that meat contains everything one would need for a healthy diet Drives me nuts telling me I have nutrient deficiencies because I didn't have meat for one meal (breakfast).

[Sicaq]

All this spud talk reminds me of a (German) colleague from our German office who used to spend a couple of weeks with us every year. Wherever she was in the UK she wanted to eat tons of jacket potatoes with grated cheese. Apparently you just don't get jacket spuds (or grated cheese) over there. She wasn't fibbing, I see.

Most other Germans I have met seem to live off soup and yoghurt. Even their chocolate has yoghurt in it.

[PacificDogwood]

This thread made me grin from ear to ear

I am German, have lived in the UK for over 20 years since my late 20s.

I still find British food too 'stooge' heavy and am now bored of anything fried - after initially being v excited about macaroni and cheese with fries for instance. Now I just look at it and think "Heart attack on a plate" .

My visiting family think that the supermarkets here are far too full of a confusing amount of similar-but-slightly-different things. They scoff at ready meals/prepackaged stuff.
My mum still buys most of the meat for meals from the local butcher's and fruit/veg from one of the many farm shops, so goes to the supermarket for staples and things that are storable.

One big difference I notice when I am in Germany is the lack of a multicultural influence on the general cuisine. Indian is v posh and unusual indeed and Greek or Turkish restaurants are regarded by some people as somewhat suspect . Germany lost whatever 'Empire' it had so much earlier than Britain that international influences are much, much weaker.

And I love my local Lidl here - it's were I go for a quick German fix of Fleischwurst. Or Super Dickmans ('die sind dick, Mann!')

[Verycold]

Hihi Pacific, I am German as well and that's exactly what I buy in Lidl!

[NigellasDealer]

much as I love LIDL and ALDI I did find German supermarkets a bit uninspiring when I lived there for a while; no 'ethnic' foods like we have here. Still it was OK.

[ralphi]

you can get Bicarbonate in most shops (supermarkets like Rewe/ Tegut etc) and in DM in small sachets. Its sold as Natron. Or you can buy it in pretty much any apotheke.

white fat in the tupperware and tinned weisswurst are just gross!!