Learning to Eat in Germany

Learning to Eat in Germany

A few months ago, I wrote about how I learned some tricks for more pleasurable eating in Taiwan.

Last week in Germany, I was having dinner at Naumburger Wein & Sekt Manufaktur, a small winery outside Wurzburg. There were four Americans and two Germans at the table. This, of course, is far too small sample from which to draw any major conclusions, but I was struck by the different way the four of us ate and the two of them ate.

The meal was simple: a few wines pulled out of the 1,000 year old cellar beneath the farm kitchen where we ate, some spectacular German bread, and a platter of cold cuts that included some sausage, local cheese, and tomatoes. This kind of simple eating is a perfect way to set off the unique characteristics of the wines we enjoyed (I especially liked the Sekt, a sparkler, which like champagne seems to go with everything and with every sip revitalizes the palate...and encourages eating more good stuff).



About half way through the meal, I realized that all the Americans (including me) were eating with their hands, making sandwiches or eating whole slabs of bread draped with cold cuts. It felt comfortable eating that way and as I dug in, I didn’t give it another thought…until I realized that our two German tablemates took a much different approach to eating exactly the same food. Instead of eating the meal like finger food, they were eating everything with a knife and fork, delicately placing meat over bread and then cutting everything into bite sized pieces before lifting to their mouths.

No doubt, some will feel this is to be unnecessarily fastidious, perhaps an even overly dainty and delicate way to eat. But I tried eating with a knife and fork, portioning each piece so that it fit neatly on the tines, and I have to say, eating this way makes it easier to control mouthfuls (so it’s easier to talk while eating) and it does focus one on the meal at hand (thus it’s more conducive to conscious eating, which has to be a good thing, right).

And now I have a confession to make: whether I’m eating a hamburger at heavy-metal Kuma’s or some other sit-down place, I eat my burger with a knife and fork. I’ve eaten hamburger like that for a long time, and I have to admit, I feel a little, um, precious for doing so, but it just feels right.

Of course, if I’m eating, say, a White Castle hamburger, then I’d just as soon use my hands, slam it back, and get it over with as quickly as possible.

Thoughtful and graceful eating makes dining much more enjoyable for me, and it’s good to slow down and eat with implements, one of the few features that seem to separate us from lower primates.

David Hammond wrote:Learning to Eat in Germany

No doubt, some will feel this is to be unnecessarily fastidious, perhaps an even overly dainty and delicate way to eat.

Why, no, not at all - you'd be amazed at the company you keep when you think outside the box like that.


george by kmankmankman2001, on Flickr

Thanks, kman. Perhaps ridiculous admission: when I was a kid, I did eat candy bars with a knife and fork now and again because, as George points out, I didn't want to get chocolate on my fingers. Maybe I need help.

David Hammond wrote:Of course, if I’m eating, say, a White Castle hamburger, then I’d just as soon use my hands, slam it back, and get it over with as quickly as possible.

That's the same method I use when I have to take a pill. Yum-yum!

Buddy

This brings back memories since I used to work with a German publisher and each year would spend 2-3 weeks in Munich and then Hannover for Cebit. My German colleagues mostly ate Italian - but very good Italian - at every possible meal but otherwise it meals were a similar plate of cold cuts, cheeses and great bread - and it was delicious! When we'd go to Hannover for Cebit (mega tech fair, 600K attendees, etc) we would stay with our Messe ("fair") families - local families who put up attendees for the various industry trade shows at the big fairgrounds (@30 buildings!) and they would insist we eat a proper breakfast of similar cold cuts, cheeses, great bread and hard boiled eggs ... also delicious.

When in Hannover, we would reserve for dinner most nights at Da Vinci where Sr. Pollicino was the consummate host and the food was amazing. If you were very lucky - or like us brought Sr. Pollicino little gifts each year - my office was in NH, so I'd carry over a neighbors maple syrup for example - he would stop by the table after the meal and pour stunning super chilled peach vodka for everyone.

ah ... I miss it!

One year I was unable to go and we sent a coworker who had never traveled outside the US, well actually never outside NH - and when his Messe family offered to take him to dinner, he asked them to take him to the McDonalds in Hannover so he could see them serve beer with big macs ...honest to god. I still shake my head over that one.

Edited to add a link to Da Vinci - http://www.rist-da-vinci.de

Hi,

I often eat pizza with a knife and fork. I don't like handling really hot food. Once it has cooled, I might revert to hand feeding.

***

I recall reading where a German speaking American spy during WWII was caught by how he ate: Americans tend to use their dominant hand for cutting with a knife, then switch utensils from hand to hand for the dominant hand to fork their food.

***

I once had a German customer just about snip my head off when I raised a hamburger with my hands to eat it. Maybe if I had more toothpicks to stabilize the fillings, I might have enjoyed the knife and fork dining of a hamburger.

***



She does not appear to be an American, she mispronounced a word she should not have. Some of the dining code with placement of knives and forks, I was unaware of.

I also was unaware the the fork and knife placement to signal things during a meal. I think she is Canadian because how she pronounced the word again was agin.

When I lived with my friends in Germany, I was always morally chided for using a knife on whole cooked potatoes. Fork ONLY! they'd command.

So I took them to a Greek resto, and ordered roast potatoes--new for them. I then laughed as their silverware bounced off the thick hides. "These are like American potatoes" I said, "You HAVE to use a knife!"

Somehow, manners become issues of morality.

My British-Canuck father taught me from the git-go how to use a knife and fork properly. Tnx Dad!


Geo

Yes, I belive she's Ontarian.

What she calls "European" is, in fact, British. French style is different, German is different yet again. For certain foods, Germans use the fork in normal attitude and shovel, eg, peas, onto the fork (as if onto a shovel) and then scoop the peas into the mouth.

Geo

I don't think this is at all unique to Germany. In many countries, people wouldn't dream of eating as many types of foods without utensils as Americans do. In Chile, my business partner would eat fries at KFC with his fingers, but that was it; he always ate the fried chicken with his knife and fork. Pizza too. I am struggling to think of anything people in Chile would eat out of hand rather than with utensil--empanadas, maybe. I remember a teacher many years ago telling me about when she first came to the US from Ireland, and the strange looks she got when she asked for a knife and fork to eat her burger. (Now, that was decades ago for her; I wouldn't necessarily expect that people in Ireland don't eat fast-food burgers out of hand nowadays, but I don't know. Come to think of it, I can't remember seeing a McDonald's there.)

Katie wrote:I don't think this is at all unique to Germany.

I'm sure it isn't.

While they do have a few McDonald's in Ireland, the predominant fast food chain is a McD's knock-off called Super Mac:

http://www.supermacs.ie/

Ate there once as a curiosity, and out of a sense of obligation (needed a public restroom and Super Mac made their's available). Pretty much the same as McDonald's with different corporate colors.

Buddy

While living in Germany I learned to use knife and fork in the European fashion; fork in left hand and knife in right hand, neither usually being set aside during the meal. The knife is used as a guide or "pusher" as much as for cutting. But I did have trouble eating spaghetti with the left hand.

The one thing always eaten out of hand in Bavaria is bratwurst from the street vendor (the "Warschlamo" in the local dialect of Hof where the bratwurst vendor is a thing of legend). Ein paar mit senf, bitte. Always served on that greatest of German foodstuffs: the brotchen.

One of the most enjoyable meals my husband I enjoyed in Würzburg was in the Weinstuben Juliusspital. This little restaurant is the offspring of a foundation created in the 16th century to provide a hospital for the poor, funded by a vineyard (a bit like the Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy). I'm not certain, but I think the Juliusspital is best known for their Silvaner and grauburgunder, very light wines sold in the distinctive goatskin-shaped bottles (Bocksbeutel).

Like other Bavarian restaurants, this place featured large, shared tables and offers the Spital's own wine and many traditional dishes. We enjoyed both a cheese plate and a charcuterie plate, but were surprised by one detail. When we accompanied the meats with bread, we were charged for each slice of bread we took from the bread basket on the table. It was something like $ .15 per slice, so we it's not the cost that was surprising, just the idea of paying for exactly what you ate.

Of course, paying for bread by-the-slice would offer another argument against the American-style sandwich and in favor of the open-faced version!

MariaTheresa wrote:One of the most enjoyable meals my husband I enjoyed in Würzburg was in the Weinstuben Juliusspital. This little restaurant is the offspring of a foundation created in the 16th century to provide a hospital for the poor, funded by a vineyard (a bit like the Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy). I'm not certain, but I think the Juliusspital is best known for their Silvaner and grauburgunder, very light wines sold in the distinctive goatskin-shaped bottles (Bocksbeutel).

In the boiled vegetable thread, the pic of the cooked asparagus and Bavarian-style sausage was shot at Juliusspital: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=35101

Got off on a DaVinci Code tangent while there: lots of Malteser emergency vehicles, Maltese cross iconography on paintings, much Mary-ness everywhere.

I visited Hospices de Beaune in 1970 -- I still have Van der Weyden's "Last Judgement" above my bed, to remind me to be good...or else.

Yes, yes, but I must say, I prefer the wine at Hospices de Beaune to the wine at Juliusspital!!


Geo

Geo wrote:Yes, yes, but I must say, I prefer the wine at Hospices de Beaune to the wine at Juliusspital!!


Geo

Yes, though must say, the wine we had at Juliusspital was the best we had during this trip, and we had wine from all over Bavaria, Saxony and Brandenburg.

Hammond wrote:Yes, though must say, the wine we had at Juliusspital was the best we had during this trip, and we had wine from all over Bavaria, Saxony and Brandenburg.

*That* I wouldn't doubt in the least, David. However, you needed to go a bit north and west to

Assmanshausen and Kloster Eberbach where the Spätburgunder is wonderful and accurate! Ummmmmm!

Geo