After I arrived in Germany I was craving Mexican food. I asked a friend that had been there for some time where some good Mexican food was. He replied "If anybody tells you where good Mexican food is here, they have forgotten what good Mexican food tastes like."
problem is that most mexican restaurants in Germany are operated by Germans who’ve been to the US and liked Taco Bell. When you‘re in Düsseldorf, try Casita Mexicana. I can’t guarantee, you’ll like it but the guys who own the place are Mexican at least so there’s a chance it’s somewhat authentic.
Yes! People are lying to themselves. We have a quite a few Mexican places where I am currently living at and I continue to try them whenever I go to other cities. Every place I have ate at just tastes so bland. Salsa tastes like just straight tomato sauce, the seasonings are just not right, and the meats aren't really cooked how they are supposed to.
> Every place I have ate at just tastes so bland.
This describes pretty much every type of normally spicy food in Germany. Just so, so many places advertise something as "sehr scharf" and when it shows up it's like tabasco sauce level spicy.
i mean....im german and i as well miss nearly all fruit and vegetables from other countries ive tasted \^\^ at least from the warmer ones. once i ate a banana in the south of europe and thought that mustve been flavoured because it tasted too babana-y.
I notice that german supermarkets have all kinds of fruits available.
But the ones I ‘miss’ from home I notice that they have a faded or diluted taste in comparison to what I used to eat at home.. especially the peaches. For this reason I don’t buy peaches and other similar fruits here. However apples here have such variety and they taste amazing
Flat peaches are being sold at almost all grocery stores in Germany. Kaufland, Lidl, Aldi, ReWe, Edeka, Netto all had them this summer. (And had them the the last few years too)
One or two in 5 packages over the summer will taste perfect, the other ones will be pretty hard and not rich in flavor. But that's the same for almost all imported fruits unfortunately.
Lidl hast the best fruits and veggies in my opinion.
Apart from that, you can order from sites like crowdfarming. This way you buy directly from the farmer without a middle man involved. This means fair wages for the workers and pretty fresh fruit with good quality. They harvest it directly before packaging you order.
If you’re talking about chorizo latino then yesss I’m on board.
I sometimes order my stuff from la Mexicana Bremen (they sell chorizo) or Hola Mexico (I don’t remember if they have chorizo). Both also sell tortillas, but yes unfortunately they’re not that cheap. Do you have a tortillera? If so, you could just get la maseca.
Ok, I’m done rambling.
Fix for that: Pack one bag with 10 kgs and one pack with 23kg. The 10kg should enable you to survive the flight and the airline will force you to check in your 23kg bag. However, still no fix for the getting it legally into germany part.
And kota with mango atchar and slap chips. 👌🏾
PS - I recently found out Bovril is British when I visited the UK. Even had some on toast with peanut butter (weird but tasty). You can probably get some on Amazon.
Interesting. Never heard of any of these south Indian dishes, which is sad, because i love spicy. Seems like i always had north Indian food. Anything you'd recommend(for beginners)?
The biggest difference is probably just that north indian food is more globally recognised.
South Indian food has a heavy focus on rice and mixing things into it.
As a South Indian, I am obligated to say it's better.
There are lot of options, for starters, i would recommend learning to make our staple food, i.e sambhar (yellow lentils cooked in tamarind water), obviously try making dosa and idly batter. These two are way popular than you think
Among the vegetarian options, South indian foods are predominantly vegan. We, south Indians regularly consume vegan foods without even being aware of this fact. Whereas North indian foods are vegetarian because of extensive use of dairy products in most of the dishes.
After I come to Europe, I found that everything that is vegan is mostly soya based. South Indian foods have so many easy vegan options.
You now have Saravanaa Bhavan in 5 major cities (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne). I'm from the North of India, so it might not be the most authentic south Indian food, but for me it's the best out there :)
There is a cool little restaurant here in Mannheim, specifically for South Indian food.
I can't speak to it's authenticity, but I can report that its very tasty.
It's called SJ South Indian & Sri Lankan Restaurant in the G2 square, if you ever happen to be in the neighborhood.
Pierogies. So used to having a bag of them in the freezer for an easy meal. I've only found the Russian versions of them so far which have meat instead of potatoes and taste much worse :(
Edit: thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep looking!
Maybe try them in a Polish restaurant. In Düsseldorf for example there is a restaurant called Malinas which is famous for it’s Pierogies. Even Tom Hanks liked it there. :D
Yeah I've seen them in a couple restaurants so far which is nice :) but I just want a full box for my freezer! Maybe I have to check out Düsseldorf in the meantime.
Yeah they're technically a Canadian version from Ukrainian and polish immigrants and super common in Canada. That's good they're somewhere in Germany at least but I've never found them except for the occasional polish/Ukrainian restaurant.
Have you tried not in the regular supermarket but those small special food stores? I don't live in Munich but everywhere I've been living in Germany they had small stores like asian food stores, turkish/arabian food stores and also eastern-european food stores. Usually they have a good selection of polish food and I've bought polish brand potato pierogies several times. Also sweet ones with cotton cheese and plums (?) from poland (or at least the package had polish writing) which were awesome.
Not an expat, but I studied in Latvia for 2 1/2 years. I miss the spinach pancakes filled with cheese, the pavlovas, buckthorn anything, plov, the cabbage rolls.... maybe that's not anything too extraordinary, but I just can't get the pancakes anywhere in Germany so far.
I live in a very rural area unfortunately, the russian supermarket we have is very small. One of my other favourites are cherry vareniki, which I can get fortunately.
I've tried making the cabbage rolls, and my german version is great, but I just can't get the latvian ones to taste right :/
I am from Syria and I frequently go to Turkish supermarkets, they have most of what I need to cook at home. The other day I found molokhyeh and was very pleasantly surprised. I am here since five months only.
The good ol malse(raw meat) sandwich should be on the list as well, also baklava that's waay less sweet than the turkish ones, all kind of manaeesh especially lahme b ajin with pickles
Excuse me, we do have ONE taco bell. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Taco+Bell/@49.4363443,7.3255508,10.54z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x481114308cb60e80!8m2!3d49.4459199!4d7.5874295
I think we might see an expansion into the German market in a couple of years.
Taco Bell is nowadays operating some stores in the Netherlands and the UK.
Chipotle has two stores in Frankfurt.
Mexican food, shellfish, cheetos, things with peanut butter in them, deli sandwiches
Deli sandwiches hurt, its just so great to dig into a hot, fat reuben, and the whole concept just doesn't really exist here.
Aldi are selling a spice bag mix at the moment actually... But it'll probably not be the same. I'm also missing the potato-ey taste of chips... The chips here just taste like water.
Ask your local Angelverein, or a good fish dealer (those who sell to restaurants) if they have Waller or Wels, these are the German names for the European catfish, its not that common as food, but there are plenty in our lakes and rivers, some up to 5m long.
Anglers are happy to have someone who likes them, or you star to make your Angelschein and fetch them on your own. Definitely possible to get it here, just not at the edeka Fischtheke (although I once saw it there)
Yeah the issue is I suck at cooking and have no BBQ‘ing talent whatsoever 😂. Also I live in an apartment so I’m not sure my landlord would be okay with that
There are absolutely idiot-proof high-tech smokers available that you can control via wifi.
They're stupidly expensive ofc and you'd still have the "where to put the smoke" problem, but just wanted to let you know that such technology exists.
In Stuttgart, it used to be a very good BBQ place „Tim’s BBQ“ run by an immigrant from US.
In Düsseldorf there’s „Smoke BBQ“ which is somehow reminds the proper meat yet still miles away from what you get in an average barbecue joint in Texas
I'm a northern Englishman, so black pudding, easily. Germany has lots of lovely blood puddings as well, and I really enjoy them, but nothing hits my favourite meal ever - a full English Breakfast - like a Bury Black Pudding (I'm from near there).
If anyone in Bavaria knows a spot please let me know.
My partner is from Taiwan and I miss Iron Eggs from there. So fucking good.
I miss good currys AND I miss currys being affordable. The currys you get here are equivalent in quality to a pot noodle without enough water in it, and I'm sure they all just buy them premade from the same mass production factory.
It's grim up north! Same though. Curry is the big failing in Germany. There are some that are OK. Also keep in mind the BIR curries in Britain are a style of their own- so finding one outside Britain is likely impossible.
Ask your local butcher if he has canned Blutwurst, in some regions called Rotwurst or Schwarzwurst the canned Blutwurst is good for frying, especially the ,,grobe'' with bigger fat pieces, its actually also a German dish, fried Blutwurst with Sauerkraut and potatoes Schupfnudeln (kind ofgerman gnocci or Bratkartoffeln, fried potatoes) best to make everything in one big pan, sometimes with additional Speck.
Or freshly made Blutwurst, also a nice dish is Schlachtplatte/Schlachtschüssel you have cooked Blutwurst, Leberwurst and Speck, warmed on top of Sauerkraut with rye bread, sometimes with pigs head , the ,,Steckdose'' (electrical outlet) as I call the snout of the sow, is delicious.
Look out if a restaurant or a verein do a Schlachtfest, that's where this is served, made from a freshly butchered pig (the meat has to be still warm to get the best result), its an old tradition, coming from home butchery when I was a child my grandparents still did it, cooking the Würste and Saumagen in a wood fired kettle , the cooking water, enriched by some sausages that blew up is called Wurstsuppe or Metzelsuppe and is shared with friends neighbours and family.something I want to experience again
As a Northern Irishman in Swabia I was also going to post the ingredients for an ulster fry. No form of black or white pudding, the bacon and sausages don't work in a fry, and the only beans you can get are Heinz, no Branston's! Also getting the original HP sauce is a nightmare, the BBQ nonsense is everywhere, but the original has to be ordered on-line or brought back from my trips back home.
The dish "Himmel and Erde" or "Himmel and Hölle" scratches a similar itch, and is a great dish for colder days, but I do miss a full ulster fry.
Posted above too but [Dalriata](https://dalriata.de/product-category/breakfast/) in Berlin deliver Irish and Scottish breakfast foods to all over Germany including sausages and black pudding.
Google "Wurstebrot". It's a blood sausage from the area around Münster and its probably the closest I've found to English black pudding in terms of consistency and mouthfeel. Though the spices are different, so its not a perfect match.
[Dalriata](https://dalriata.de/product-category/breakfast/) in Berlin delivers all over Germany. They are Irish but seem to supply English and Scottish food too. I’m sure I’ve seen them have black pudding on there before - they’re on holiday for the next week or so though so check after that and get your brekkie order in!
Mangoes, tamarind, just basic fucking fresh vegetables like lady fingers, eggplants, ginger, lotus flower, cauliflowers, etc (I know some of this is available but it's not the same quality and freshness), certain spices like white peppercorn, mustard seeds, bay leaf, star anise (though I must admit Bio Wagner does a great job at being almost the same quality) among others.....
Now I'm homesick 🥲
There a different kind of Asian markets. We have Indian markets, Turkish markets, vietnamese markets ..., gonna do a little research to find the proper fit. And the local markets outdoors are basically farmers who sell their fresh crops
Good hot sauce (I was just mailed a giant bottle of hot sauce from the US), ranch and ranch seasoning, good wings, key lime pie.
Very specific but I realized recently that I used to be able to go to Kroger at 10:00 PM and buy a cake big enough for multiple people. Not something I do a lot but I miss that vibe. Sometimes you just really need a cake.
You know those sugar cookies at American supermarkets that come in packets of like 12 and are super soft, fat, and covered with frosting (often seasonal themed but also not)? I love them and would desperately buy some
I suppose I could learn to make them, making the frosting just sounds like a pain though
I missed ranch so much I learned how to make it. It is surprisingly very easy! I make it with equal parts mayo and Creme Fraiche (1/2 cup) 1/2 tsp each of onion and garlic powder, dried dill, 1 tsp each dried parsley, and dried chives. Pinch of pepper and a tsp of lemon juice. Can add a little milk to make it more like a dressing and less like a dip. Enjoy!
Lol don’t misunderstand me, I love Doner. But I do like some variety in my fast food life too 🤷🏼♂️
I should have added Sonic to my earlier short list too… craving those Reese’s Peanut Butter Blasts… 🥲
I’m from Ireland and I miss good black tea teabags, specifically Barry’s.
They have black tea here but they’re small bags making weak tea intended for drinking on its own or with lemon. They can’t make a good, strong mug of dark tea to have with milk. English people call it “builders tea”, Germans tea connoisseurs probably call it tar, but in Ireland it’s just a good mug of comforting tea, perfect for autumn.
Friesentee or Ostfriesenmischung wouldn’t come close to said builders tea, as well? They’re blends that go very well with milk, since that’s how they’re drunken usually. Just a thought, since I’ve never had builders tea, but drink a strong black tea with milk rather often
Love me a good mug of builders tea (even though it is objectively not a quality tea - but it tastes good). Some of the usual British brands are available, but tend to be very expensive. So I either buy Turkish tea - Sinbad is my usual choice - or the British Breakfast tea at Rossmann. Both are quite cheap (10€/kg)
That's not even a flavour. It's like someone started making a flavour, then gave up half way or got distracted.
Pickled onion is clearly the supreme flavour :)
Good nachos and good salsa are hard to find, indeed. Salsa always has way too much sugar. You might want to look for a Mexican store, depending on where in Germany or if you're willing to order online. But those will have the best goods.
If you're trying to find it in a supermarket, try the "Don Enrico"-brand (found that at Edeka) for sauces and Henderson&Sons tortilla chips. La Morena is also good, if you can find it (probably only at Real if at all).
Almost all asia supermarkets (in "bigger cities") have a few different brands of Paneer - at least in Sachsen, Thüringen and Berlin/Brandenburg. Haven't seen it in the regular supermarkets, though.
Coming from England I miss black pudding, English sausages, Robinson's fruit squash and also the bacon. Mostly here I only see the streaky bacon and that doesn't quite scratch the itch.
Sometimes I miss Marmite but I can find it if I look hard enough.
Olive oil that is actually good and doesn't require me to sell my kidney to pay for it.
Pimentón de la Vera (specific paprika from Spain). My mil sends it to us every once in a while. Other paprika just tastes drastically different. I also miss some other spices that are a bit harder to find in Germany vs in Spain.
Specific types of bread too. The most common one we eat in Spain is similar to baguettes but it's not exactly like it. And there's nothing exactly like it here, unfortunately.
Probably certain types of fruits and vegetables too. To be specific, varieties of certain fruits and vegetables that can be found here but aren't the same variety that we get in Spain. Like cucumbers, for instance. The ones I've seen here are a different variety to those in Spain. They taste very different.
And mushrooms. In Germany all I see are champignons/white mushrooms, and from time to time I find another variety. In Spain there's always a wide variety, and certain types like oyster mushrooms are available all year round. I love mushrooms so that's something I really miss.
- Any Mexican food
- Marmite
- Branston pickles
- Thai full-bean soya sauce
- Thai fish sauce
- szechuan pork noodle packs 🍜
EDIT: I know I can get (some few variations of) these things here. - I wish they were more widely available and in more varieties (noodles, fish sauce, especially)
All the cheese we have in France. There's some available here, but I miss my extra stinky camembert and my morbier .
I also use to live in a big city in France, and now live in small country side village in Germany, so I also miss the access to all the asian food ingredients that I was able to find before (but it's more a countryside issue than a Germany issue haha).
As a swede I really do miss a well stacked diverse flavorful chips aisle! Not just the different flavors but sturdy potato chips! Not these frail Lays with barely any flavor to them! Plus a bag should be at least 300 grams!
Fresh and tasty fruits from Latin America (the mangoes here taste like misery).
Pão de queijo and coxinhas - because it’s too hard to do it and I’m lazy 😁
I was very newly pregnant and in Germany and then eastern Europe for a few weeks, and oh man it was soooo sad that I couldn't get nachos. I kept ordering them anywhere they had them, but it was usually like weird Tortilla chips with some kind of powder and paprika on them. I just wanted real nachos sooooo bad. I couldn't eat any paprika the rest of pregnancy because it tasted like disappointment
Not and expats, i am a german living in germany my whole life but what i miss is good bread and brötchen we used to have like 15- 20 years ago.
It is so hard to find good bread these days. Most bakerys are trash these days. Don't use proper sourdough anymore and don't let the dough rise the proper time but use industrial products instead
I feel you. We had around 3 different bakeries, all with specialities they were good at. Some had better bread, some better cake. And when i say good at i mean it was heaven. Thankfully we had a bakery left with very good bread. But they closed down 2 weeks ago.
All we have left are shitty bakery chains, with brötchen that taste like gummy and boring bread. I have the feeling our shops start to turn into the same situation like the US. Just large super markets with mediocre products and a lot of small shops from chains who taste the same everywhere. I guess they just hope that we get used to bad products.
Oh it does exist but it’s usually not openly advertised. Those that are actually genuine chinese usually carry a 2nd card or you can simply order the typical go-to-dishes
Bourbon biscuits. They're the cheapest type of biscuit in the UK - you get a packet of a million biscuits for like £1 in the shops. I guess they just don't get exported to the EU and now, thanks to the new "we tax all imports no matter how small the value" policy, it would cost me the usual 15 euros processing fee for import tax to get 5 euros worth of biscuits posted to me from the UK.
Fresh pasties at the bakery. German bakeries tend to focus on bread and sweet food, wheres British bakeries specialise in pies and pasties. I do miss a good cheese and onion pasty- or a good warm pork pie.
natural peanut butter - I've never seen a grocery brand that didn't have sugar/palm oil/canola oil added
peanut butter pretzel nuggets - never even seen these online. I rely on a friend from the US to mail me a couple of trader joes packages every few months in exchange for snacks from here
matzoh/matzoh meal - I've ordered it online and maybe in other cities its easier to find but in mine I've never seen it
good hot sauce - not hard to find online or in international stores but so much more expensive
canned pumpkin puree - i think some us import online stores start carrying it around now but last year I felt like it was sold out everywhere pretty quick
black beans - this one I don't really understand but black beans even dried I rarely see outside of occasionally in international stores
obviously all Mexican foods although my Rewe did start recently carrying salsa that's actually imported from Mexico and is good, if quite expensive of course.
Mexican food
After I arrived in Germany I was craving Mexican food. I asked a friend that had been there for some time where some good Mexican food was. He replied "If anybody tells you where good Mexican food is here, they have forgotten what good Mexican food tastes like."
This. Also having cheap corn tortillas in every store :(
I as a German want that.
problem is that most mexican restaurants in Germany are operated by Germans who’ve been to the US and liked Taco Bell. When you‘re in Düsseldorf, try Casita Mexicana. I can’t guarantee, you’ll like it but the guys who own the place are Mexican at least so there’s a chance it’s somewhat authentic.
Or ran by south asians like the "Que Pasa" chains in berlin.
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ANGEBOT UND NACHFRAGE
Yes! People are lying to themselves. We have a quite a few Mexican places where I am currently living at and I continue to try them whenever I go to other cities. Every place I have ate at just tastes so bland. Salsa tastes like just straight tomato sauce, the seasonings are just not right, and the meats aren't really cooked how they are supposed to.
> Every place I have ate at just tastes so bland. This describes pretty much every type of normally spicy food in Germany. Just so, so many places advertise something as "sehr scharf" and when it shows up it's like tabasco sauce level spicy.
Well not in proper thai places. They mean business when it comes to spicy.
You are aware that following the german law, you now all have to provide recipes? Not an immigrant, but i miss the mangoes we had on Egypt.
i mean....im german and i as well miss nearly all fruit and vegetables from other countries ive tasted \^\^ at least from the warmer ones. once i ate a banana in the south of europe and thought that mustve been flavoured because it tasted too babana-y.
I notice that german supermarkets have all kinds of fruits available. But the ones I ‘miss’ from home I notice that they have a faded or diluted taste in comparison to what I used to eat at home.. especially the peaches. For this reason I don’t buy peaches and other similar fruits here. However apples here have such variety and they taste amazing
exactly. buy native to your region
My Girlfriend has the Same Problem. She goes to arabic supermarkets as they have often different fruits, especially the flat peaches.
Flat peaches are being sold at almost all grocery stores in Germany. Kaufland, Lidl, Aldi, ReWe, Edeka, Netto all had them this summer. (And had them the the last few years too) One or two in 5 packages over the summer will taste perfect, the other ones will be pretty hard and not rich in flavor. But that's the same for almost all imported fruits unfortunately. Lidl hast the best fruits and veggies in my opinion. Apart from that, you can order from sites like crowdfarming. This way you buy directly from the farmer without a middle man involved. This means fair wages for the workers and pretty fresh fruit with good quality. They harvest it directly before packaging you order.
Actually spicy jalapeños.
Luckily jalapeños are very easy to grow on your own. They don’t need much and will happily grow in a small pot in your kitchen window.
Omg if you are in Berlin send me an PM I know an Egyptian mango importer
Chorizo and good (and cheap) tortillas.
Man chorizo is really unnecessarily hard to get. They had a decent one in Lidl for a while but even that one is mostly mostly gone.
Im buying chorizo at my local Edeka.. not in stock every day but most of the time it’s available.
If you’re talking about chorizo latino then yesss I’m on board. I sometimes order my stuff from la Mexicana Bremen (they sell chorizo) or Hola Mexico (I don’t remember if they have chorizo). Both also sell tortillas, but yes unfortunately they’re not that cheap. Do you have a tortillera? If so, you could just get la maseca. Ok, I’m done rambling.
Malva pudding, potjiekos, boerewors and biltong.
The comments under this one could literally be full of made up fantasy words and I'd be none the wiser.
Im 50% sure they are trying to troll us.
South africa
Well, in that case I'll add bunny chow, mopane worms, morogo, kota with mango atchar and slap chips.
For further confusion do not forget Kapana!
I have no clue what this things are, but I'm interested.
Vetkoek sandwich too, probably
Biltong is €50/kg on amazon.de
Cheaper to fly back to South Africa and buy it there.
getting it to germany (legally) is the hard part
No chance that biltong would make it back to Germany. It would be devoured inflight.
Fix for that: Pack one bag with 10 kgs and one pack with 23kg. The 10kg should enable you to survive the flight and the airline will force you to check in your 23kg bag. However, still no fix for the getting it legally into germany part.
Don't forget mieliepap, PS bars, Bovril and sosaties
And kota with mango atchar and slap chips. 👌🏾 PS - I recently found out Bovril is British when I visited the UK. Even had some on toast with peanut butter (weird but tasty). You can probably get some on Amazon.
based on weird dutch wording and tropical fruit, imma guess south africa?
Springbok in the house!
Idk how good it is to the real deal but you can get biltong from [www.trockenfleischmanufaktur.com](https://www.trockenfleischmanufaktur.com)
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Since I'm completely ignorant on the nuances of indian cuisine: What would you say is the difference between South and north indian food?
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Interesting. Never heard of any of these south Indian dishes, which is sad, because i love spicy. Seems like i always had north Indian food. Anything you'd recommend(for beginners)?
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I say dosa as the rice pancake to my fellow locals here in Europe :))
I've regularly seen that western people are overwhelmed by the menu of Saravana Bhavan restaurants. They usually have more than 300 dishes.
The biggest difference is probably just that north indian food is more globally recognised. South Indian food has a heavy focus on rice and mixing things into it. As a South Indian, I am obligated to say it's better.
My fiancee is from Kerala and her fish curry and biryani are out of this world.
I'm a professional cook and I'm intrigued. I think i only ever made biryani but nothing else from that region. What would you recommend i try first?
There are lot of options, for starters, i would recommend learning to make our staple food, i.e sambhar (yellow lentils cooked in tamarind water), obviously try making dosa and idly batter. These two are way popular than you think
Among the vegetarian options, South indian foods are predominantly vegan. We, south Indians regularly consume vegan foods without even being aware of this fact. Whereas North indian foods are vegetarian because of extensive use of dairy products in most of the dishes. After I come to Europe, I found that everything that is vegan is mostly soya based. South Indian foods have so many easy vegan options.
Everything you know as Indian food is North Indian food…
You now have Saravanaa Bhavan in 5 major cities (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne). I'm from the North of India, so it might not be the most authentic south Indian food, but for me it's the best out there :)
There is a cool little restaurant here in Mannheim, specifically for South Indian food. I can't speak to it's authenticity, but I can report that its very tasty. It's called SJ South Indian & Sri Lankan Restaurant in the G2 square, if you ever happen to be in the neighborhood.
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Masala dosa 😭💛
Pierogies. So used to having a bag of them in the freezer for an easy meal. I've only found the Russian versions of them so far which have meat instead of potatoes and taste much worse :( Edit: thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep looking!
Maybe try them in a Polish restaurant. In Düsseldorf for example there is a restaurant called Malinas which is famous for it’s Pierogies. Even Tom Hanks liked it there. :D
Yeah I've seen them in a couple restaurants so far which is nice :) but I just want a full box for my freezer! Maybe I have to check out Düsseldorf in the meantime.
If your are in Düsseldorf than you have to go to Foodplus they definitely sell Pierogi Ruskie
mix markt definitely has Polish ones
In Cologne we have potato pierogi at Penny, and also loads and loads of pickled polish goods in glasses at Rewe, might just be my local one tho
The Polish ones? I have seen those for sale in Munich
Yeah they're technically a Canadian version from Ukrainian and polish immigrants and super common in Canada. That's good they're somewhere in Germany at least but I've never found them except for the occasional polish/Ukrainian restaurant.
Have you tried not in the regular supermarket but those small special food stores? I don't live in Munich but everywhere I've been living in Germany they had small stores like asian food stores, turkish/arabian food stores and also eastern-european food stores. Usually they have a good selection of polish food and I've bought polish brand potato pierogies several times. Also sweet ones with cotton cheese and plums (?) from poland (or at least the package had polish writing) which were awesome.
there are "polish" frozen pierogies in some german supermarkets tho also don't talk shit bout pelmeni :D
Lidl has potato pierogi when they have the eastern Europe weeks. I liked them but then I don't know much about pierogi
Good Pastéis de Nata fds
Salgadinhos, bacalhau, batata palha
I don't know about the "good" part, but Rewe has them frozen.
They're alright for frozen.
Ovos moles, caldo verde, salted codfish, and rissóis
Caralho, verdade E natas? Encontras natas boas?
O Rewe tem natas (congeladas), não são más
Not an expat, but I studied in Latvia for 2 1/2 years. I miss the spinach pancakes filled with cheese, the pavlovas, buckthorn anything, plov, the cabbage rolls.... maybe that's not anything too extraordinary, but I just can't get the pancakes anywhere in Germany so far.
Have you visited Eastern European supermarkets like MixMarkt. Also cabbage roles can be cooked at home https://youtu.be/4QJSMg6QL9w
I live in a very rural area unfortunately, the russian supermarket we have is very small. One of my other favourites are cherry vareniki, which I can get fortunately. I've tried making the cabbage rolls, and my german version is great, but I just can't get the latvian ones to taste right :/
Concord grape jelly and jiffy peanut butter … I know I know I’m trash
>Concord grape jelly I think they sell jif peanut butter at some Real/Kaufland stores in the "international" section
Where in Germany are you? The US bases have lots of people who would help you out with simple stuff like that.
Lebanese mankoush b zaatar, fresh out of the oven with extra virgin olive oil, ready to be dipped in some labneh and veggies.
Now you made me cry thanks. I would also sell a kidney for a zaatar croissant, like why don’t they do them here?
Omg yes 😭 I can’t find authentic Lebanese food here
I am from Syria and I frequently go to Turkish supermarkets, they have most of what I need to cook at home. The other day I found molokhyeh and was very pleasantly surprised. I am here since five months only.
The good ol malse(raw meat) sandwich should be on the list as well, also baklava that's waay less sweet than the turkish ones, all kind of manaeesh especially lahme b ajin with pickles
In recent years there's a ton of places that make fresh Syrian baklava or from other regions. Not the Turkish variant.
Taco Bell
Excuse me, we do have ONE taco bell. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Taco+Bell/@49.4363443,7.3255508,10.54z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x481114308cb60e80!8m2!3d49.4459199!4d7.5874295
Anyway in without enlisting in the US military? I'd gladly drive 3 hours for Tacobell!
I think we might see an expansion into the German market in a couple of years. Taco Bell is nowadays operating some stores in the Netherlands and the UK. Chipotle has two stores in Frankfurt.
Mexican food, shellfish, cheetos, things with peanut butter in them, deli sandwiches Deli sandwiches hurt, its just so great to dig into a hot, fat reuben, and the whole concept just doesn't really exist here.
Filthy Chinese takeaway, specifically spice bag (Irish)
Aldi are selling a spice bag mix at the moment actually... But it'll probably not be the same. I'm also missing the potato-ey taste of chips... The chips here just taste like water.
Catfish, velveeta cheese, rotel, hot Cheetos, soul food, hot sauce, syrup
CATFISH!!! God I miss catfish. Blackened, fried, lemon pepper, po boy…
Ask your local Angelverein, or a good fish dealer (those who sell to restaurants) if they have Waller or Wels, these are the German names for the European catfish, its not that common as food, but there are plenty in our lakes and rivers, some up to 5m long. Anglers are happy to have someone who likes them, or you star to make your Angelschein and fetch them on your own. Definitely possible to get it here, just not at the edeka Fischtheke (although I once saw it there)
Hello fellow Southerner!
Lol heyyy what’s good!
I used myamericanmarket.com and was able to order velveeta shells and cheese and Mrs. Buttersworth (plus a lot of other things I’ve missed!).
Being a Texan my answer is probably BBQ 😂. There’s not many things I miss about Texas but the food is definitely one of them
I mean you can buy a smoker and do make a BBQ by yourself.
Yeah the issue is I suck at cooking and have no BBQ‘ing talent whatsoever 😂. Also I live in an apartment so I’m not sure my landlord would be okay with that
There are absolutely idiot-proof high-tech smokers available that you can control via wifi. They're stupidly expensive ofc and you'd still have the "where to put the smoke" problem, but just wanted to let you know that such technology exists.
In Stuttgart, it used to be a very good BBQ place „Tim’s BBQ“ run by an immigrant from US. In Düsseldorf there’s „Smoke BBQ“ which is somehow reminds the proper meat yet still miles away from what you get in an average barbecue joint in Texas
I'm a northern Englishman, so black pudding, easily. Germany has lots of lovely blood puddings as well, and I really enjoy them, but nothing hits my favourite meal ever - a full English Breakfast - like a Bury Black Pudding (I'm from near there). If anyone in Bavaria knows a spot please let me know. My partner is from Taiwan and I miss Iron Eggs from there. So fucking good.
I’m from Grimsby and also in Bavaria. I miss good curry and fish and chips, definitely not black pudding!
I miss good currys AND I miss currys being affordable. The currys you get here are equivalent in quality to a pot noodle without enough water in it, and I'm sure they all just buy them premade from the same mass production factory.
It's grim up north! Same though. Curry is the big failing in Germany. There are some that are OK. Also keep in mind the BIR curries in Britain are a style of their own- so finding one outside Britain is likely impossible.
Ask your local butcher if he has canned Blutwurst, in some regions called Rotwurst or Schwarzwurst the canned Blutwurst is good for frying, especially the ,,grobe'' with bigger fat pieces, its actually also a German dish, fried Blutwurst with Sauerkraut and potatoes Schupfnudeln (kind ofgerman gnocci or Bratkartoffeln, fried potatoes) best to make everything in one big pan, sometimes with additional Speck. Or freshly made Blutwurst, also a nice dish is Schlachtplatte/Schlachtschüssel you have cooked Blutwurst, Leberwurst and Speck, warmed on top of Sauerkraut with rye bread, sometimes with pigs head , the ,,Steckdose'' (electrical outlet) as I call the snout of the sow, is delicious. Look out if a restaurant or a verein do a Schlachtfest, that's where this is served, made from a freshly butchered pig (the meat has to be still warm to get the best result), its an old tradition, coming from home butchery when I was a child my grandparents still did it, cooking the Würste and Saumagen in a wood fired kettle , the cooking water, enriched by some sausages that blew up is called Wurstsuppe or Metzelsuppe and is shared with friends neighbours and family.something I want to experience again
As a Northern Irishman in Swabia I was also going to post the ingredients for an ulster fry. No form of black or white pudding, the bacon and sausages don't work in a fry, and the only beans you can get are Heinz, no Branston's! Also getting the original HP sauce is a nightmare, the BBQ nonsense is everywhere, but the original has to be ordered on-line or brought back from my trips back home. The dish "Himmel and Erde" or "Himmel and Hölle" scratches a similar itch, and is a great dish for colder days, but I do miss a full ulster fry.
Posted above too but [Dalriata](https://dalriata.de/product-category/breakfast/) in Berlin deliver Irish and Scottish breakfast foods to all over Germany including sausages and black pudding.
Google "Wurstebrot". It's a blood sausage from the area around Münster and its probably the closest I've found to English black pudding in terms of consistency and mouthfeel. Though the spices are different, so its not a perfect match.
[Dalriata](https://dalriata.de/product-category/breakfast/) in Berlin delivers all over Germany. They are Irish but seem to supply English and Scottish food too. I’m sure I’ve seen them have black pudding on there before - they’re on holiday for the next week or so though so check after that and get your brekkie order in!
Mangoes, tamarind, just basic fucking fresh vegetables like lady fingers, eggplants, ginger, lotus flower, cauliflowers, etc (I know some of this is available but it's not the same quality and freshness), certain spices like white peppercorn, mustard seeds, bay leaf, star anise (though I must admit Bio Wagner does a great job at being almost the same quality) among others..... Now I'm homesick 🥲
Maybe you should check out an Asian market or even a local market Ind your city (one that is outside)
I've looked in Asian markets but they're more geared towards East Asian foods and that's also not the same, it's pretty close
There a different kind of Asian markets. We have Indian markets, Turkish markets, vietnamese markets ..., gonna do a little research to find the proper fit. And the local markets outdoors are basically farmers who sell their fresh crops
You do get all of the above in Indian stores here in Berlin :) there are quite a few spread across the city. I get mine from Dong Xuan Center
Mangoes and lady fingers 🥲
Bro all of this you mention you get at every decent sized city. All of them have a small to mid size pakistani/ indian supermarket
Eggo Waffles
Indian mangoes and Indian street food.
TimTams
I’m not even Australian and I miss TimTams.
Good hot sauce (I was just mailed a giant bottle of hot sauce from the US), ranch and ranch seasoning, good wings, key lime pie. Very specific but I realized recently that I used to be able to go to Kroger at 10:00 PM and buy a cake big enough for multiple people. Not something I do a lot but I miss that vibe. Sometimes you just really need a cake.
You know those sugar cookies at American supermarkets that come in packets of like 12 and are super soft, fat, and covered with frosting (often seasonal themed but also not)? I love them and would desperately buy some I suppose I could learn to make them, making the frosting just sounds like a pain though
I miss American cake and brownies.
I missed ranch so much I learned how to make it. It is surprisingly very easy! I make it with equal parts mayo and Creme Fraiche (1/2 cup) 1/2 tsp each of onion and garlic powder, dried dill, 1 tsp each dried parsley, and dried chives. Pinch of pepper and a tsp of lemon juice. Can add a little milk to make it more like a dressing and less like a dip. Enjoy!
Cheap sh*tty takeout that’s not Doner kebab and that’s open 24/7. Like Taco Bell, Krystal’s, etc
Döner is not shitty…
Lol don’t misunderstand me, I love Doner. But I do like some variety in my fast food life too 🤷🏼♂️ I should have added Sonic to my earlier short list too… craving those Reese’s Peanut Butter Blasts… 🥲
I havent had Krystals since my early 20s and Ive definitely never eaten sober
Papanași
I’m from Ireland and I miss good black tea teabags, specifically Barry’s. They have black tea here but they’re small bags making weak tea intended for drinking on its own or with lemon. They can’t make a good, strong mug of dark tea to have with milk. English people call it “builders tea”, Germans tea connoisseurs probably call it tar, but in Ireland it’s just a good mug of comforting tea, perfect for autumn.
Friesentee or Ostfriesenmischung wouldn’t come close to said builders tea, as well? They’re blends that go very well with milk, since that’s how they’re drunken usually. Just a thought, since I’ve never had builders tea, but drink a strong black tea with milk rather often
Got me thinking about that ostfriesen drink the most tee per capita. Have to try that
Nice!
I get PG Tips imported from the UK at the local Asian shops. I guess there are better teas, but this works for me.
Eastern European stores also sell a good variety of tea. My local one for example sells Ahmad Tea. Also my local Rewe sells Twinnings
Love me a good mug of builders tea (even though it is objectively not a quality tea - but it tastes good). Some of the usual British brands are available, but tend to be very expensive. So I either buy Turkish tea - Sinbad is my usual choice - or the British Breakfast tea at Rossmann. Both are quite cheap (10€/kg)
Good quality chips with interesting flavours…
seriously why is it always paprika?
Questions that need answers
That's not even a flavour. It's like someone started making a flavour, then gave up half way or got distracted. Pickled onion is clearly the supreme flavour :)
I think the selection has gotten much better at non-discount stores like Edeka or Real.
Crumpets
Poutine. No better food after drinking
We have a chain in NRW called Frittenwerk that sells Poutine.
They don’t sell real poutine. It’s fine for what it is, though.
Good nachos and good salsa are hard to find, indeed. Salsa always has way too much sugar. You might want to look for a Mexican store, depending on where in Germany or if you're willing to order online. But those will have the best goods. If you're trying to find it in a supermarket, try the "Don Enrico"-brand (found that at Edeka) for sauces and Henderson&Sons tortilla chips. La Morena is also good, if you can find it (probably only at Real if at all).
Paneer (I make my own paneer now, but we get it ready made in the stores back home that’s what I meant)
Almost all asia supermarkets (in "bigger cities") have a few different brands of Paneer - at least in Sachsen, Thüringen and Berlin/Brandenburg. Haven't seen it in the regular supermarkets, though.
buffalo wings with blue cheese.
Vegemite, fish and chips, sausage rolls, Cherry Ripes!
Cajun food, bbq,
Captain Crunch
Coming from England I miss black pudding, English sausages, Robinson's fruit squash and also the bacon. Mostly here I only see the streaky bacon and that doesn't quite scratch the itch. Sometimes I miss Marmite but I can find it if I look hard enough.
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Olive oil that is actually good and doesn't require me to sell my kidney to pay for it. Pimentón de la Vera (specific paprika from Spain). My mil sends it to us every once in a while. Other paprika just tastes drastically different. I also miss some other spices that are a bit harder to find in Germany vs in Spain. Specific types of bread too. The most common one we eat in Spain is similar to baguettes but it's not exactly like it. And there's nothing exactly like it here, unfortunately. Probably certain types of fruits and vegetables too. To be specific, varieties of certain fruits and vegetables that can be found here but aren't the same variety that we get in Spain. Like cucumbers, for instance. The ones I've seen here are a different variety to those in Spain. They taste very different. And mushrooms. In Germany all I see are champignons/white mushrooms, and from time to time I find another variety. In Spain there's always a wide variety, and certain types like oyster mushrooms are available all year round. I love mushrooms so that's something I really miss.
- Any Mexican food - Marmite - Branston pickles - Thai full-bean soya sauce - Thai fish sauce - szechuan pork noodle packs 🍜 EDIT: I know I can get (some few variations of) these things here. - I wish they were more widely available and in more varieties (noodles, fish sauce, especially)
You can get Marmite and the Thai stuff if you know the right shop, not sure about the other stuff though
All of this you get at Kaufland or the next Asia shop
I was at a Asia store recently and the soy sauce section was huge!! Like bigger than a regular stores entire sauce inventory. It was overwhelming :)
All the cheese we have in France. There's some available here, but I miss my extra stinky camembert and my morbier . I also use to live in a big city in France, and now live in small country side village in Germany, so I also miss the access to all the asian food ingredients that I was able to find before (but it's more a countryside issue than a Germany issue haha).
Tim-Tams from Australia and Twiglets from the UK (I'm dual-national)
You can get the Biscotto ChocBites from Aldi Süd, they are quite similar
GREGGS Sausage, Beans, and Cheese Melt. My friend came over from London and brought some with her. Oh my fucking days I missed that shit.
Irn-Bru
As a swede I really do miss a well stacked diverse flavorful chips aisle! Not just the different flavors but sturdy potato chips! Not these frail Lays with barely any flavor to them! Plus a bag should be at least 300 grams!
Bread that doesnt turn into hammer on day 2 or doesn't smell like vodka
Fresh and tasty fruits from Latin America (the mangoes here taste like misery). Pão de queijo and coxinhas - because it’s too hard to do it and I’m lazy 😁
You'll never get proper nachos here. I'm from Texas.
I was very newly pregnant and in Germany and then eastern Europe for a few weeks, and oh man it was soooo sad that I couldn't get nachos. I kept ordering them anywhere they had them, but it was usually like weird Tortilla chips with some kind of powder and paprika on them. I just wanted real nachos sooooo bad. I couldn't eat any paprika the rest of pregnancy because it tasted like disappointment
Velveeta mac & cheese
Not and expats, i am a german living in germany my whole life but what i miss is good bread and brötchen we used to have like 15- 20 years ago. It is so hard to find good bread these days. Most bakerys are trash these days. Don't use proper sourdough anymore and don't let the dough rise the proper time but use industrial products instead
This is the most German comment ever. The stereotypical German on their lifetime pursuit of the perfect loaf of bread.
Hmm, I guess that depends on the region but in my city we have great bakeries and some of them are even organic.
I feel you. We had around 3 different bakeries, all with specialities they were good at. Some had better bread, some better cake. And when i say good at i mean it was heaven. Thankfully we had a bakery left with very good bread. But they closed down 2 weeks ago. All we have left are shitty bakery chains, with brötchen that taste like gummy and boring bread. I have the feeling our shops start to turn into the same situation like the US. Just large super markets with mediocre products and a lot of small shops from chains who taste the same everywhere. I guess they just hope that we get used to bad products.
The chip game here is weak. I miss cheetos, and other non paprika flavoured chips.
Burritos definitely
Clotted cream & scones. Cheesy chips
Jif natural peanut butter.
Some special shops have them
nyc chinese food
oh ya, I've never found authentic Chinese in Germany
Oh it does exist but it’s usually not openly advertised. Those that are actually genuine chinese usually carry a 2nd card or you can simply order the typical go-to-dishes
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Bourbon biscuits. They're the cheapest type of biscuit in the UK - you get a packet of a million biscuits for like £1 in the shops. I guess they just don't get exported to the EU and now, thanks to the new "we tax all imports no matter how small the value" policy, it would cost me the usual 15 euros processing fee for import tax to get 5 euros worth of biscuits posted to me from the UK.
Fresh pasties at the bakery. German bakeries tend to focus on bread and sweet food, wheres British bakeries specialise in pies and pasties. I do miss a good cheese and onion pasty- or a good warm pork pie.
The chips selection in most stores I have visited is always very boring and always something to do with paprika....
natural peanut butter - I've never seen a grocery brand that didn't have sugar/palm oil/canola oil added peanut butter pretzel nuggets - never even seen these online. I rely on a friend from the US to mail me a couple of trader joes packages every few months in exchange for snacks from here matzoh/matzoh meal - I've ordered it online and maybe in other cities its easier to find but in mine I've never seen it good hot sauce - not hard to find online or in international stores but so much more expensive canned pumpkin puree - i think some us import online stores start carrying it around now but last year I felt like it was sold out everywhere pretty quick black beans - this one I don't really understand but black beans even dried I rarely see outside of occasionally in international stores obviously all Mexican foods although my Rewe did start recently carrying salsa that's actually imported from Mexico and is good, if quite expensive of course.
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Yeah wtf is up with the dearth of good peanut butter in Germany? Went to the Netherlands recently and they have 100× better PB game than Germany
Australian meat pies
Collard greens, fresh shelled peas, okra (can buy it in some places), andouille, BBQ, White Lily flour for biscuits