In search of German food

Recently my grandma Betty emailed me asking how the food was in Berlin, and I responded to her with rave reviews of gozleme and my favorite Turkish breads and pastries. She replied with great shock:

Gennie, Gennie, Gennie....
What has happened to the German food? Where is the Sauerbraten, Rouladen, Kartoffelklosse, Wiener Schnitzel and Sauerkraut with Knockwurst or Brats??  I don't know if I can take this!

Let me explain. For the past three weeks I've either been getting pre-cooked ravioli and frozen pizza from Kaiser and/or Aldi, grocery shopping at the Turkish market, eating sandwiches from the corner store or any of the U-Bahn/S-Bahn stands, or enjoying my favorite simit from that place in Kreuzberg. Also, went to a hamburger place once and got a veggie burger with weirdly sweet ketchup on it. There are also all sorts of Turkish restaurants, mainstream cafes, pan-Asian cuisine, even a few Burger Kings--but I've mostly been avoiding them in favor of cheaper options. Not so bad for a student on a budget. Regardless, it has become very clear to me that, in my last days in Germany, I better find some German food!

So this morning I woke up bright and early, took a few moments to catch up on final Tour de France recaps (no spoilers here, though!), and set out to Flohmarkt Mauerpark (the "Wall Park" flea market) to get myself an education. This market happens only once a week, on Sundays, so it was now or never.

When I got to the market, I immediately spotted the reason for the park's name up on top of a hill. Some Wikipedia-ing tells me that this area used to have the Berlin Wall and its Death Strip running through it. and that when the wall fell in 1989, all but a 40-foot section of the wall was taken down and the former Death Strip designated as public green space. The picture below shows just a small, small stretch of the market--it must have been five or six city blocks long!

Looking down from the wall memorial.

I went back down the hill and into the market to commence my search. At first, I was only seeing random (but very cool) garage sale-like stuff set out on tables: records, door knobs, watches, jewelry, boxes, journals, hand-made soaps. I couldn't even take it in all at once--if you can imagine it at a sweet German garage sale, it was probably there.

Soon enough, though, I started seeing food vendors. See photos below for the culinary journey.

Something about sunny vegan burgers, all in English. Not very German.

Hot dogs...not very German. Getting closer though?

This girl was my favorite. Her little sign says "Carrot cupcakes made by a redhead." I'm not sure if she's German or what, but carrot cupcakes definitely are not.

Doner kebab! Aside from the scholarly debate about "just how Turkish, or perhaps how German, is the donar kebab" (which, as a side effect of my research project, I know far too much about for my health) I'm gonna go with "not German" for this one. At least, not the kind of German Grandma Betty is talking about!

Looking more promising. But, let's face it - currywurst isn't all that German, either.

More currywurst - nope. This place also served rostbratwurst and knacker, which seem pretty German...but, I'm vegetarian. So close, but so far. The search continues.

Strudel! That's German, and vegetarian! But it was stupid expensive. I was GERMAN German, not tourist-trap German.

This one was my favorite so far. This guy makes jams and spreads (something that the Gaude clan specializes in as well!) with the craziest names. I saw Balsamic Strawberry, Salty Peanut Desaster (his spelling--it was actually quite good), and Coconut Vanilla, for example, along with Chocolate and Chai Tee. There were some slightly more regular berry mixes in there, as well.

But, speaking of the Gaude folk, why would I ever buy jam when I have world-class, state champion jammers and preservers in my corner? Next.

Pizza. Delicious, but not German (even though I'm starting to associate Berlin with those 66-cent A&P frozen pizzas from Kaiser).

A ha! Wurst, culture, tradition. This place is clearly German. I checked out the menu but, again, it's all meat. No hearty vegetarian potato dishes or anything!

I also saw a waffle guy and some gummy candy along the way, in addition to lots of fruit/juice/coffee bars. Again, not German. Actually, not really anything--what proud people steps forward to claim gummy candy??

Then, just as I was leaving the market despairing that I may have to tell Grandma Betty that I couldn't find German food in Germany, I found it. German food. Totally German. SO German. And, 100% vegetarian. It fit the bill perfectly: traditional, handmade, sold by a German-speaking person (as opposed to the English-speaking vendors that seemed to make up about 30% of the stalls), bought by lots of other German-speaking people and not just "Do you speak English" tourists like myself. (Well, it may or may not technically be a product of Sardinia, Italy--but, that's as German as I could get. What does this tell us about the transnational nature of the urban economy of Berlin? Discuss.) And, as if that's not enough, it's also travel friendly and very share-able. But, no picture of this treasure yet--it's a surprise!!