Germany by Steve L

To start off, one of my favorite things about Germany was the food. Don't ask me to tell you what my best experience was, because I'd never be able to nail down. So I guess the best place to start would be the food. Our first day sight-seeing in Berlin, we visited the DDR museum and next to the museum was the DDR restaurant. Inside we had our first real taste of German food. The DDR restaurant only serves food that would have been available during the occupation, which leads to an interesting menu. I had a delicious bowl of potato soup, with some sausage and vegetables in it. The soup wasn't a broth though, more like apple sauce, only potato flavored. I have never had a more tasty soup in my life. In fact, just about everything in Germany tastes better. Even the McDonald's food. (yes, they have McDonald's in Germany.) After the soup I had half a chicken (literally a rotisserie chicken sliced down the middle and put on a plate) and some 'pommes', or french fries. Not the most adventurous of dishes, but hey, it was my first day. Along with my meal, I had a nice tall glass of something know as appfelschalle, which is actually quite common in Germany. basically a carbonized version of apple juice. Fantastic tasting. I'm glad I liked it, because more than our fair share would be offered to us throughout our trip. At every home we visited they would welcome us in, sit us down and pour us a glass-full. On one such occasion, I had the chance to eat more than I ever had in my entire life in one sitting. She served us a lunch of some terrific goulash, and, half to be polite, and half because it was some of the best food I'd ever tasted, I had seconds and thirds.

Now, i don't want to come off with the impression that I only remember the food, but believe me, it was very memorable. Of course, just about everything was memorable. I might as well recount one tale involving food (or rather, the lack thereof) that was particularly memorable. During a layover in France, after we had missed our flight and had to reschedule, we received free-meal vouchers in compensation. With an hour to go before our new flight, we decided to eat at a french restaurant called The Hippopotamus. They sat us down at a table and left. Fifteen minutes later, the waiter came back with a menu, and then left. With a nervous glance at our watches, we ordered our food as quickly as possible ten minutes later. With half an hour to go, we were brought a few rolls to munch on. We waited, our stomachs growling, for another half of an hour, and then simply walked out of the restaurant. Our flight was about  to leave. As we walked out the door, one of the waiters said something in french that was probably along the lines of "but sir, your appetizers are almost finished fossilizing! And we've watched the paint on your freshly hand-crafted plate dry almost to completion! If you like, we can provide some grass that you can watch grow until your food has reached its required centennial anniversary!"