Tagged: food

I have heard so may horror stories about German food. Even the German lady who took my ‘inter-cultural’ session told me so. But I would have to say it has not been too disappointing. No, not that you can have it every day, but it is not as bad as they make it sound to be. Anyway the whole point of this post is not about German food, but something the Germans seem to have adopted as their own.

Meet the Döner Kebab. It is so ubiquitous here in Germany, every railway station, every nook and corner of the street you will find this board. It is like an oasis for the many of my Indian friends here. They are forced to like it, it seems, due to lack of options. But you know what? I have just fallen in love with it. It is cheap (atleast to German standards), it is filling, it has some spice (again with reference to German standards) and it is damn tasty! It is so much part of the German way that you wouldn’t know that it is not really German, rather an export from Turkey. And what varieties they have – Lahmacun, Yufka Döner, Dürüm Döner, the list is endless! It is such a simple dish too – Meat (pork, beef or rarely chicken) and vegetables filled in a pocket (usually) shaped bread. The next best thing to Indian food, if I dare to say… oh and sorry veggies, Germany is still a difficult country for you

So you guys know what to do first if you ever land in Germany (or maybe it is still available in Turkey, but I suspect the Germans have imported them all here )!! And when the nice shopkeeper asks “Mit alles?” just reply “Ja!” and you will get the tastiest treat in Germany.

I had gone for a trip to Bonn last weekend with Ginu and Sandeep to meet the latter’s cousin. The main purpose was not to see the city, but anyway we roamed around the place – the old capital of West Germany. It was a bit surprising, the city was too small to be a capital of any country! But small does not ever mean bad. It is a pretty little city by the river Rhine and the ‘Friezeit Park’ was quite nice.

After the initial roaming Sandeep’s cousin, Soumya chechi agreed with us to make chicken, even though she didn’t know heads and tails of how to make it. So I decided to take the lead. Yeah, it was an risky experiment with just 3 months of cooking experience but I decided to give it a try. With all the resources obtained we started out joined by Saumya chechi’s brazilian roommate Maria. She said she will make us a nice Brazilian Omlette while I tried my luck with the chicken. It wasn’t the best of conditions, but anyways it did turn out good., atleast better than what I expected and I even got a compliment in Brazilian Portuguese for my cooking.. who would have thought!!

The recipe is simple – (ok, most of this is copyrighted by Mathew who is the total inspiration behind my cooking): Take chicken, marinate it with curd and masala (any variety you could get) for a while. Grill the chicken for about 20 minutes. After that fry some onions till golden brown, add some tomatoes, salt, pepper, chilli powder, masal till cooked. Then add the grilled chicken and cook for about 15 minutes. There you have it, the delicious Chicken Bonn is ready! Serve Hot!!

Sunday we bid goodbye to our excellent hostesses and headed towards Koeln (Cologne). This was my second visit there and since it was mostly unplanned we had the option of just walking around. It was really good. This city is truly nice. I had always thought of coming to Cologne again and exploring it properly, but even this time we didnt have the time to do it. So by afternoon, we took the train back to Stuttgart. A nice short inexpensive trip and fun too, thanks to the Chicken Bonn!