All I knew about Germany before coming to Tübingen, was that the country is considered the best brewing country in the world and that everybody wants a taste of German beer. I soon found out that this is true when we went to the Kusterdingen carnival parade , and we saw how much Germans enjoy drinking beer. But beer is not the only thing that Germany is famous for: there is a wide variety of bread, cheese and my personal favourite, chocolate.
Where I come from in South Africa we like our food. We like gatherings, braais and big Sunday lunches and this is when we get time to be with friends and family on weekends when everybody is taking time off their busy schedules. When I came to Germany I was not sure what to expect. In all honesty, I was worried that the food would be completely different to the food I’m used to back home. But I soon realized that I had nothing to be worried about. Actually, the food in Germany is not that different to the food that we eat in South Africa.
The first MENSA meal that we had was something I did not expect, as I am used to being served fast food in student cafeterias in South Africa. The MENSA, however, serves healthy and nutritious meals. I like the fact that every meal is based on the concept of a balanced diet. I also like the variety of soups that are served for lunch and that every meal is served with a healthy salad on the side. But we as a group did not only eat at the MENSA. We were also treated to a lovely dinner at Faros, a Greek restaurant, and the food was absolutely delicious. My favourite meal, however, was undoubtedly the meal we had at the Mercedes Benz museum.
During my stay here, I got to learn a lot about German people’s eating habits. Germans, for example, like drinking coffee, but they like eating chocolate even more. That is something that I really cannot complain about, because I find the variety and quality of the chocolates available really good, as I love chocolate myself. Furthermore, the shops boast a variety of cheese and different sorts of pasta. Another great thing is how reasonable the food prices are. Even the oranges that are exported from South Africa are reasonably priced.
But we did not only learn new things about what Germans eat today. We also got the opportunity to make a wonderful, traditional German dish called Kässpätzle. To me the whole experience was interesting: being able to make our own pasta from scratch with common ingredients like flour, eggs and water. This was also a good way for us to get to know each other and the finished product was simply delicious.
All in all, I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the food here in Germany!

Philile Khumalo