South Africa Program 2017

MY GERMAN FOOD EXPERIENCE

For me there was nothing more perfect than to write about food since the fact that I love food so much that I am even studying the science thereof. I love trying the unknown and was therefore very curious to try food other than those from South Africa. Friends from back home warned me that the food in Germany aren’t that great than in SA but I decided I want to make my own judgment about it. So my food journey began…

My first impression of the food was that it is a lot more expensive than back home and I quickly decided not to do conversions but just to enjoy the food because I know I won’t be able to experience the food of Germany soon again. My first experience with German food was the first breakfast with our amazing host family. At home I’m used to eggs, bacon, cheese and sausages. A typical German breakfast was bread with cheese and cold meats, but what made it so amazing and special was the fact that every morning there was different types of bread, cheeses and cold meats to choose from. I really enjoyed the wide variety of bread and cheeses because back at home we mainly have white and brown bread and Gouda and Cheddar cheese. Another new thing that I and Carmelita experienced at breakfast was a soft boiled egg. When we first had it we started trying to peel off the shell of the egg only to find out that we are only supposed to cut off the top off the egg and eat the egg out of the shell (haha).

On our first day after arrival we as a group cooked the traditional German dish Kässpätzle. I really enjoyed this activity and it was a great way to get to know everyone better. I expected it to taste like the normal spaghetti that we have at home but to my surprise the Kässpätzle blowed my mind by its complete unique delicious taste. I was also amazed by the fact that everything was handmade.

The MENSA food I experienced as very similar to the food that I eat daily at my residence’ cafeteria at Stellenbosch University. Small differences came in with the bigger portion carbs that we got at the MENSA and also that most of the meat at the MENSA was pork. Overall I enjoyed the MENSA food, I especially enjoyed the salad with its amazing salad dressing. I usually bought chocolates and pretzels for snacks. This was the first time I ate pretzels and wow, how much have I missed out in life! Pretzels with Nutella is definitely my next best thing. I also really enjoyed the wide variety of chocolates that the supermarkets had. Something that was also very interesting is the fact that all the companies/factories that we visited had a cafeteria for their employees, which I think is absolutely amazing.

On the first off weekend of the program me, Carmelita and Conrad had a traditional festival dish at one of Conrad’s German friend’s house called Raclette. This was one of my favorite dishes. Everyone had a small pan wherein you put your toppings of choice topped with Raclette cheese and then heated up. Our host family also took me, Carmelita and Simon out for dinner on the last Sunday night to one of the local German restaurants where we had the traditional Swabian dish Maultaschen, which is made with noodle dough generally filled with meat or vegetables. The whole experience from the restaurant to the Maultaschen dish was amazing. We also had Flaedlesuppe for a starter that I loved.

Overall I really enjoyed the German food and loved the new flavors that my palette experienced. The only one thing that I missed from South Africa food is the spices and beef. Oh, and how can I forget about the beers of Germany! I really enjoyed the wide variety of beers that is available here. There never was one beer that I didn’t enjoy, definitely better than those in SA. I never thought I would say this but hey, looks like Germany changed me into liking beer!

Thanks TSAP for giving me the best German food experience!

Madeleine du Plessis