Meals and customs in Germany
MEALS AND CUSTOMS
Early risers, the Germans like a light breakfast of bread or rolls with
butter and preserves and coffee with canned milk and sugar. Children may
be served a porridge of oats or rice flavored with raisins and cinnamon.
But since that first meal of the day is served before the real German
appetite has fully awakened, most people take a few sandwiches of meat or
cheese to work or school, to be eaten around ten o'clock as the second
breakfast or snack. In some areas a few sausages with beer fill the hunger
"pocket."
Traditionally the noon meal is the largest of the day and many try to eat
at home with the family, although this is becoming increasingly less
feasible with more and more women working outside the home. A hearty soup,
a meat and vegetable eintopf, and a dessert (susspeisen) make up the
midday meal.
Since supper is customarily served around 7:30 p.m., an afternoon snack of
"coffee and a sweet" helps tide one over. A light evening meal frequently
comprises soup and a dessert, a selection of cold meats, sausages, and
cheese with bread or rolls accompanied with salad is served. Occasionally
a late evening hunger pang may be assuaged with sausages and beer or a
thick goulash-type soup. Restaurants serve every variety of food in
generous portions and eating out is almost a form of sport to many
Germans.
One can understand the delight in eating out with only a glance of what is
offered: good eating places have special names such as gasthofe,
ratsheller, weinstuben, bierhallen, restaurants,
schnellimbiss-stube
(quick lunch counter), milchbars for cool milk or milkshakes, eissalons
for refreshing ices and ice creams of all types, konditoreien for pastries
and coffee, summer beer gardens, and even special cafeterias at places of
business to provide that hot midday meal. And there is a wurstlerei just
for beer and sausages. Increasingly, Turkish, Italian, Thai, and other
ethnic restaurants in the cities provide delicious alternatives to
traditional German fare.
Entertaining at home is enjoyed with close friends, family, and the
children's friends. In fact, for most Germans, the friends of their
children are not only welcomed as family, they are often considered as
extended family. Many Germans retain the old traditions and formal
etiquette associated with entertaining in the home. These include punctual
arrival, some hand kissing is still customary, and almost always, a
bouquet of flowers will be proffered to the hostess. Handshaking is a
definite point of etiquette, and reputedly, more handshaking goes on in
Germany than in many other countries.
Entertaining for business purposes or with casual friends takes place not
in the home but in the many types of restaurants and cafes. Should it be
necessary to bring people into the home to discuss business, the hostess
rarely serves anything.
Family and close friends coming for dinner or lunch will always be served
with the best linen, and if possible any fine treasured pieces of china,
especially coffee sets. Rhine and Moselle wines or a punch bowl
accompanied with appetizers of small salted pastries and nuts will be
offered first. The more sophisticated may sip Scotch, bourbon, or brandy,
but generally cocktails are not in the German entertaining tradition. Home
dinner parties are usually prompted by some special family occasion such
as a confirmation or engagement. Often a lengthy evening may conclude with
the hostess serving casually prepared sandwiches or plates of sausages
with beer.
A particularly delightful custom is that of presenting children with a
huge gaily decorated cone filled with sweets for their first day at
school. Perhaps this sweet beginning adds pleasure to learning.