In comparison to America, Germany is a fairly small place.  “Germany,” I still remember my high school German teacher telling our class, “is about the size of Pennsylvania.”  Though it turns out Germany is actually more like four times the size of Pennsylvania, it is still a relatively small place in American standards, and for being so small, it’s a wonder what a range of regional culinary specialties exist here, tucked away in every corner.

In Rheinland-Pfälz, I’ve experienced Pfälzer Saumagen.  But in Hessen you need not be so daring to sample the local specialties, because in Hessen the standards are “apfelwein,” “grüne soße,” and “handkäs mit musik.”

Apfelwein

“Apfelwein”–or apple wine to English speakers–is a lot like hard cider.  You might think one cider is the same as the next, but in Hessen and especially Frankfurt, the drink and it’s consumption are the equivalent of baseball in America.  Traditionally, apple wine must be drunk out of a “geribbte”–a tall glass imprinted with diamond-shaped ribbing–and if ordered en mass, is served in a blue and white ceramic pitcher called a “bembel.”  Don’t believe Hessens take apple wine seriously?  Just check out the tall glass building on the Main–a building architecturally inspired by the “geribbte.”

There are also three ways to drink apple wine.  You can order a pure (my favorite variation, though perhaps the least common among native Hessens), a “gespritzte” (apple wine cut with mineral water), or a “süßgespritzte”–”süßer” for short (where the aple wine is mixed with lemon- or orangeade).  And don’t forget, when you order locally, it’s called an “Äppler.”

Spend a few days in Frankfurt and you’re sure to see a colorful, old-fashioned-looking tram traversing the city.  This is the Eppelwoi-Express, Frankfurt’s portable apple wine pub.  For 6 euros (3 euros for children) you can ride through Frankfurt in the trams’ bright red cars, drinking apple wine and eating pretzels (a bottle of the former and a bag of the latter are included in the fare).  You can check the schedule and fares here: http://www.ebbelwei-express.com/.  But if you’d rather stay in one place, there is the quaint apple wine district in Sachsenhausen.

Grüne Soße

If you need a snack to go with your apple wine, one highly recommended local specialty is “grüne soße,” or “green sauce.”  Grüner soße is a cream and egg-based herb sauce, served cold over fish, meat, or, most commonly, potatoes.  There are seven herbs that belong in a traditionally prepared grüner soße: parsley, chives, cress, borage, chervil, burnet, and sorrel, and every plate of sauce is garnished with a halved hard-boiled egg.

Though perhaps not as obsessively honored by Frankfurters as apple wine, grüner soße also has a little monument erected in its honor in Frankfurt Oberrad–a row of small greenhouses, each with one of the seven grüner soße herbs displayed inside.

Handkäs mit Musik

To complete your Hessen/Frankfurt culinary adventure, you have one more dish to try, the infamous Handkäs mit Musik.  When I first moved to Frankfurt, I had read about this dish in several travel guides, so when my mother came to visit, we went out to give it a try.

Handkäs mit Musik–literally translatable as “hand cheese with music” is a sour cheese, thusly named because it was originally formed by hand.  The cheese, once finished, is then marinated in onions with vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper.

The saucer-sized, round, white cheese was served to us on a small plate with a basket of bread.  It was oily and pungent–interesting, but more of an acquired taste.

And the music?  That’s what happens when you stomach tries to digest it.

Guten apetit!

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