Finding Local Specials in Munich Makes Cents

Earlier this month in Munich, vendors were setting up wooden booths for Cristkindlmarkt, the Christmas market in the town square Marienplatz. Shopkeepers were draping boughs of fir and spruce over doorways. Restaurant owners were offering such seasonal specialties as Christmas stollen and roast goose.

And we were searching for affordable food. For this endeavor we had asked Christie Aswell, an American living in Germany, to act as our guide.

“Once the bells of St. Peter’s Church have chimed noon, you’re not supposed to eat weisswurste, “ Aswell said as we strolled the winding streets of Munich. “Nobody knows how the custom started, but if you order them after noon, you’ll get rude stares.”

Not wanting to flaunt tradition, Aswell, whose husband is in the U.S. Army in Germany, took us to the restaurant Weisses Brauhaus for an 11:30 a.m. sausage lunch.

Like many military families stationed in Europe, Aswell and her husband have become proficient at stretching today’s anemic dollar in an increasingly expensive Germany, so she helped us find affordable restaurants that serve local specialties.

At Weisses Brauhaus, we nibbled crusty rolls and large pretzels from a communal basket on the table and ordered weisswurste, fat veal sausage seasoned with lemon and parsley.

There is even a traditional way to eat weisswurste. After cutting the sausage in half, you pick up a piece and dip it into some sweet mustard (there are pots of it on each table), then you suck the meat out of the casing. The activity itself is fun and the sweet mustard is delicious with the mild, white sausage.

Totaling the bill, the waitress asked how many rolls and pretzels we’d eaten. They were 35 cents each. A serving of two sausages was about $4.50. Tips are included in restaurant bills, but locals often leave an additional 5% if service is good.

Weisswurste is just one of the specialties we savored in a city that offers everything from traditional Bavarian pork sausage to Belon oysters from Brittany. Fancy food markets such as the well-established Alois Dallmayr and the newer, trendier Kafer cater to local food lovers, while the Viktualienmarkt, an open-air market in the center of town, offers an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables year-round.

“Goose is served everywhere at Christmas,” Aswell said as we sat down to dinner at Durnbrau, a typical Bavarian restaurant in the center of Munich. Deer antlers hung on the walls and holiday decorations dangled from the ceiling. Although it was early in the evening, the restaurant, which dates to 1487, was already crowded.

We tried the roast goose marinated in vinegar and red wine (about $16). It had a wonderful, sweet-sour taste. The skin was crisp, the meat tender. Red cabbage cooked with apples was pleasantly tart, and bread dumplings the size of tennis balls were perfect for sopping up the rich brown gravy from the wooden serving bowl.

For dessert, we split an order of kaiserschmarn (about $9). The thick pancake, which was massive enough for eight, contained almonds and raisins and was baked until a crust of caramelized sugar formed on the bottom. We dipped the warm, powdered-sugar-sprinkled pieces into applesauce and wished we had begun with dessert.

German pastries are habit-forming, and we adopted the local custom of stopping in small cafes for an afternoon snack. Kreutzkamm Conditorei is famous for its Christmas stollen, a traditional holiday yeast cake crammed with raisins, currants, citron and almonds and drenched in powdered sugar.

We also tried baumkuchen, a butter cake made by pouring layers of batter over a pole that revolves in front of a fire.

While Kreutzkamm is a traditional, Old World-style bakery/cafe, Gourmet Morth is contemporary. There we tried a mango mousse tart, fragrant with fresh mango and, miraculously in December, a wild strawberry tart. These cafes can also be affordable spots for a light lunch. You can have a bowl of soup for about $3.50, sandwiches for about $5 and pastries for about $3.

Or try Nurnberger schweinwurst, tiny pork sausages the size of a finger. They originated in Nuremberg but are a passion in Munich. A good place to sample them is Nurnberger Bratwurstglockl, a cozy restaurant near Marienplatz. We sat at a corner table beneath leaded glass windows and ordered leberspatzl soup (about $2.95). Out came a bowl of clear consomme with liver dumplings and chives. The savory broth was warming on a damp December morning, and the dumplings tasted strongly of liver.

In the back of the small, crowded room, we could see through a glass door into the kitchen where a woman was roasting bratwurst scented with garlic and herbs over an open flame. The bratwurst was sensational with sauerkraut and sharp mustard.

The same type of sausage was boiled and served with carrots, celery and onions. The aroma of the vegetables permeated the sausages with a delectable combination of flavors that was very different from the grilled version. The grilled sausages were about $4 for four; boiled they were about $7 for six.

Munich has its share of fancy restaurants, but the current exchange rate makes them incredibly expensive. “At the best restaurants, it will cost you $300 to $400 for a meal for two people without wine,” Aswell said.

As an alternative, she suggested Mark’s, which opened this spring in the Hotel Rafael. So on our last night in Munich, we climbed a circular staircase from the hotel lobby to find a spacious room with candles and orchids on every table.

We began with a terrine of goose liver layered with sliced truffle and lingonberries. It was fabulous.

Although a native of Munich, chef Frank Heppner cooked for years in the Orient, and that influence was seen in a dish of prawns and noodles. For it, a sauce of ginger and lemon grass topped with finely chopped red bell peppers, chives and ginger was served over very thin noodles something like angel hair pasta.

Veal fillets were served with intensely flavored, slightly sweet port wine sauces--one white, one red, with grilled Belgian endive on the side. For dessert there were deep-fried Asian spring rolls filled with fresh fruit glazed with honey and served on a fresh coconut sauce. It was a light dessert with just enough sweetness to satisfy.

The restaurant was quiet with lots of space between tables and perfect service. It’s the kind of place you wish for at home. At $150 for two, the dinner was expensive, but it was one of those meals we will savor for years.

Recommended: Weisses Brauhaus, Munchen im Tal (call locally 299875); Durnbrau, Durnbraugrasse 2 (222195); Kreutzkamm, Maffeistrasse 4 (293277); Gourmet Morth, Amplatzl 3 (226061); Nurnberger Bratwurstglockl, Frauenplatz 9 (220385); Mark’s, Hotel Rafael, Neuturmstrasse 1 (290980).