Tafelspitz - Adventures in Austrian Cooking

We’ve enjoyed quite a variety of Austrian food, both here in Bavaria and on trips to Vienna.  And, in southern Bavaria and northern Austria, there can be a bit of an overlap… kaiserschmarm, schnitzel…are they Bavarian or Austrian??? It quite depends on who you ask, and I’m not going to touch that controversial question! 

But there are a few dishes we can all agree are classic Viennese.  Wienerschnitzel, of course tops the list, as the name simply means “Vienna-style Schnitzel”.  And there’s one you might not have heard of outside of the German-speaking world - Tafelspitz.

On a side note, Tafelspitz is one of those dishes that you would not order off of the English menu in Germany or Austria.  The translation just sounds perfectly terrible, as unfortunately do many translations of German dishes. Tafelspitz will most likely be described on the English menu as “Boiled beef tritip” or “Boiled silverside of beef.” Not so appetizing a description, but you would really be missing out not to try it.

First, it’s basically a beef brisket cut, not some strange piece of animal…I use the tafelspitz cut to make brisket tacos and it's becoming a favorite cut. Second, while it is boiled, it is not rubbery and nasty. Quite the opposite…tafelspitz comes out like a perfect slow cooked piece of roast – flavorful and falls apart with the touch of a fork. You can see below how the meat would just crumble into shreds. Yum! 

  

It’s also a dish that can be served both as the authentic, multi-course dinner – really more of an experience than just a meal – or as a simple, hearty homemade dinner. It all depends on how authentic you want to be and how much time you’re willing to invest.

We tried our hand at making Tafelspitz this weekend and it was quite a tasty surprise. Whenever I cook something like this (or brisket tacos, pork shoulder, or goulasch…) I’m always a bit afraid I’ll get a big rubbery hunk of meat rather than fine shreds. And usually I'm shocked (in a good way) with the results.  I think my wonderful giant Le Crueset pot helps things out - I usually turn the stove down to the lowest level, cover it and leave it for hours to get perfect results.

There are various recipes out there, all with conflicting info. So we cobbled together our own simple home version from about 10 other recipes and made a few simplifications. We wanted tasty food, not hours in the kitchen.

So here’s how to make authentic Tafelspitz, as well as how to make a simpler version at home.

For the real deal, visit Plachutta in Vienna, and be sure to make a reservation.  While it is one of those restaurants that all the guidebooks recommend, it’s one that is also authentic and loved by many residents as well. Don’t skip it just because it’s famous – it really is great food and worth a visit.

First, the Ingredients:  

     

Authentic (feeds 4-6)	Simplified (serves 2)
2 kg Tafelspitz (in 1 piece if possible)	500g Tafelspitz
750g beef bones (cut and with marrow)	3L beef broth
4-5 L water
3 carrots	3 small carrots
1-2 parsnips	1 parsnip
2 large onions	2 medium onions
few stalks flat parsley	few stalks flat parsley
2 leeks	1 leek
1 small celery root	1/4 celery root (or small one)
3 bay leaves	2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp black peppercorns	16 black peppercorns
2 juniper berries	10 red peppercorns (optional)
chopped chives (decoration)

In Germany, you'll find something wonderful in the produce section.  It's called Suppengrün ("Soup Vegetables"), and is the bundle of veggies you need to make soup broth. So, it includes already for you, the main ingredients. And you don't have to buy a whole, huge celery root that you won't fully use.

 

Parsnips ("Pastinak" in German) were an ingredient I'd not used before. Interestingly, the ladies at the checkout counter were not familar with them either, so I explained that they were sort of like a huge white carrot. Which, OF COURSE, made us put them side by side to test out that unproven thought. From the cross section, they definitely look like a carrot relative. The taste is similar, though the parsnip has a more subtle carrot taste and a slightly spicy aroma. And they're a little harder to bite than a carrot. But the taste is very mild. Parsnips cooked will take on the flavor of whatever you are using to cook them.

 

Preparing Tafelspitz:
And now the preparation: Though it's a fairly simple dish to make, it needs 3-6 hours to actually cook.

Authentic (feeds 4-6)	Simplified (serves 2)
Cut onions in half (do not peel) and fry cut side down until slightly blackened.
Fill pot with water	Bring broth to a boil, add all ingredients except for carrots and parsnip (or any others you plan to eat)
Wash bones and meat, place in water
Add more water to cover meat if needed
Add peppercorns, bay leaves, and berries and bring to boil
Reduce to low, cover, and simmer 3-4 hours	Reduce to low, cover, and simmer 2 hours
Periodically skim foam if it develops
Add remaining vegetables and cook 1-2 more hours covered until meat is soft

At the end of the cooking, you'll have a pot looking like this: 

While the tafelspitz is in the last stages of cooking, you'll want to make the sauce(s) and any sides you plan to serve.

Typical side dishes include potatoes (boiled, or a style similar to hash browns), creamed spinach, and vegetables. We opted for veggies from the soup and tried the potatoes.  For the potatoes, you should boil and peel the potatoes in advance (the previousl day is best). Then grate them into shreds.  Finely slice onions in oil until soft. Then add the grated potatoes, season with salt, and fry until crispy.

Unless you have a desire to be super authentic, I recommend you buy the preshredded potatoes. Here you can buy excellent readymade potato pancakes (Schlemmermeyer kiosks and stores have them here) or prepackaged Rosti (shredded, oiled, seasoned, and ready to cook).  In the US, I would just get some of the frozen hash brown potatoes.

There are a variety of sauce recipes out there, but the two most common (and traditional) are the chive sauce and an apple-horseradish sauce. As I hate eggs and creamy sauces, you'll see the apple-horseradish one here. It's a really nice, light and subtle sauce. Probably it should be ground a little finer than we did, but still it will be more a salsa type of sauce than a creamy, smooth sauce.  

Chive Sauce	Apple Horseradish Sauce ("Apfelkren")
2 raw egg yolks	1 Granny Smith apple, peeled & cored
3 hardboiled egg yolks	1/2 cup shredded fresh horseradish
100g bread (remove crust)	juice of 1 lemon
200 mL milk	cider vinegar, salt, sugar
400 mL oil (not olive oil)
2 Tbsp chopped chives	Puree apple and mix with horseradish
	Add lemon juice (to keep apple white)
Soak bread in milk	Season with cider vinegar, salt, sugar to taste
Stir together all eggs
Season with salt, sugar, vinegar	Gravy Sauce
Squeeze out milk from bread and add bread	Fry diced onions in butter
Stir mixture while dripping oil into the mix	Add a bit of flour, fry another minute
Stir in chives	Add some broth from the beef
(or use blender, as you would make mayo)	Bring to a boil and add grated horseradish

After mixing together the ingredients for the apple-horseradish sauce, you'll end up with something like this.  

 

Serving Tafelspitz: 

And then comes the fun decision - how to serve your tafelspitz. Traditionally there are two main ways:

1) The entire pot (usually copper) is brought to the table and guests serve themselves out of the communal soup pot. 

Here, you would remove meat from pot. Remove fat and slice meat against the grain. (Restaurants will do it very thinly, but it's tough to do at home without meat falling apart).  Season soup and return the slices to the pot for serving.

2) Guests are served in separate courses, so you'll need to keep the meat warm and moist during the first courses. 

In this case:

Remove meat from pot. Remove fat and slice meat against the grain.  Keep meat warm in oven, making sure to cover with broth and foil to stay moist.  Strain contents of pot to separate veggies and broth (use cheesecloth if needed to achieve a nice broth).  Set aside veggies that you will serve (carrots, parsnip, possibly onion and leek - it's up to you).  Season soup (it's optional to serve with veggies and/or thinly sliced noodles in the broth). 

Tafelspitz Ettiquette:

Traditionally, Tafelspitz then is eaten in the following order: 

Course 1: Soup
Serve soup, either clear broth, or with diced celery root and parsnip and/or noodles. 

Course 2: Marrow
Very traditional - remove a bone from the soup pot. Scoop out the marrow and spread over toasted rye bread to eat. 

Course 3: Meat
Arrange sliced meat on a deep plate or soup bowl. Pour some broth over it, season with sea salt, and decorate with chopped chives. Usually served with the cooked vegetables, accompanied by crispy potatoes, boiled potatoes, and/or creamy spinach. Serve with chive and/or apple-horseradish sauces.

While I think it's important to know the authentic way, it can be simplified easily into a really enjoyable hearty dinner.  Since there was a nice small piece of Tafelspitz on sale yesterday, I decided to try an even simpler method -

This time I boiled 2.5L (around 9 cups) of beef broth, using the powdered version of broth. I added 1 onion cut in half (with skin on), around 450g (1 lb) piece of Tafelspitz, 1 bay leaf and a tablespoon of a mixture of ground szechuan and pink peppercorns. Then I turned the heat down to low, covered, and let cook for 3 or 4 hours. Again, it turned out perfectly, and with a very nice roast beef flavor.  Next time I'll throw in some small potatoes from the beginning to cook and absorb the flavors. The entire process took about 10 minutes of active work, and made a great lunch plus leftovers!

Snowmobiling in Ruka, Finland

On our recent winter adventure in Finland (Oulanka National Park, near Kuusamo), Frau A and I did more than just hang out in our self-built igloo -- we went snowmobiling, too!

Snowmobiling obviously is not allowed inside Oulanka National Park.  Therefore, we rode about 1 hour to the resort town of Ruka (full name is Rukatunturi).  Ruka is not an Alpine-level ski resort; the mountain rises to only 490 meters.  But it's the best downhill option around!  A Finnish ski jumping team was practicing while we were there and I grabbed this shot from afar:

For snowmobiling, however, Ruka offers 600km of trails of which 100km are private routes maintained by the rental/tour companies.  We went on one of these "snowmobile safaris".

To start, you need to get outfitted with the right gear, and this means snowmobile suits.  It reminded me of my winter attire as a kid, playing in the snow of western New York State.  Here is Frau A all decked out, including the helmet and thick mittens.  (Mom -- got any old pics of me in a snowmobile suit for comparison???)

We were lucky enough to use relatively new smowmobiles.  In fact, these models have a 4-stroke engine (vs. 2-stroke), are more fuel efficient, and have lower emissions.  (Finlnad's tour companies are very vocal about their eco-conservatism.)  We took turns driving.  Here is Frau A ready to hit the gas:

We spent a little time on a warm-up track (for people to get used to driving) and then hit the trails through the woods.  Beautiful scenery (but could not take photos while riding).  After 45 minutes, we reached something just like an Alpine hut.  You know this is a winter country when you get specific parking spots for snowmobiles!

The hut and the weather were perfect.  We grabbed a snack (something like a sugar doughnut) and a hot drink, and relaxed at outside tables:

Notice that the seats had reindeer pelts covering them!  They weren't needed with such beautiful weather, but deeper in winter they would be a welcome warming device. 

After finishing the refreshments, we could explore the area a bit.  It turned out that this was an entire family entertainment complex.  Options included...

1)  Reindeer petting (Santa would not need them for another 9 months)

 

2)  A circular sledding ride (I have no idea what it's called in English, "sled-go-round" or "sled carousel"?  Some sites claim it translates as "pole sleigh".).  One end of a long lever is pushed -- the sled at the opposite end is further from the fulcrum and therefore has a higher linear velocity... it feels fast.  Kind of like a small carnival ride.  Kids loved it.  Here's the Finnish Wikipedia entry for those interested.

 

3)  Mini-snowmobiling for children!  The machines are powered by what was effectively is a small lawnmower engine.  Wish we had these when I was growing up!

 

Once the break was over, we circled back on another trail through the woods to the starting point.  We turned in our gear and headed into the small "downtown" part of Ruka to see the shops and have some lunch (resturant entrance below).

Yeah, this was a little less true-to-nature than most of our activities in Finland, but it was great fun.

German Vending Machines

One of the more positive stereotypes out there about Germany relates to efficiency and automation.  Germany is known for engineering machines and gadgets to solve problems you didn't know you had.

You can see some of this in the wide variety of vending machines here (called an "Automat" here). While some of these now can be found worldwide, Germany (and Japan, too, of course) has been automating sales and billpaying for decades - long before it was popular to sell anything other than coffee out of a vending machine!

Perhaps this is also a partial answer to the early and Sunday closing hours? You will be surprised what you can find in a vending machine here!

First Aid Automats:

First we have the First Aid Vending Machines, which you'll find around Munich in several subway stations. We don't quite understand the Obama-looking cartoon doc, but it is useful to be able to buy headache medicine, tissues, or bandaids while out and about.

First Aid vending machine in Isartor station

Here, a closeup of the contents...water, juice, cough supressant, gum, first aid products, etc. We're not really sure what the red "Alkohol Test" is - if it's rubbing alcohol wipes or a breathalyzer. 

You can actually find the Swiss-made Alkomat in the toilet areas of some bars.  It is a breathalyzer type vending machine. Though, I have to wonder how often this more challenges drunk people to see how high they can blow rather than people checking to see whether or not they can drive...

   s

Speaking of drinking and vending machines, the First Aid Automat (same brand and logo) in the Karlsplatz station has an interesting selection. To me, this looks more like a hangover cure machine rather than a first aid one. It's all water, tomato juice, tissues, breath mints, and gum. Not really going to cure much other than bad breath, dehydration, or hangovers, but still it's there.  

   

McDonalds EasyOrder automats:    

Even McDonald's is getting on the automat bandwagon, with its new EasyOrder kiosks. McDonald's can get quite busy at peak hours. This new system lets you place the order AND PAY at the kiosk, then pick up in the Easyorder line. Quite smart!

FotoStation:  

The photo booths aren't exactly unique, but the quality and number of them here are impressing. There are photobooths (usually at least 2) in every subway station. And they're preset to give you the accurate size for a variety of different bureaucratic needs. And in Germany, you're going to have bureaucratic needs.... They will also reject your application for having the wrong size photo, having too big of a smile, and other issues of non-conformity. As usual, there is a logic behind these frustration - Germany adopted biometric technologies long before anyone else, so the pictures must be in the correct size and proportions.

  

Art/Design Automat: 

This vending machine in the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) is unique. It sells limited edition, one-of-a-kind, or hand-made art and design products. Stationery, porcelain, shirts, earrings, and other trinkets. It seems that artists can rent a slot to sell goods through the UnikatAutomat, with the Automat taking a commission on the sold goods.

You can see some of the products available on their online shop.

Right now there is only one of these, but they are planning to expand. I have not idea if this will really work or not, but it's an interesting idea.

Überweisungsautomat: 

The one below is rather interesting and more uniquely German - the Überweisungsautomat (the "bank transfer automat"). Basically it is an ATM for paying bills and making transfers. In Germany, there really aren't checks.  Companies will have them, but private individuals rarely do. Virtually all bills, then, must be paid by bank transfer.  You can set up a recurring transfer, fill out an authorization and mail it in, transfer online, or use one of these machines.

What's unique, however, is that it will automatically scan the form. You'll see the small box on the right above the keyboard, marked "Transfer Form." Every bill comes with a preprinted form that contains the recipient's bank info, your invoice number and amount, and your customer number. It's an orange and red form that looks just like the version on the screen below. You enter your bank account number, sign it, and stick it in the "Transfer Form" scanner. It scans it in and pays the bill for you. If you are transfering funds for other reasons, or you lost your form, you can also use the keyboard to type in the data yourself.

Virtually all bills here are paid by transfer - efficiently and without having to mail anything - and most bank accounts include some number of free transfers per month.  

What's fascinating to me is how long these have been around. There are some bill-pay kiosks in the US now, but these machines have been around at least a couple of decades. Herr J remembers them (looking exactly the same) from his study abroad here circa 1993!

   

CigarettenAutomat:  

And we couldn't discuss German vending machines without mentioning the beloved and controversial cigarette vending machines.  These have been around for a long, long time. They used to be controversial because anyone could buy cigarettes and tourists always found it a bit odd to have cigarette machines on the street corners.  They're controversial today because they're a bit complicated to use and don't always work, causing smokers much annoyance.

I assume they take cash (but I'm not sure), but they do take EC cards (the standard debit card here).

However, you additionally need to scan your German drivers license or ID card to verify your age. I'm guessing that does make it a bit difficult for any foreigners who don't have the required documents. We also noticed how high the slot is for the debit card - it's close to 6 feet off the ground. I guess that's a clever low-tech way of discouraging children from buying - the old "if you're tall enough to put your money on the bar" test.

MediaMarkt toGO: 

 And finally we have MediaMarkt toGO. MediaMarket basically is the German version of BestBuy. I know vending machines selling iPods are not exactly new, but this is unusual for Germany. And has quite a variety as you can see in the smaller pictures below - it sells everything from video game DVDs to hair dryers to Garmin navigation.

(Also, it's always good to know where you can buy things like batteries, chargers, adapters, and SD cards on holidays and Sundays!)

Not surprisingly, this is in the subway station to the Hauptbahnhof, being a good stop for forgotten gadgets, chargers, headphones or whatever else you need for your trip.

Springtime in Munich

I've always loved spring (and summer and fall), but I think it takes living somewhere with a real winter to truly appreciate how wonderful spring is.

Seemingly overnight we go from dark and cold to late evening sun, beautiful skies, flowers everywhere, and of course, baby ducks. I love the baby ducks....and swans and geese.

 The Mariensäule (Mary's Column) in Marienplatz, in front of the New Rathaus. It was installed in 1638 to honor Mary (she's the patron saint of Bavaria) after the "miracle" of Munich being spared destruction by the Swedes during the Thirty Years War.  As Herr J previously discovered, the four cherubs at the bottom are represented slaying the four plagues of humanity (represented by animal forms) - war, pestilence, hunger, and heresy.  I'm looking forward to the day that the Frauenkirche (domes in the background) restoration is complete. Since I've lived here, one dome or the other has been covered. My dream is to one day be able to take a decent picture of this Munich icon!

Lovely wisteria in the Schloss Nymphenburg gardens. Though I have a bit of a prejudice against wisteria (it strangles the lovely oak trees in the south, where I grew up), it does have beautiful flowers and can be a lovely decoration if it's kept tame.  One of the perks of having a full-time staff of gardeners, I guess!

Some early season goslings out for a morning nibble (and nap).

Spring is a great time for walks and for feeding the birds in Munich's many gardens. This boy feeds the swans and ducks in front of Schloss Nymphenburg.

 

Sadly, not everywhere let's you feed the animals.

A late tulip and colorful flower beds in the Alter Botanischer Garten ("Old Botanical Garden").  These gardens date back to the beginning of the 19th century, but were replaced in 1914 when the New Botanical Garden was built adjacent to Nymphenburg Palace.  These small gardens are now an open park by the Lenbachplatz.  The Park Cafe is a lovely bar and biergarten (Löwenbräu) that opens onto the gardens and is worth a visit.

A lovely golden green tree in front of the Salvatorkirche, a Greek Orthodox church on Salvatorplatz (behind the Fünf Höfe and Theatinerkirche) and next to the Literaturhaus (nice cafe/bistro and a program of speeches by visiting writers, such as David Sedaris and Brett Easton Ellis).  This church initially was the cemetery church for the much larger Frauenkirche, but since has been used by a variety of parishes and denominations, as well as for a depot and granary after the secularization of Bavaria. Luckily its use as storage space saved it from destruction and it still stands today on a small square amid the city center.  

    A mother goose teaches her goslings how to have fun in the lakes of the English Garden. 

More tulips, in front of the Neptune Fountain in the Alter Botanischer Garten.  Here, they've planted mainly red and white tulips and white daffodils.

Someone enjoys a warm afternoon read (before the rains arrive) in the gardens in front of the Bayerische Staatskanzlei (Bavarian Chancellery).

And back to the adorable baby ducks...   

Fünf Höfe Photo Fun

On the way home from a Sunday photowalk through the English Garden, Herr J and I cut through the Fünf Höfe, one of Central Munich's shopping centers.  I've always liked the architecture there, particularly the modern and airy passages in the middle of a historic city block. But we were shocked to realize what fun photo opportunities were in there. All of the textures and reflections were great fun for playing around with HDR photography. 

 

"Fünf Höfe" means "Five Courtyards" in German, an appropriate name for the building spanning a block with passages full of cafes, restaurants, and shops.  And, as a typical German real estate asset, it has offices and apartments on the upper floors. Sitting between the Frauenkirche and Odeonsplatz, the building has an important history as the home of HypoVereinsbank, one of Munich's oldest banks (its roots trace back to the late 1700s). As is often the case here, they sought to keep the historical facade of the building while building something modern and new inside.  According to the center's website, the design was inspired by the courtyards of the nearby Residenz palace.  I often take a shortcut through there as a nice change of pace - it's usually peaceful and with comfortable "weather" inside.

It's quite a nice place to spend a rainy, wintry Sunday afternoon, visiting the Hypo Kunsthalle art museum, followed by coffee in one of the cafes or lunch at Vapiano (reliably good and open late and on Sunday).  During the week, you can shop at a variety of clothing, home, and art stores, as well as Munich's Muji. (Muji is a Japanese home/small good store that's worth a browse, if you've never been in one.  Their focus is on no-brand, minimalist products, usually made of recyclable materials. But they have a great blend of form and function, so that you'll have a really hard time walking out without finding several things you "need"). 

The museum entrance is on the Theatinerstraße side and, though small for a museum, often has good exhibits. There have been a wide variety of themes, artists, and time periods, with the exhibit changing every few months. The Mark Rothko retrospective a couple of years ago was particularly good.  As it's an exhibition gallery rather than one with a permanent collection, you'll need to check periodically to see what's there.

In addition to the open entrances to the passages, there are other areas with open roofs, blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.  

As the complex houses the small museum that Hypovereinsbank sponsors, they also integrated art into the architecture. The hanging gardens through the Salvatorpassage actually are a living installation by Düsseldorf artist Tita Giese.

They blend in so well that they almost escape notice, but you'll also find 12 laser-printed panels throughout the building. These are prints of photos by German photographer Thomas Ruff, meant "give onlookers the impression that they are floating over cityscapes and the countryside." These scenes are of nature, the Munich area in which the Fünf Höfe sits, and Manhattan streets.  You'll see one on the floor in the picture below (bottom right corner).

And the most noticeable art piece hangs in the Viscardihof - a giant steel lattice-work sphere by Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic artist. The shape and structure is supposed to represent "global openness and worldwide networks."

 

source - Fünf Höfe website

Vacation Treats

I can't speak for everyone, but for me vacation is also a time of free indulgence....beer or wine with lunch, dessert...truly a time to relax and not worry about anything - including what you eat.

That approach led me to a couple amazing discoveries....luckily they are things not readily available here in Munich, or else I'd be in big trouble!

Vienna: 

In Vienna, we tried the authentic Sacher Torte. And I highly recommend anyone do so - the Sacher Torte in Vienna is far better than outside Vienna. But I also urge you to try some of the other many Viennese tortes on offer.  What we often forget is that Vienna is not just a city, it was the capital of an empire. And they brought the best from the wide reaches of the empire home for the aristocracy to enjoy.

It's exactly these forgotten days of empire (I doubt the grand Viennese have forgotten....just the rest of us!) that have integrated wonderful Hungarian dishes into the Viennese repertoire. However, I did not know that extended to cakes!

My big Vienna discovery was the Esterházy Torte, named for Paul III Anton, Prince Esterházy de Galantha, who was an imperial foreign minister in the Austro-Hungarian empire.  The family was loyal to the Habsburgs while most of Hungary was fighting against them.  The Esterházy family has quite a few dishes named for it, but this may be my favorite!

Initially a 19th century traditional Hungarian cake, it has become a beloved Austrian cake and supposedly is loved by Germans as well (I'm on the lookout for somewhere serving it!). It's a sweet cake, but not overly so, and light. Most of the sweetness comes from the thin fondant frosting on the top.

The several thin layers of sponge cake are made mostly from egg whites and almonds, with a little flour, butter, and spices. A cognac buttercream frosting (often with a little chocolate mixed in, as here) brings the layers together. There is supposed to be very thin layers of apricot jam (popular in most Viennese tortes) but I could not taste it at all - perhaps the tastes blends in and just keeps the cake moist? While many places show it with buttercream topped with almond slivers around the edges, everywhere we saw it in Vienna used a thin crust of fine chocolate.  And it is always topped with the thin fondant frostin layer, with chocolate "spiderwebs" drawn across the top. A very delicate and well-balanced cake. Most of the sweetness is in the fondant, while the buttercream is not too rich.

Helsinki:

In Helsinki, we made a different discovery. After a delicious Nepalese meal, we went in search of some ice cream. Perhaps it was the spices, or just that vacation feels like ice cream, but we wanted some. The weekend before, we had had the pleasure of stopping in Helsinki's Ben and Jerry's store! And while Finland has Sunday shopping hours, theirs are seasonal. Finding something open at 8pm on a Sunday when it's dark and there's snow everywhere....not an easy feat.  So we tried the train station, our old standby in Germany. We didn't find an ice cream store, but we did find a little supermarket in the basement. As we were perusing the ice cream cooler, we saw these and had to try them.

I had previously been a big fan of the Magnum bars that are so popular in SE Asia. These destroy them! There is no competition.

It's hard to describe how wonderful these bars are, so I just recommend you find one and try it for yourself. The vanilla ice cream is a perfect balance to the chocolate and peanut butter - anything else would have been too sweet. The peanut butter cookie dough is enhanced by the swirls of peanut butter running through the mix. And the chocolate coating uses a great blend of chocolate. But embedded in the chocolate coating are little crispy chocolate cookie bits that give it an amazing texture. The whole package is just chocolatey peanut butter perfection.

I'm so glad I haven't found anywhere here that sells Ben & Jerry's bars. They could be addictive!

Chocolate (Bunnies) in Germany

What good is living in Germany amid all this great chocolate without learning a bit more? It's all in the name of cultural research, right?  

    

So we gathered up chocolate bunnies from the major German chocolate producers, as well as a few Belgian and Swiss producers, to see what was out there. And, as with the beer tasting, we learned quite a bit about the history of the local chocolatiers!

Lindt Goldhasen (Switzerland)Lindt

We begin, of course, with the famous Lindt Goldhasen.  Lindt & Sprüngli AG is widely available, good quality Swiss chocolate and has stores throughout Europe and the US.  It began in 1845, with a history quite common for many European companies. A father and son began the Sprüngli business by opening a café in Zurich making the new style bars of chocolate that were becoming popular in Italy.  Upon the son's retirement, he split the business between his two sons, giving one the two stores and the other the chocolate factory.  The store continues today as a Swiss institution (and of course expanded into other Swiss cities) and is the famous Confiserie Sprüngli known for the past 50 years for it's heavenly  "Luxemburgerli" macarons.

The other son took his chocolate factory public to finance expansion and bought Rodolphe Lindt's factory and its secrets of making superior soft chocolate, giving birth to the Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate company. Almost 15 years ago, Lindt bought chocolatier Ghirardelli and has transformed it into an international brand. Sadly, it isn't available here...I love the dark chocolate bars with mint filling!

Lindt is best known for its Goldhasen and Lindor Truffels, both of which were invented in the 1950s.  Unfortunately for Herr J and I, they don't make the peanut butter ones in Europe.  But if you love peanut butter and chocolate, I highly encourage you to try one - they're the orange ones.  The Lindor balls began as seasonal Christmas chocolates but were so popular they now are available in many flavors year round. The Goldhasen still are only for Easter. For more history, check out Lindt's Secrets of Chocolate Book.

Belfine chocolate bunny and chick (Belgium)Belfine

Next up, we have the super adorable bunny and chick from Belgian chocolatier Belfine.  In addition to being really great chocolate, they had some of the cutest Easter figures of rabbits, chicks, and lambs, also utilizing colored chocolates. They specialize in cuteness, and looking at both the selection in the store and on their website, I say they achieve this goal well. The Christmas penguin metronomes on their website header are over the top in cuteness. 

None of this is a surprise, once we learn that Belfine is owned by ChocDecor, a company blending technology and Belgian chocolate-making tradition to sculpt chocolate into beautiful figures. Both are fairly new entrants into the chocolate market, founded only in 1995.  I appreciate their mission statement of "Make People Happy" - it just seems appropriate for a chocolate company!

        Friedel chocolate rabbit 

Friedel

For the past 10 years, Friedel has been part of the Rübezahl Schokoladen company, which also makes the tasty Sun Rice snacks and these odd chocolate-gummibear bars.  This is their brand that covers the Christmas and Easter chocolates. Though Rübezahl is another typical mid-sized family company formed after the war (based near Stuttgart), Friedel comes from Wernigerode, home of the Hasseröder pils that went far in our beer tournament.

Riegelein chocolate rabbitRiegelein Confiserie

This company prides itself on tempting you with "creative chocolate" and a variety of seasonal, special-occasion products.  Based near Nuremberg since 1953, they do export worldwide, but sell 70% of their product domestically so they might not be familiar outside the German-speaking area.  The company remains a family-held enterprise, focusing on chocolate figurines (over 750 varieties are available, largely in their 33% cocoa milk chocolate blend). They do, however, make some gummi and fondant products for a bit of variety, and these awesome bittersweet chocolate cups you can easily fill for impressive desserts. The fondant fried eggs in our Easter basket are Riegelein.  While adhering to the German values of quality ingredients and workmanship, they also like to reflect through their figures the changing times.

Nestlé Smarties Klapper Hase

Smarties

Though it's not quite fine or German chocolate, we had to include one of the many candy chocolate bunnies you see in stores here. Kit Kat, After Eight, and others make these, filled with some candies or Kit Kat bits. Not to be confused with American Smarties (the sweet/tart rolls), these are Nestlé's version of M&Ms.  So, here we try not only Nestlé rabbit, but also mini-Smarties.  They're a bit more brightly colored than M&Ms, have thicker shells, and come in tubes rather than bags. In general, they're pretty good (especially in a McFlurry), as they should be having been in production since the 1880s (the were originally called "Chocolate Beans" in England)! Most Smarties are produced in Germany now (except the Canadian ones made locally), and interestingly only use natural dyes. 

Reber Alpenmilch HaseReber

Paul Reber is best known for their Mozart truffels (the “Genuine Reber Mozart Kugeln®“), which feature a hazelnut nougat center, surrounded by pistacchio marzipan, and dipped in chocolate.  For Easter, they feature a wide variety of filled chocolate eggs, as well as this cute milk chocolate rabbit wrapped in their signature red, white, and gold packaging.  Reber has been making chocolate since 1865, in Bad Reichenhall, a spa/vacation area in the Bayerisch Gmain.  It looks to be a beautiful old town set in the mountains, just on the border with Austria. Similar to Salzburg, they played a major part in the old salt trade, dating back before the Romans.  Looks like it might be a great option for a weekend trip, of course with a stop at the Reber Cafe!

Milka Alpenmilch Hase

Milka

One of the most recognizeable German chocolates, Milka grew out of a Swissman's chocolate company, becoming the German Milka in 1901.  Though they'd always had the Milka cow on the label, it was only 40 years ago that the cow became the famous purple Milka cow. (It's a Simmental cow, by the way.) Milka makes only milk chocolate, mostly in Lörrach, and with a WIDE variety of fruits, nuts, and candies in it.  I don't know why it isn't sold outside of Europe, but you can order it from German Deli in the US. Milka strives to maintain its Alpine connections, including sponsoring a women's downhill skiing team and a booth at the World Cup.  But I'm most happy about their new product line, Milka & Daim - Daim basically is the Swedish version of a Skor or Heath bar, so imagine bits of buttery toffee in Milka products. Yum!

Feodora rabbit

Feodora

Feodora was established in 1910 in Tangermünde - a middle ages town around 2 hours west of Berlin, at the intersection of the Elbe and Tanger rivers.  When the factory was expropriated and dismantled after the Second World War, they reestablished production in Bremen and have remained there since.  Named after Princess Feodora (sister of the last empress of Germany), the company is known for its finely decorated pralines (pralines being chocolates with some kind of filling, not the equally good American-style buttery nut pralines).  But of course, everyone needs to make a chocolate bunny - Feodora's maintains its traditional packaging with the coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein hanging on the bunny's collar.

Heilemann Knickohr-Hase 

Heilemann

Like Feodora, Heilemann is best known for its truffles and pralines.  I love them for making the most adorable chocolate bunny I've seen. I've had one the past 2 Easters - though he looks too cute to eat, you need to do it...the chocolate is great! Heilemann hails from the Allgäu Region, in the foothills of the Alps. Interestingly, they became a subsidiary of Freidel for about 20 years (after the founder Heilemann's death), but today again are an independent chocolatier. 

Asbach liqueur praline rabbits

Asbach

A bit unusual for the usual Easter bunny, but Asbach only makes one kind of chocolate....the kind filled with Asbach Uralt ("Asbach Ancient"). Asbach basically is German cognac, except that they had to stop calling it cognac after the Treaty of Versailles declared that only French products could be called cognac.  Hugo Asbach displayed great marketing savvy by creating the Asbach pralines in 1924 - it was aimed at women (as female public drinking was looked down upon), but also became quite popular among men. It has a very thin sugar crust separating the chocolate from the brandy, also giving it a bit of sweetness. The Asbach pralines are popular year-round, but for Easter are wrapped in bunny foil rather than the foil printed with a picture of a bottle.

 Schwermer rabbit

Schwermer

One of the oldest chocolatiers here, Schwermer began as a confisserie/café in Königsberg, East Prussia, which today is Kaliningrad, Russia.  Not suprisinlgy, Schwermer had to relocate after the Second World War, and chose Bad Wörishofen (also in the Allgäu region) as their new location.  Among their claims to fame, Schwermer pralines have been to the MIR space station and onboard the Columbia space shuttle (taken by German astronauts, of course!).  More meaningful to me...if you have a craving for baumkuchen, Schwermer makes these year round, not just at Christmas!

Kinder friend

Kinder

This guy is basically a Kinder Egg, with no suprise inside. It's the same soft, two-layered chocolate - milk chocolate outside, a white milk layer inside.  We were actually disappointed that there was no surprise inside.  I really like most Kinder products, but it's their fillings and their toys that are the reason, not as much the chocolate on its own. We included it, because it was one of the classic German chocolate brands, but I'd recommend sticking with the other chocolate brands if you want a plain Easter bunny. Nothing against Kinder, its just not their strength when it's compared to all of these rich chocolates. If there were a Kinder Hippo type or Bueno or some of the refrigerated treats....then I'd definitely be raving about it. Or if there were a cool toy inside.

Storz crazy bunny heads

Storz

While Storz is not a luxury chocolate, it's still a good quality and tasting one.  The family business began in 1884 in Tuttlingen (Baden Württemberg) and weathered the wars and crises by finally focusing on "Ideas moulded into chocolate."  Basically their niche is to make small foil wrapped chocolates in cute and creative wrapping (using not only printed foils but also cardboard cutouts).  They also make these to order for companies, hotels, and conventions, so have really stuck with what works. They had a huge variety of fun Easter shapes, but I picked these slightly crazy looking bunnies.

Reber Glückskäfer

Reber again...At first I couldn't find a Reber bunny, so I got one of their lucky ladybugs. Too cute not to include!

Sadly, I couldn't find any Ritter Easter bunnies, but we'll have to save Ritter for another day! 

Glückskäfer on Easter holiday