Ich bin Vegetarierin

Lest it seem as though Lovely Carnivorous Boyfriend and I ate nothing but strudel, pastries, and candy in Heidelberg last week, I should report that we also had our fair share of spargel, spaetzle, and bretzel. We also effectively switched places from our Paris visit--I know French, but no German and he knows German, but no French. Actually, this is not entirely true as I learned a number of German words when I was there--nearly all of them food-related, naturally. As in Paris, many restaurants had either English menus or some English translations on the menu. Almost all the places we looked at had a couple vegetarian choices in a "Vegetarisch" menu section (though oddly these would often be something like pasta while traditionally vegetarian German dishes would be scattered throughout the menu), and I had no real problems finding things to eat. Overall, however, we were both a little underwhelmed by our gastronomical experiences in Heidelberg despite eating at a number of different places and trying various types of cuisine. This seems to be a problem others have had as well (LCBF has spent months there and has yet to have an awesome meal). We weren't sure whether to chalk this up to the fact that it's a tourist town or a university town or some other mystery factor. At any rate, we did wind up having few dishes worth talking about. Details after the jump.

Spargel!

At first I made fun of a posted menu I saw featuring asparagus, "the king of vegetables!" But that was because I did not yet know that we were smack in the middle of the German spargel (white asparagus) triangle at the start of its famous and short-lived two month (April/May) spargel season! I learned that spargel is a regional delicacy, complete with its own festival, and nearly every restaurant in town featured a "Spargel Karte" (Asparagus Menu) like the one below: 

This particular spargel karte was at the Kurpfälzisches Museum Restaurant (Palatinate Museum) where we had dinner our last night (Hauptstrasse 97, Heidelberg). 

As it was a bit chilly, we opted to sit inside instead of in the lovely courtyard. We found the restaurant to be weirdly deserted and the interior a bit staid. We were also sitting next to a speaker playing an electric mandolin version of Ave Marie. It was a bold musical choice. A number of tables had "reserved" cards on them, but in the hour and half or so we spent there during prime dinner hours we never saw anyone show up to claim them. It was all very odd. Having read all about the spargel triangle and spargel fest, however, I was super excited to try some. I also really enjoy saying the word "spargel," as LCBF can attest. I ordered a dish a little blindly off the spargel karte and it turned out to be spargel in what I think was a bearnaise sauce, wrapped in a thin, crepe-like herbed potato pancake, and topped with a big glob of hollandaise sauce:

The thing to know about German spargel is that the stalks are very thick and robust, unlike the anemic-looking white asparagus I often see in the grocery stores here. It's also cooked until it is sweet and creamy--not served crisp like green asparagus often is in the U.S. This dish was good, but ultimately far too rich for me. The spargel was swimming in the sauce, which hid rather than accentuated the flavor of the vegetable. The pancake was nice, but also overpowered by the sauce. For dessert, we had a disappointing apfelstrudel.

Undaunted by my first mediocre spargel experience, I tried it again the next night at Käfer's Bistro at the Franfurt airport where LCBF and I spent a whole lot of time. I ordered the classic spargel dish this time: 1 lb. of fresh spargel served with butter potatoes and either melted butter or hollandaise sauce (I opted for butter). We got a bread basket complete with bretzels before our meal came out, which was awesome! Bread baskets should always come with enormous pretzels as far as I'm concerned.

This dish, while simple, made me very happy. The spargel was tender and sweet and the combination of it with the butter and potatoes was surprisingly filling. Long live the King of Vegetables! For dessert, of course, a delicious apfelstrudel.

Spaetzle

Spargel was not the only traditional German dish I tried, however. Our second night in Heidelberg we went to Bier Brezel (Hauptstrasse 184), where I ordered the Spaetzle with sharp cheese and fresh vegetables.

Spaetzle is difficult to describe because it's not quite like anything else. LCBF characterizes it as German mac & cheese, which is kind of true since it's noodles with cheese, but it doesn't taste at all like it. The noodles themselves were very dense and tasted closer to gnocchi than pasta, which makes sense given that spaetzle is often (but not always) made from potatoes. At any rate, this was quite good and I liked it very much.

We had a couple good non-German meals as well, but I'll put those in another post.