Germany- Eating Out

[jasonD2]

Any suggestions on how to dine out safely in Germany? i will be there for 1 month. i am aware of the healthfood stores but i will be eating out a lot for business and want to make sure i go there with sufficient knowledge. thanks

[AVR1962]

I live in Germany and it just depends on where you are going. I would highly suggest that you get the card that indicates in German that you have an allergy to wheat and show this to your wait staff. If you tell them you ahve an allergy to wheat I have found they understand that. Germans are becoming more aware of gluten intolerence but so many are still clueless. It is not as easy here as it is in the US.

If you do not know German, get a small dictionary. They are very good ate speaking English but sometimes our words and their words (in English) get interpretted differently.

They are very big on gravies, they call them sauce here. Some menus have the ingredients listed and others do not. I eat alot of salads when I go out. If you go to one of the stands or small stops (Imbiss) and ask for a bratwurts they will automatically put it directly on a bred roll (brotchen). You will ahve to tell them "no bread" "kein brot." Kein (pronounced kine)means no. Klein (pronounced kline) means small. Brot is pronounced with a long "o."

Flour is weisen (pronounced visen, "i" is long). W's are pronounced as V's.

The larger grocery stores are very good at carrying gluten-free products. You can find items in the health food aisle with the diet foods and are labeled 'gluten frei' pronounced "fry."

[NJKen]

Flour is weisen (pronounced visen, "i" is long).

I just wanted to make a minor correction to this informative post:

Wheat is "weizen" (pronounced vite-sen). Flour is "mehl" (pronounced "Mel").

("Weisen" translates to "point". "Weiss" translates to "white", and wheat beer is sometimes called "Weissbier" instead of "Weizenbier", hence the confusion.)

(Edited on 3 February to correct the pronunciation of "mehl".)

[AVR1962]

I just wanted to make a minor correction to this informative post:

Wheat is "weizen" (pronounced vite-sen). Flour is "mehl" (pronounced similarly to the English word "meal").

("Weisen" translates to "point". "Weiss" translates to "white", and wheat beer is sometimes called "Weissbier" instead of "Weizenbier", hence the confusion.)

Oh my word, so sorry.....my brain must have been thinking one thng and typing another, pretty typical of myself but I normally catch my mistake. Thanks for that correction, I feel silly now!