Germany

Bratwurst

Grilled pork sausage in a hard roll with mustard, regionally different every hundred kilometres.

Schweinshaxe

Roast pork knuckle with crackling that has to be cracked with a knife handle.

Sauerbraten

Beef marinated in vinegar for days, braised and sauced with raisins and gingerbread.

Currywurst

Sliced sausage under curried ketchup, invented in post-war Berlin and eaten standing.

Schnitzel

Pounded pork breaded and fried, served Jäger with mushroom or Zigeuner with pepper sauce.

Königsberger Klopse

Veal meatballs in a white caper sauce, poached rather than fried.

Rouladen

Beef rolled around bacon, onion and pickle, braised into Sunday lunch.

Maultaschen

Swabian pasta pockets of meat and spinach, said to have hidden meat from God in Lent.

Spätzle

Soft egg noodles scraped into boiling water, buttered or baked with cheese.

Kartoffelsalat

Potato salad split by latitude: vinegar and stock in the south, mayonnaise in the north.

Brezel

Lye-dipped knot with a dark chewy crust and a salted, fat belly.

Leberkäse

A baked loaf of finely ground meat, sliced hot into a roll with sweet mustard.

Rollmops

Pickled herring rolled around a gherkin, sold at harbour stalls as a hangover cure.

Eintopf

One-pot stew of lentils or peas with sausage, the working week's default dinner.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

Chocolate sponge, sour cherries, cream and kirsch, with chocolate shavings on top.

Apfelstrudel

Paper-thin pastry rolled around spiced apple and raisins, eaten warm with cream.

Stollen

Dresden's dense fruit loaf buried in icing sugar, baked weeks before Christmas.

Lebkuchen

Nuremberg spice cakes on wafer bases, sold at every Christmas market.

Riesling

Mosel and Rhine white running from bone dry to intensely sweet, always high in acid.

Weissbier

Cloudy Bavarian wheat beer, banana-scented, poured into a tall vase of a glass.