Wednesday 11 January 2017

Erfurt Weihnachtsmarkt - what on earth did we just eat ?


All pumped up from our Christmas Market food adventures so far , naturally we thought nothing of falling into line where the locals congregated .
That's how we found this little stall called BratWerk near the river that runs under the pedestrian footpath .




Here's how long the line is .
Doesn't seem very long but for Erfurt , this is 
much longer than most places .
Very unusual .



Up till now , all that we've sank our fangs into has been pork , bratwursts and more pork .



Not really sure of what Ulf means by 
" this is a very German town " 
as far as I'm concerned , I like all the foods which we've tried up till now .
Am presuming , that things must be pretty authentic over here . Especially when it comes to the cuisine and maybe to a certain extent , the lineage .



Placing my order is easy .
I just point , nod , or swing my head and shrug if I cannot understand .
Then pay up of course .


So here's the first item we tried .
Thüringer Rosbratwurst .
Turned out to be hot , spicy and much saltier than I expected .
Still it was tasty , so no complaints from me except that maybe we'll need to get some water after this as it IS quite spicy !



Thüringer Rosbratel .
Now look , I seriously thought that this was Schwenksteak .
WRONG .
Please learn the word .
It means Lean Pork Buttocks .
Mai gawds .
Never mind that , it was still tasty , where's that water when you need it ?  



After getting those first 2 dishes , I noticed a lot of people enjoying this skewered meat and vegie combo .
Thus we went back to queue again .
When I pointed to the meat , however , this time I tried to be clever .
I didn't want the vegies . No , no , no .
Just gimme the skewer with meat alone thank you .
The man told me to give him a few minutes and I was ok with that .
Fuh , I was thinking that what I had ordered must be so high in demand that I had to wait .
It's ok . I can wait . 




When he finally signalled me to come get my order , and I saw the end product , I was stumped .
Having paid for it , there was no way , I could have told him that perhaps I had ordered the wrong item , so pretty please can you swap for me ?
Just eat it up lah ....




Honestly , I don't know what the heck this is . It was very chewy , so tough my teeth couldn't cut through , so I had to use my fingers to hold it and pull . Yet still have a problem chewing so I ended up swallowing parts of it like a python you know ?



Is this ox ? veal ? boar ? rabbit ? deer ? hare ?
Or what ?
Please don't tell me this came out of the scandalous zoo episode . If that is the case , it could be horse , hippo , kangaroo , ostrich or even lion meat !!!

There wasn't much taste , the meat was tough , my teeth almost broke trying to bite into it and chew and I think my throat is a little wider stretched now .

My travel partner took 2 pieces and shuddered . Haha . Doesn't want to know what it was that we ate .

That's the funny part about travelling , when we go to a distant land and end up eating some strange foods that can send a shiver down our spines .
Really unforgettable and regrettable mistake on my part due to my enthusiasm to try everything once .

Have I learnt my lesson ?
No . I will still keep on ordering the wrong thing but by mistake of course .
My hunch is it was probably wild boar , well , one can never be sure .
What's done is done , next time , best to stick to meat and vegies on a stick .

Location : Germany

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