Things I think you have to be a native German to like

You know me, I love to try new foods, and I eat almost everything. I eat pickled herring at Christmas, really love foie gras. I try (mostly) every deer/moose/elk part my dad has put in front of me. But living in Germany I have encountered a few things I think you have to have native taste buds to enjoy. I know it's not very nice to make a blog post of "gross" German food, but I feel that 99.9% of this blog is a my love for German food and living in Germany, so here's some balance. :) which isn't to say that if you have the chance to try this out...you should! Maybe you will like it?

1. Harzer Käse - I saw the grocery store had samples of something the other day...go over, and it's Harzer Käse. "Nein, danke" I say. This is a sour cheese, translucent and looks wormy on the outside. gross. I found another website that described it as smelling like sweaty gym socks, which I think is pretty spot-on.

2. Leberkäse - a loaf of meat, literally "liver cheese". The serving: a slice of it on a bun. Michael said they were selling this at the basketball game he went to, like they would hotdogs at baseball games.
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3.Malzbier - Germans don't have root beer, but maybe this is their "equivalent," in that it's a non-alcoholic beverage marketed to kids and has the word "beer" in the name. It's very sweet, and while I don't think it's gross like the above items, I don't really care for it. But if you like soda you would probably like it. I say often, I prefer to consume my sugar in Kuchen-form.


4. Meat in aspic - Sülze - Any German supermarket, meat counter, deli has many different kinds of meat in aspic. This one, Sülze, is the grossest. Like Leberkäse, it also comes in a loaf form.

5. Mettbrot - Basically just raw ground pork on a bun. I see more old people eating this at bakeries. And, admittedly, this goes more in the category of "things I'm afraid to eat" than things I don't like. If I am eating raw meat I need to know a bit more about it...it kinda weirds me out.

6. Beer mixes - The combination of Sprite (lemon soda) and beer is so popular you can get it in most pubs/cafés/bars. In Northern Germany it's called Alsterwasser,  in Southern Germany it's called Radler. Very refreshing in the summer, I guess...Nicht so mein Ding.  Or how about Colabier, called Diesel? Also popular. Spezi is a non-alcoholic version...with orange soda and cola. But not only can you buy these drinks "mixed" at a bar, you can buy pre-mixed versions. Strange, for the land of the Reinheitsgebot, the purity law for brewing beer.

7. Sweet Popcorn - When you go to the movie theater in Germany, you may be surprised when you take your first bite of popcorn. Yes, it's sweet, not salty and buttery. They have sweet popcorn. I tried to make "American style" popcorn for the German students I was teaching 4 yrs ago, and they didn't like it. They had never seen someone make popcorn on the stove, and I wanted to make something typical for them (buttery popcorn). After they didn't like it, I made a batch, sprinkled sugar on it, and they loved it. (Again, seee #3 for my sugar preferences: not in beverages or sprinkled unnecessarily, but in baked goods.)