• Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    As a Brit living in another country, I get this too. People make jokes about me liking Doctor Who, drinking lots of tea and having bad teeth.

    How dare you but also that is completely accurate.

    • SkySyrup@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      i don’t know if I get the joke? could you please explain it because I don’t think(?) you’re trying to be racist

            • EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              We just have to deal with it for the moment…

              Lemmy is going through that middle-school/puberty age, with all the corny forced memes; (eg. The beans, stroganoff, etc. phases) bandwagon voting, and toying with the line between light-hearted and mean when trying to roast or joke around.

              • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago

                Reddit is still bandwagon voting and they’ve been around for a decade. I think that’s just a function of having a downvote button on the internet. Almost made me want to join Beehaw

  • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    I spent a month in Germany last year. Turns out the most authentic German food is currywurst and middle eastern food lol.

    But maybe that’s just in Berlin. They probably have good potato based dishes in Bavaria.

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      1 year ago

      Bavaria is probably the most “German” german region. That’s where all the lederhosen stereotypes come from.

      Basically it’s the Texas of Germany. Old school, religious, and conservative.

      Edit: in the very rural parts, they even have their own dialect that to some Germans is almost completely unintelligible. I realized this when I took German language classes in high school in the USA and what they were having me learn was very much NOT the way my Bavarian mother spoke to me. It felt kind of irritating when they told me I was pronouncing things wrong and my grammar was wrong when I fuckin’ lived there as a child and spoke it fluently.

      • hstde@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Well it’s the part where after the second world war Americans temporarily governed and American soldiers and their families where stationed. So all they ever saw of Germany was Bavaria. They took their experience back home and so the image spread.

        Northern Germany is nothing like southern Germany. Yes they like their beer, but Bratwurst and pretzels? More fish and bread.

        • UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I was with you in the first half. But northern Germany still loves their beer and brats. We had bbqs almost every weekend and if you didn’t have beer and brats, you might as well not have a party.

          Although there almost always way just a full fish on the grill at some point only in northern Germany so I will give you that.

        • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It’s so funny to me that you all have your own interpretation of what’s liked in what parts of what I would say is a small country in relative terms. You know what Americans eat in all 50 states? Burgers and fries.

          • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            It seems to me that cultural homogeneity is a principle in the US though. I think it’s good though because it promotes mobility between states and holds what is a really massive nation together

            • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              It’s really only homogeneous at the high level. Every state has areas of vastly different culture depending on what the major immigrant groups were. A city founded by the Dutch, Polish, Finns, or French are all vastly different even in the same state.

      • Nacktmull@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Bavaria is probably the most “German” german region.

        So eine Frechheit! Nehmen Sie das sofort zurück!

      • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        There are a few other dialects in Germany that the rest can’t understand. For example Plattdeutsch and Friesisch. (Both in northern Germany)

        • Flughoernchen@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Both are independent languages though. While they do have some similarities with German (Platt more than Friesisch), they are more closely related to Dutch and English.

      • UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        In Bavaria the favorite snack of locals while there was way to big of a sausage in a way to small of a fresh bun. Not a hotdogs but, like a small sandwich roll. Tasted fantastic

        There’s was one time I ripped the sausage in half and made it so the sandwich was a double decker, and I got some mean looks.

    • Magnetar@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      If you spent your month in Berlin, you didn’t visit Germany. Common mistake.

        • Jekyll@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Only that Berlin is probably the “least German” place to go, while NY is not.

          • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            But that’s not what OP said. OP Made a stupid claim about how only visiting Berlin means one hasn’t really visited Germany.

            To your point, my analogy works quite well - If you go to NYC expecting to find the stereotype of cowboys, massive steaks, and barbeque, you’ll be disappointed, because that shit is in Texas.

            It’s all relative to how one defines a country’s culture and the lens it creates. Just because someone has myopic expectations does not mean that NYC is less American than anywhere else in the US. The same holds true for Berlin and the rest of Germany.

            • teichflamme@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I think you’re missing the point. NYC doesn’t have cowboys or anything but it’s representative of other aspects of American culture.

              Berlin is in fact the least German town in Germany. It has its own kind of culture that is vastly different from the rest.

              • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Berlin is just as German as NYC is American, both have big city cultures that don’t really fit with life outside them.

              • julietOscarEcho@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Lived in NY for a while (manhattan) and travelled to a lot of other states. The comparison rings true for me, NY has it’s own culture for sure.

              • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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                1 year ago

                No, I fully understand the point. By “German” you mean Fachwerkhäuser, Oktoberfest, Lederhosen and Dirndls, Bier Steins and Weißwurst, and you’re correct, these cultural symbols are not characteristic of Berlin - these are Bavarian. There is so much more to German culture than Bavaria though, despite what the Bavarians think.

                • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  1 year ago

                  Fachwerkhäuser are not Bavarian, it’s just that Bavaria has many old townships that kept them intact. You see them all over Germany tho.

    • Johanno@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Nah you are close. We eat “Döner” (a turkish dish modified for Germany, basically a german invention) curry wurst and “Wiener Schnitzel” with french fires.

      We drink beer all over the country but about every 50 km you have a different kind of beer that is prefered and don’t you dare to say a different beer is better.

      Also the glasses in which the beer is drunken grows from north to south.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      The Döner is a German food though, it was invented in Berlin.

      When I was a kid it was more common to have German restaurants and Imbiss. But they can’t compete in price and speed with cheaper alternatives in the cities. That’s why they were gradually replaced. When you want to eat some more traditional German cuisine, you’d have to go to smaller towns or a hotel restaurant.

    • flubo@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      There is no german fast food except curry Wurst in Berlin. That doesnt mean there is no good german food. Just in Berlin there are viewer Restaurants selling german food than asian/ middle East and italian food and there is a lot of fast food. I dont know why there are so few German restaurants. In Munich you find more of them…

      • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I feel that’s kinda the point of Berlin though, its culture is formed by the patchwork of nationalities that migrates there. Much like the UK with its Indian food

      • balderdash@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I found it so weird how much international food there was in Berlin. I had to go looking for more traditional dishes.

        Also, graffiti… graffiti, everywhere.

        • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Well…It’s a captital alright.
          Kind og expected to assume there will be a more international audience in comparison to the country side.

  • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I spent some time in Germany last year, and the pretzels/sauerkraut/doner/spaetzel/currywurst are all top notch.

    But holy fuck, fleishkase. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I returned to the US. I’ve looked up how to make it several times, but it seems pretty complicated. Damn me and my lazy American tendencies.

    That and the beer. I discovered that Dunkels are my fucking jam. Ugh, so good.

    • Kaiserschmarrn@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      TIL that they call it “Fleischkäse” in Germany… Here in Austria it’s “Leberkäse” (liver cheese) even though there isn’t any liver in it (anymore).

      But yes, nothing better than a Semmel with a thick slice of Leberkäse. ❤️

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You’ll often find it called it either and it never had anything to do with Leber, but Leib… which doesn’t mean that certain regions don’t put liver in it. Calling it Käse is the suspicious part.

        Above the Weißwurstäquator it’s known as “that Bavarian stuff” because German law says that if you call something Leberkäse then it has to contain liver unless it’s called Bayrischer Leberkäse. You also won’t find Brezeln, or, differently put, only ones which sole purpose it is to insult Bavaria (same thing the English do with Croissants) and as to Sauerkraut, it’s severely out of fashion. Weißkrautsalat, Rotkohl, yes, but you’re basically more likely to find someone who figured out Kimchi than people who eat old-style Sauerkraut.

        The native stuff up here is falscher Hase, that is, the same (approximately) meatloaf that Anglos know.

        The Swiss apparently exclusively call it Fleischkäse.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            „Leber“ leitet sich aus „Laib“ ab, was auf die Form des Fleischkäses zurückzuführen ist.

            Lesen wir da gerade die gleiche Seite.

    • Gamey@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      A friend of mine has a little farm and he used to make that himself, I like the store bough one already but there is no comparison!

  • RQG@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Food in Germany is highly regional. You can have Kebab everywhere. The Sauerkraut beer and pretzels thing is mostly just Bavaria in the south. At the north sea and Baltic sea you got lots of fish naturally. In Hamburg you have Croques, Aalsuppe and further north Lapskaus. In the southern neighbor state to Bavaria you have Spätzle. And so on.

    The beer also changes depending on region. Weißbier in the south and more mild beer in general down there. The north prefers beer with stronger taste that is more bitter generally.

    There are few German foods which are generally accepted in all regions. Currywurst is one I’d say. Maybe grill Hähnchen as well although in the eat it’ll be called Broiler while in the north noone has ever heard that word. Bratkartoffeln might also be pretty universal although ingredients probably differ. Egg or no egg, pickles or not.

    Tldr German food is very different depending on region.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      The Sauerkraut beer and pretzels thing is mostly just Bavaria in the south

      What? I live in the Ruhrgebiet, you get Brezel and beer everywhere. Sauerkraut is a staple as well

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I highly object that pretzels are a bavarian thing. But maybe I am the outlier. Love my pretzels. Not bavarian.

      • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Don’t the Saxons have pretzels too? I’m Czech and I remember seeing them in Dresden (although it was the Christmas markets)

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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          You can buy Brezel everywhere in Germany. They are also a traditional food handed out during St Martin.

          I think perhaps the person meant eating it as meal with Sauerkraut. In other places than Bavaria most people buy Brezel at a bakery on the go. And don’t necessarily eat it with Sauerkraut

          • teichflamme@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            It’s the exact same in Bavaria. Eating it with Kraut is rare, that’s not something inherently Bavarian or anything.

            • emberwit@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Brezn go well with Weißwurst and sweet mustard early in the day or together with Obazda, onions and radish as a brotzeit snack in the afternoon or evening, both together with a Weißbier. Other than that Brezn are more of a to-go-pastry, often as butterbreze.

              And although brezn are available everywhere in germany, there are regional differences in how they are made and they are more popular in the south.

              • teichflamme@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                All of that is true although I would add there’s a lot more variation than only Butterbreze. Therese Käsebreze, maybe with additional ham or salami, there’s Pfefferbreze, Mexikobreze and so on.

                But to come back to the original point. No one eats them with Sauerkraut.

                • emberwit@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  Yes, the first part of my answer was rather limited to Bavaria, where Brezn can be part of a meal but not along with Kraut and where Butterbreze is the most popular variation if not part of a meal. Also some fresh cheese with herbs instead of butter is common. Afaik the other variations are more popular outside of Bavaria.

      • RQG@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mostly meant the combination of things. Also pretzels in the north of Germany are often of pretty meh quality from my experience.

        Weißwurst comes to mind as a hopefully just Bavarian thing.

    • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      neighbor state to Bavaria

      Never have I felt Baden-Württemberg to be so utterly disrespected

      Jokes aside, potato salad is an absolute banger that goes with so many wildly different meals

      • RQG@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Whenever I said Baden-Württemberg to an English speaker they just say Gesundheit. 🤷🏻‍♂️

        • Case@unilem.org
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          1 year ago

          They probably recognized enough to tell it was a Germanic language, but knows no German.

          That would be a very common response in my area, but it was settled prominently by German immigrants.

          There’s a subtle awareness you get growing up around people who are very proud of their Germanic heritage, but not in a racist way like some would assume from the south.

    • shrugal@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Also if you ever forget where you are just walk into a bakery and ask what the bread rolls are called. You’ll get a different answer depending on the region.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Schnitzel, spatzle, and spargel, the most delicious things that sound like you’re making shit up.

      “You could use chicken, but you still have to hammer it flat.” “Come on. And they make the noodles with a colander? The thing you drain noodles in?” “No really, and there’s aspargus, but they grow it underground so it turns white.” “If you don’t know, don’t lie.”

  • marco@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Though what Americans think of as a pretzel is just a sad squiggle of brown dough.

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            My guess is they think you only have the small crunchy ones in the US like these:

            • seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org
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              1 year ago

              To be fair, when people in the US think of a “pretzel”, those are the ones they think of. You can buy big bags of those in any supermarket. If you want to get a big, bready pretzel, you have to go to a restaurant.

              • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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                1 year ago

                A restaurant? What about your local bakery? Laugengebäck is amazing, you should eat more of it!

              • klemptor@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Here in Philly soft pretzels are everywhere, they’re a staple. I think usually those little hard ones are just a snack for kids?

              • foreverandaday@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Americans usually label the small crunchy ones as pretzels and the big real ones as “soft pretzels” when the former is (apparently) an abomination

          • eliasp@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            A Brezel has to be eaten fresh. Once it’s older than 30 minutes it gets stale and stops being a proper Brezel!

      • marco@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        If you get the chance of eating a fresh German pretzel, please compare it to American “Soft pretzels” :)

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    To be fair, the only sauerkraut I’ve ever had that actually tasted good was part of a dish made by a German immigrant (in America).

    • Hofmaimaier@feddit.deOP
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      The joke doesn’t work with caucasian.

      But you are right I should have used country… I will change that.

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Also it doesn’t work because it’s not an insult though, unless the “German” in question is actually a yank, and gets offended as an actual hobby

        • Enkrod@feddit.de
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          Race doesn’t exist in human biology. Genetically a caucasian could be closer to an aborigine than another caucasian, what we perceive as race are relatively unimportant and tiny parts of our genetic makeup.

          However, race exists as a signifier in social studies, because people experience the world and are treated differently when they have different race-perception. For example black men driving expensive cars will be pulled over more frequently. Hence race exists as a social concept because people treat it like it exists in more than just that.