German Food: Potatoes and Soup

I don't usually think of Germany when I think of potatoes and soup. Ireland probably comes to mind a bit more, but Germany had some really interesting potato and soup dishes that I thought were really good!

When we were in Trier's Christmas Market, we kept seeing people walk by with what turned out to be potato pancakes, or Kartoffelpuffer (pictured). The same man who recommended the bratwurst that I tried in Trier, also suggested that we try these potato pancakes. They reminded me of a doughy hash brown, like at McDonald's, and just as greasy! They served the pancakes with applesauce, which really didn't sound too good to me, but I tried it. The applesauce turned out to be great with them-almost like it cut back on the greasiness!

I also had other potato dishes, but they weren't much different than what we can get here in the U.S. I had some french fries, which they call 'pommes' that came with my schnitzel and I also had American fries, which I mentioned in my previous 'German Food: Sausages' post.

The soups I tried while in Germany were nothing like what I expected! The first soup I had was in Munich while we were at the Hofbrauhaus. I ordered a potato soup, which was quite different than what I would usually order in the U.S. The U.S. potato soups are usually creamy and have bacon, cheese and chives on top. The potato soup there had a thick broth with potatoes and wasn't nearly as flavorful, but it was still good.

The other soup I had was a goulash soup, which I had in Rothenburg. I had never heard of goulash soup before or, if I had, I never thought anything of it. The goulash soup was very tasty and had potatoes and pieces of what I'm assuming was beef in it. I had thought there would be pasta in it, since I associate goulash with pasta, but there wasn't any. It was definitely a great soup to have to warm up, since it was also very spicy (for me at least).