Spätzle (it's yummy)

Today's post is about unexpectedly good food. One of my work buddies asked me how I like my new neighborhood. Turns out she lives close by, so I asked her for tips on where to eat. She got very excited and rattled off about 5 restaurants in 5 seconds. I've now got quite a list of places to try. Tonight I went for the "traditional German food" place on her list. I was a little hesitant, given her description: crumbly, messy noodles with cheese sauce and other things on top (English is not her first language, and my German is non-existent). But I figured that I'm in Berlin, and I should expand my horizons beyond pastries, Indian, and Turkish food.

What I ate was something called Spätzle. Here's a picture from the internet:


It's not exactly what I ate, but close enough to give the basic idea. Spätzle is a kind of fresh pasta. Dough is squished through a strainer into boiling water, and when it boils it is done. I suspect that my Spätzle was then lightly fried - it had a certain crunchiness to it.

Next comes the sauce. The picture above shows dry noodles and some meat with gravy on the side. My meal had a mushroom cream sauce poured over the noodles, and someone at the table next to me had something like home-made mac-n-cheese sauce on his. Another girl had bits of ham and some kind of gravy and a poached egg on hers. It all looked delicious, I'll have to go back to try other options!

I was also proud of myself for successfully ordering in German. Not that it's hard when it's a picture menu, but hey, I still said the words, understood the amount, counted out correct change, and then pretended to read a German magazine while I waited. No one was fooled, but it was fun to try, and to not have to ask if anyone spoke English.