- Cheese, potatoes & meat.
- Little cakes, tasty ginger bread & massive brioches.
- Alsace gastronomy is savory, diverse, the portions are consequent & the dishes will make you ask for more.
- As it is 1 of the nicest regions you’ll want to stay there, sit at a table, just eating.
What are the formidable dishes to come?
What are the Alsatian specialties?
- Flammekueche
- Baeckeoffe
- Kouglof
- Pain d’épices
- Spaetzle
- Bredele
- Beerawecka
- Mannala
- Munster
- Choucroute garnie
Flammekueche
- ‘The Flammekueche is very much like a pizza’, are tired to hear many Alsaciens.
- It is a way to compare the 2 dishes but only if you like pizza with no tomatoes.
- For the Flammekueche is a fine tart, embellished with cream, onions & smoked bacon.
- Sometimes will be added a thin veil of local cheese.
- It is truly a fine piece of french cuisine, and one of the most delicate dishes of Alsace.
Baeckeoffe
- ‘It looks like a stew.’ and you’d be right to think that.
- Although the Baeckeoffe is longer to come, much longer.
- It generally requires many, many hours of preliminary preparations.
- Tender lamb meat cut right off the shoulder, a bed of lofty potatoes and baby carrots & onions.
- Olive oil, drizzled on their bodies.
- And all that bath in white wine with the best hostesses, Tarragon & Rosemary.
- To enjoy hot with a fresh, crispy salad.
- The fruity white wine is core to many Alsatian dishes, but you can opt for an alcohol-less version.
Kouglof
- Kouglof (or Gugelhupf) is largely regarded as the Alsatian Brioche.
- And in a country were brioches & cakes are half of the dishes that means it is extraordinary.
- For a Brioche.
- In the shape of a small castle it is one of the best looking traditional pastries you’ll find.
- Much like a Panettone it can be garnished with Nuts, Candied fruit & Chocolate.
- Generally you’ll find it vanilla, all fluffy & moist.
- If you can find one that was prepared in an enameled clay mold (‘moule en terre émaillé’), that’s even better.
Pain d’épices
- Ginger bread? But this one is different.
- You may have had some ginger bread, you know about cinnamon, the molasse, maybe there was some syrup in it.
- This one is not crunchy, it’s moist.
- And it is drenched with honey.
- Rye flour, honey & spices: cardamom, anise, nutmeg, cloves, you name it.
- That’s the traditional recipe.
- But the cinnamon pinch comes from the Alsatian version.
Spaetzle
- ‘They’re shaped like a sparrow’ or they should be.
- A Spaetzle is a little Spatz, or a ‘little sparrow’.
- Generally served with sausages & swabian-style lentils, these little pastas will make everything right.
- And by that I mean that they’ll remind you of your childhood noodles.
- You can also find them in salad for a lighter version.
- Go for traditionally made Spaetzle as they are thicker & rounder.
- The commercial version will be disappointing, and are definitely not shaped like sparrows.
Bredele
- Cookies or petit fours.
- They may seem unremarkable, but they are cookies.
- You can eat cookies elsewhere, but wouldn’t it be great to try cookies everywhere you go?
- There’s a plethora of them: anis, confiture, citron, spirals, chocolate Spritz…
- Everything that brings back Christmas everyday.
- 1 of the most remarkable are the Noisettins, Bredele with an hazelnut embedded in the middle, the crunchiest & nuttiest one.
Beerawecka
- Now that’s a loaded cake.
- Schnaps, quetsche & liqueur de mirabelle.
- If you’re going out for a drink you may want to eat this instead.
- The Beerawecka is a small cake filled with candied & dried fruits drenched in alcohol.
- Much like an energy bar that would make/get you drunk.
Mannala
- Mannala or ‘little people’ in Alsatian are milk breads.
- These little ‘pain au lait’ people are embedded with chocolate chips & coated with sugar.
- The ultimate small brioche, since it’s human-shaped.
- If you like Brioches & you like Humans, do for them.
- There’s much more to say, but I prefer to eat them.
Munster
- The Alsatian Cheese from the Munster valley.
- This powerful soft cheese (fromage a pâte molle) is often eaten raw or accompanied with a strong red wine.
- You could also opt for a slice of bread.
Choucroute garnie
- Laaaa Choooucrouuute gaaarnie!
- If you’ve ever been to France you know that Alsace is Choucroute.
- That’s kind of a cliche actually, I don’t know if Alsaciens like it so much.
- The Choucroute or Sauerkraut, as you may know it, is fermented cabbage.
- As you may not know, the Alsatian version may be cooked in beer or white wine.
- And, that’s it!
- Choucroute + Sausages + Charcuterie + Potatoes = Happiness.
