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10 Specialties of Alsace you need to try

  • 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.