A Guide to German Street Food and Snacks!

Although there are plenty of fantastic restaurants in Germany, I think you can get more of an authentic "live the daily life of a German" experience out of checking out all the food stalls each town square has to offer. I found all kinds of amazing snacks and treats from these vendors, and saved a ton of money in the process. Who wants to spend twenty euros on lunch everyday when you can get a perfectly good bratwurst for 2.40? Not this gringa, I'll tell ya that. Speaking of bratwurst...

Outside the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt.

This beauty will set you back less than three euros and will make you want to die of shame for ever believing that an American "bratwurst" has anything to do with the pure, unbridled deliciousness that is this lovingly home-made pork product on a bun (Also a bratwurst totally has to be pork, a beef sausage is called a "rindswurst." Knowledge is power!). Topped with grilled onions and mustard, these things are so good I ate like seven of them in less than a week and didn't get tired of them. You should also note that the beer at the bratwurst stalls is oftentimes less expensive than bottled water. Abuse the absence of open container laws in Germany.

I honestly don't remember what city this was in I ate so many kebaps...

Another really common cheap German lunch is the doner kebap. You usually have to go sit down in a restaurant for this one, called a "kebap haus," but a kebap is usually about 4 or 5 euros,  7 or 8 if you're getting fries and a drink. It's of Turkish origin but is basically chicken meat on a gyro-style rotisserie, which is then shaved off into a delicious bread pocket with lettuce, tomato, onion, and spicy sauce. They give you a tiny little fork (the red thing sticking out of the above kebap) to eat it more daintily I guess, but I was usually too busy stuffing my face with delicious doner kebap to concern myself with such things.

The tasty pastry sphere scene in Heidelberg.

Schneeballen! These kinda-hard-to-eat treats are fried dough scraps that are covered and sometimes filled with STUFF. Powdered sugar is the most common one, hence the name "snow ball," but they come covered and filled with chocolate, nuts, marzipan, and all sorts of things.

Mine had dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts on the outside, hazelnut cream on the inside. They're pretty big and crunchier than you'd expect, so I'm still not exactly sure of the best way to go about eating them. There's a reason I took a picture of the schneeball and not my face after I ate said schneeball...

Honey waffles in the Frankfurt marketplace.

Last but definitely not least are the honey waffles. Just about every town square in Germany has a market going on throughout the day where you can buy groceries or just lunch, and just about every market has a honey vendor. They sold bottles of honey of course, but also beeswax candles, honey schnapps, and in this case honey waffles. Honey was mixed into the waffle batter, and you could get powdered sugar, chocolate sauce, or maple syrup on top. You could even get diced apples sprinkled onto the waffle batter before they put the press down. Mmmmmm.

"Honigwaffel mit puderzucker," say it loud and there's music playing.