Germany - Christmas Market at Dusseldorf Food Excursion

15 euros for a round trip to Dusseldorf Christmas Market from the Netherlands? Sure, why not! We got the bus tickets from betuwe-express.nl, and by the help of Google Chrome's auto translation service, I managed to book tickets with no problems. There was a 3.50 euro service fee per reservation, so if you book at least 4 tickets per reservation (of course you can book more tickets per reservation), the service fee is almost negligible.

I've heard that the best Christmas Market in Germany is not in Dusseldorf, but my friends decided to go there so I don't mind at all. We visited 5 out of 6 Christmas Markets (we missed the 4th one):

1) Marktplatz

2) Flinger Strasse / Makrtstrasse

3) Heinrich-Heine-Platz

4) Stadtbruckchen

5) Schadowplatz

6) Gustaf-Grundgens-Platz / Schadowstrasse

We obtained a guidebook in Dutch and German from the bus, but later on we found an information center at the market (you can find it easily by following the signs) and obtained the English version of the guidebook. A little late, but it helps me write about it now.

It was -4 degrees C outside. Although it was sunny, it was definitely cold. At first I couldn't stand the cold, but then I bought a glass of mulled wine, Gluhwein, from one of the stalls in Marktplatz:

It wasn't really the best decision ever because I had a light breakfast at 6 AM and I haven't had anything until 11 AM, and the first thing I had in my stomach was alcohol. It tasted like warmed up grape juice with alcohol and earthy spices. After I drank half a glass of it I felt really warm and I didn't need to wear gloves for about half an hour (even though it's -4C outside). Then I started to get a little tipsy. Yes, I am very weak with alcohol.

If you buy a glass of mulled wine, or perhaps hot chocolate (kakao) with a splash of liquor like amaretto (almond liquor) or Bailey's (Irish cream) and Sahne (whipped cream), or egg nogg (eierlikoer), you have to pay for a deposit (2-3 euros, depending on the stall). If you return the glass, you can get the deposit back, but you cannot use a glass from a stall in another different stall. I got myself this cute snowman mug:

More than anything else, me and my other three friends decided to grab foods and drinks instead of shopping at fashion shops located at the city center. To me, this was the best decision because those fashion shops are accessible everywhere in many countries, but these street foods won't be the same even if there is an imitation of German Christmas Market somewhere else in the world.

We had pretzels (brezel):

1/2 metre bratwurst (pork sausage):

Super delicious!!!

Curry bratwurst:

Roasted chestnuts (maronen):

Spiessbraten (grilled pork loin):

Champignon mushroom in krauterrahmsauce (herb cream sauce):

Roasted nuts covered in sugar and liquor:

Kinderchocolade soft crepe:

Spatzle mit Wildrahmsauce + Preiselbeeren (German egg noodle with game sauce + cranberry sauce):

The sauce tasted like IKEA Swedish meatball sauce!

Möhrengemüse bürgerlich mit Mettwurst (carrots, potatoes, butter and herbs with pork sausage of another type):

Garlic soup:

Ofenfrisches Raclettebaguette mit Kräuter - oder knoblauchöl (fresh from the oven baguette with Raclette cheese with herbs or garlic oil): 

Flammlachs (fire-roasted salmon with dill cream):

Kartoffel-Puffer (German potato pancakes)

Eaten with applesauce (!), ketchup or mayonaise.

There were also foods that we'd love to try but we didn't have enough room in our stomach.

Peruvian croquette

Spitzkuchen

More spatzle, but cooked in herbs

Flammkuchen

I have to say German food is awesome!

I will talk about Christmas market in general in the next post because I think I posted too much pictures here. I'm trying to utilize Photobucket to upload pictures, but attaching pictures one by one is pretty annoying. I'm so used to using Picasa's Instant Upload. Maybe I should just pay for the extra 25 GB storage :(