Grocery Shopping in Germany (aka Daily Living Part I)

As most of you know, Bryan and I are in Germany for two months this summer. We aren't quite tourists and we don't quite live here. This puts us in an interesting situation. We've had some friends and family members ask us what it's like to shop, work, and get around here, so we'll be posting this week about daily life.

Since we are subleasing an apartment, we cook quite a bit, just like we both do at home. This set-up requires that we grocery shop regularly. Grocery shopping requires prep work.

Step 1: Gather a backpack, tote bag, reusable shopping bags, and other carrying devices. If you don't bring your own bags, you will have to pay for ones at the store.

Step 2: Make sure that you have a 50 cent or a 1 Euro coin on hand if you plan to use a cart. You'll have to put a coin deposit down to get a cart.

Step 3: Put that coin back. You don't want to get a cart.

Step 4: Make sure you have cash or a debit card. Most stores don't accept credit cards.

Step 5: Get yourself to the grocery store and get ready for an adventure.

We are fortunate enough to live within 3 blocks of 3 different grocery stores: Aldi (yes, that Aldi,) Konsum (the fancier grocery store,) and Netto (a discount grocery store like Aldi). We shop at this Netto:

Most of the products are fairly similar to what you'd find at home in the US. However, there are definitely some interesting products that we would never see at home and some interesting twists on products we have at home. There are also some products that I will miss when I go home and some products from home that I can't seem to find here.

A typical trip to the store involves fresh produce (but not too much because it goes bad more quickly because it is actually ripe,) cheese, pasta, breads, chocolate, pizza making supplies, milk, beer, and wine. The prices are comparable to home, but the exchange rate makes the end result higher. Luckily, though, beer and wine are much, much less expensive than home. :)

Falling into the category of items that we would never see in the States:

These are like fish sticks, except they are filled with vegetables.

These are the fish you could serve with your vegetable sticks. This is marinated herring (pickled herring).

In addition to these two extreme examples, there are far more pickled items (carrots, cabbage, and the like,) spreads for crackers and bread, and more powder based sauces than you can imagine. In fact, there is an entire shelf of sauce mixes:

The next category of items is made up of familiar items with an unfamiliar twist. Mexican food doesn't seem to be well-understood here. It's almost as though someone misinterpreted the characteristics and ingredients common of Mexican food. For example, this is Mexican dip:

Roughly translated, this is "ideal with grilled meat and fish, potatoes, salad, vegetables, french fries, and toast." Interestingly enough, none of the Mexican restaurants I have ever been to really focus on those dishes served with dip. Tortilla chips here are more like Doritos, salsa is not spicy, and nachos just taste wrong. Also, tacos are tortilla chips. This is all quite confusing. However, it gets more confusing:

This is a Mexican fish fillet that is filled with corn and tomatoes. I don't really understand.

Milk is sold both cold and shelf-stable here and eggs are sold at room temperature. 

Potato chips are also different here. Besides Pringles, chips are all paprika (pepper) flavored. There is a large selection of paprika flavored snack items:

Coca cola, Sprite, and Pepsi are common here, as is mineral water, tonic water, etc. However, the containers are 1.5 L and most bottles include a deposit. It is common to see people on the street with gigantic containers of soda, juice and the like:

There are some foods that I have gotten really attached to. For example, Doppelkeks (Double cookies) are awesome! Bryan loves Doppelkeks too!

There are also some awesome salty snack packs here. There are tiny compartments of pretzels, crackers, etc. Bryan loves these more than anything else in the store.

Probably the best item is this:

Although there are tons of familiar and new, delicious items, there are some things from home that I miss. Macaroni and cheese doesn't seem to exist here, and I have been craving it for weeks! Brown sugar, canned soup, chocolate chips, and marshmallows are also not found in the grocery store. Some familiar American brands are in stores like Netto and Aldi, but the best bet for imports from home is the gourmet grocery store in the basement of the department store in the city center.

Overall, the grocery stores are much smaller and a larger percentage of the store is devoted to beverages, dairy products, and sauces than at home. The product section is also smaller than you would see at Hy-Vee. People tend to go shopping more frequently here, so you don't see overflowing carts with enough food for a week or more very often. It's taken some getting used to, but I would say I am now an experienced international grocery shopper.

I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about the more mundane details of our life here.