One of the advantages of living in a diverse area is the different kinds of food available. A city’s diversity is most apparent in its street food and sit-down restaurants. Italian, French and Turkish food all have a strong presence in Saarbrücken’s food culture. The baguette (thin loaf of French bread) is popular here due to our proximity to France while rigatoni (pasta) is a city-wide hit for some reason unknown to me. Both are delicious! I have a soft spot for Turkish food and eat as much of it as I can. There are many people in Germany who are Turkish-German or immigrated to Germany from Turkey. Over the last few decades, Turkish food stands have become the U.S. taco truck version of Germany—there is one on almost every street corner.
I have been trying to recreate more of my favorite restaurant foods at home. I am familiar with traditional German food because of my previous experiences in the country. My favorite "traditional" German food is either Maultaschen (Swabian ravioli) or Wienerschnitzel (breaded pork patty). Recently, I have made homemade vegetable soup and helped a friend make falafel, which is a fried patty made of chickpeas. The most interesting dish I have tried so far was a combination of rigatoni and kebab meat. My Italian friends would consider it blasphemy, but I thought it was pretty tasty.
