The lure of apple wine

The first time I went to Frankfurt I planned to merely spend one night there, round up my German friends and then travel with them to other, more interesting, parts of Europe.

That night my Frankfurter friends, Caroline and Susi, took me to a little tavern for my first taste of apple wine, or ‘äbbelwoi’ (pronounced ‘ebbelwoi’ - fast and slurry if you want to talk like a local). Given a choice between sweet and bitter apple wine, I chose the latter and expected cider. Yet the flavour of real apples surprised my tastebuds and the dryness tickled my tongue. That one night ended up lingering in my mouth and left me wanting more.

This time around I am making sure that I get to sample all the local delicacies that Frankfurt has to offer. Susi offers to take me to Rewe (the supermarket) soon after my arrival. I grab a freshly baked ‘bredzel’ from the bakery on the way and devour it in an instant, almost getting driven over by a cyclist for walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk.

I am all eyes when we reach the supermarket, enchanted by the ‘feldsalad’ (seasonal salad leaves) and ‘mini cresse’ (looks like miniature watercress and tastes like horseradish). Susi insists on introducing me to a local cheese called ‘handkäs’. I choose some Frankfurter sausages, curious to find out whether they taste any different in their place of origin. In the dairy aisle I find beautiful glass bottles filled with milk and yoghurt. The Germans are obsessed with food safety, which explains the glass option as opposed to plastic.

In fact, the Germans are so dedicated to food ethics that they are struggling to keep up with organic food supplies. Just down the road from Rewe is an equally big and way more expensive bio supermarket called Basic. It sells everything from mushrooms to mascara, in organic form.

We fill up two big shopping bags at Rewe and just like that we are ready to prepare a German feast.