On Friday the 30th of May we finally all felt well enough to explore the Marienplatz area on our last full day, including the Viktualienmarkt (permanent farmers market) and a temporary Nordsee Fischmarkt with displays of seafood from the North Sea, 500 miles to the north!
There's also a ton of regular shopping, including but not limited to touristy items. For example, Manufaktum has all sorts of interesting gadgets for home, garden, outdoor hobbies, and more. I bought some cannele molds that I had never found in France.
The Viktualienmarkt was really interesting! On our first trip to Europe in 2015 we'd been thoroughly amazed by the incredible Marche de Saint-Antoine Celestins, on the East bank of the Rhone river, in which everything was beautifully displayed and there were many opportunities to grab something ready-to-eat, but few places to sit and eat it. In subsequent visits we saw subtle differences in the markets throughout Italy, where the goods on offer tended to be more hyperlocal and often unfamiliar, and more fresh produce, seafoods, and meats than ready-to-eat goods. On this visit the market in Rouen did not disappoint in comparison to that in Lyon. The Viktualienmarkt was our first in depth exploration of a German outdoor market.
Naturally my first interest was what food is on offer. I was impressed by the number and variety of mushrooms - I saw bins and bins of all kinds including beautiful golden chanterelles, many black truffles graded by size and quality, and morels, which were in season and present in far greater abundance than we ever see in New England. Our mushroom cultivation industry is still in its infancy; it's plain to see that we could learn some things from the German farmers.
White asparagus was very common, and it tended toward large spears.
There was a fair amount of ready-to-eat food and places to eat it. I'd say there was more ready-to-eat food than you typically see in Italy but less than France, and more seating with tables than in either France or Italy. Of course there was more bier than wine, Very common was the fruity, low-alcohol radler biers, which are like a mix of larger with lemonade or other fruity soft drink.
Even though it was still May, it was getting pretty warm; many tables had umbrellas and it's clear that most of the Germans preferred to crowd into the shade than to endure the sun even if it meant more room.
Bavarian cuisine doesn't feature much in the seafood department. Some farmed river fish are the most common, of which the trout is highly regarded. But on this day, for the weekend, there was the Nordsee Fischmarkt, a coordinated extra fisherman's market with shellfish and fin-fish from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is largely brackish, and is best for herrings, which are pickled and preserved many ways and enjoyed in enormous quantities. The larger fin-fish we mostly plaice, turbot, and other flatfish. There were also many kinds of smoked fish and many kinds of prepared fish pates.
There was even a fellow with a sort of open-air smoke apparatus that was clearly adding smoke to the salmon hanging there, but he said it wasn't smoking the salmon. It wasn't in an enclosed smoker, so I guess there's some middle method that I must learn about!
German and Austrian cuisine includes many, many more kinds of spreads than we saw in France and Italy. In the US we have many mass-produced spreads in the supermarkets, but I don't see so many on offer at farmers markets or among the charcuterie selections at parties and events. The farmers market had several stalls dedicated to spreads of all compositions, both traditional favorites and their own special creations. These stalls were well-attended with people sampling to spreads on bits of cut-up Bavarian pretzel. The Nordsee Fischmarkt had a proportional number of traditional and specialty seafood-based spreads.
Speaking of smoking... In Munich it's OK to smoke at restaurants if you're in the outdoor seating. Owen and I were sitting outside a restaurant while the women shopped, when a fellow beside Owen lit up a cigarette. We opted to move to a smoke-free indoor table. Our server was surprised, and the hostess exclaimed "It cannot be done!" It was the second time in 30 minutes that I had heard that, and I was a bit peeved, but Owen put his hand on my arm and handled the situation. Later he explained that many Germans care deeply about following "the rules", and in this case, to move from an outside table to an inside table required that the inside table be one staffed by the same server, but his were all full. Another server seeing the situation offered to take us, and she cleared it with the other server. After that everything was happy, the ladies joined us and we had a fine, smoke-free lunch.
The other time I heard that strange utterance "It cannot be done" was from a woman selling nuts and dried fruits in bulk. Among her wares she had a basket of Brazil nuts, and I thought a handful would be just the thing to revive my energy without a sit-down meal. They were some euro for 250g (about 9 oz) and twice that price for 500g. I didn't need to restock my house, I was just looking for a pick-me up, so I offered to buy 125g for a price that would be fair for 150g or so. She said "It cannot be done!"
I was sure there was some misunderstanding, possibly in my arithmetic, so I thought through it again, and it was OK. Language and culture were the problem here, so I got not Brazil nuts and she got none of my euro.
Beyond the fish market Lorna and Melissa espied and made a bee-line for a shop of Steiff stuffed animals. Here I got lucky, because right next door to the Steiff Shop was a Fortuny boutique!
Why would I care about expensive dresses? This became my lucky last chapter in my Proust exploration! In the fifth volume of that sprawling novel, La Prisonnière, our hapless protagonist attempts to gain and hold the love of his chosen one by spending a fortune on her, especially with an endless supply of exquisite, expensive Fortuny gowns. I didn't expect to ever see any examples of the fabled designer’s dresses and fabrics, and here was a boutique full of them. So while Lorna and Melissa fussed over expensive stuffed animals, I got to chat with the saleslady about Proust and Fortuny. There's a Fortuny museum in Venice, where the famous designer spent much of his time and his career. I knew it was there, but never got to see it. Now it's a priority!
The five of us had a grand Bavarian supper at the Schneider bräuhaus im Tal (since 1828 but until recently known as Weisses bräuhaus), a stalwart for traditional Bavarian food. It's a huge space with many big tables. I didn't see many (if any) tables for two, but that was OK since there were five of us dining. The place was well-lighted, airy and clean, with very good service. The menu was available in both German and English so we were able to read and order for ourselves. This would be my last dinner in Germany and I didn't want to miss any of the classics. I had missed a whole day of dining yesterday so I needed to catch up!
We had two Schneider Weissbier, and then we opened with a Regensburger sausage salad, and a traditional Obazder spread with bread and pretzels.
For main dishes, Lorna had the roasted rainbow trout fillet, Melissa had the egg spaetzle with cheese (spaetzle is a dumpling dough boiled somewhat like spaghetti with a texture closer to risotto), Brigitte had konigsberger klopse (traditional meatballs with a mushroom cream sauce), Owen had roast pork (I think it was his opportunity to declare the Munich style inferior to the Nuremberg style!), and I had Maultaschen dumplings (a Swabian favorite: large ravioli filled with a spiced meat-spinach-herb mixture and simmered in stock).
We finished with a big platter of sweet kaiserschmarrn (fluffy pancakes torn into bite-sized pieces, dressed with powdered vanilla-sugar, and served with applesauce or other fruity compote). Kaiserschmarrn is something that Brigitte had introduced Lorna to back in 2015 and without with any visit to Munich would be incomplete!
It was also a great way to end a fine dinner, a half-week in Munich and a week in Germany with good friends, and a long vacation!