Pigging-Out in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg is old, but there are some fabulous restaurants in the old, stone buildings.

The Dining Room of the Friedel Hotel Garni

The Farmers' Market is small, but interesting.

Buying Schnee Balls, the local pastry.

Inside a Metzgerei.  The hanging smoked sausages are real!

Pork Knuckle and Potato Dumplings.

Steak with Pfifferlinge

Rothenburg is a fine town for strolling ancient streets, tripping down small, hidden alleys, visiting museums that celebrate the town’s medieval past, and breathing the air of history.  But, that’s not all there is to this quaintest of medieval towns.  There’s beer and wine, restaurants galore, outdoors cafes, and sweets that’ll make your tongue quiver like a well hit number one driver.  On Saturdays, there’s a morning farmer’s market, bursting with colors, fragrances, and freshness that will make you yearn for your kitchen.

Then, there are the metzgerei (Deli) , the bakerei (bakery), the sucre bakerei (sweet bakery), and all those other lovely food shops that make you wish you had more time and a bigger stomach.  One of the traditional sweets is the schneeball, or snowball.    Sweet dough, fried in a crisp ball and coated with any number of temptations, such as chocolate, vanilla cream, coconut, and so many others.

To keep from leading you on, I’ll tell you right now I’m not going to furnish a list of specific restaurants.  Wouldn’t do justice to the wonderful array of places to eat and drink.  Same with hotels.  We stayed at one hotel and poked our noses in others.  Rothenburg is a walking town.  I’ve no doubt you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for!

We stayed at the Altebrauhaus, or Old Brewery, but alas, they no longer brew beer.  Doesn’t mean you can’t find beer and sensational Franconian wines.   Back to the Old Brewery Hotel.  For 5 Euros you can add a breakfast to your bill and it’s well worthwhile, if you enjoy buffet style.  Two things I don’t like about buffets:  the quest to try everything expands your waist and ends in failure; also,  buffets are germ magnets.   I waited patiently while a middle aged woman picked up several rolls, weighing her options, a battle against the tides of meritocracy, in a search for that one perfect roll. Hope she found it. I moved on.

The man in front of me at the cheese and ham table coughed.  Fortunately, he turned his head aside and brought his hand up to his mouth.  Unfortunately, he picked up the ham and cheese serving piece.  Toast was pretty safe.  I scorched mine thoroughly, then ran it down the smoldering hole again.  You can’t play it too safe.  The coffee was hot.  The eggs had been boiled and I got to them before the roll-lady played hot potato, or Mr. Croup christened them like a demented priest with hay fever.   Stealthily, I scanned the breakfast laboratory to spy kids idly expanding their nostrils with a nervous forefinger, or mothers giving the diapers a quick change on their way to the cereal bar.  Saw none.  Sighed in relief.

Get your shots up to date before you go to a buffet.  I stuck with toast, a boiled egg, and another cup of coffee.  Better safe than suffering.

Supper was a different matter.  My frau opt for a thick sirloin, smothered in a pfifferlinge cream sauce, with a side of potato croquets.   The steak was melt in your mouth perfection, just short of charred on the outside, nicely pink within.  I went with a house and Franconian specialty, Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle), stewed in beer, then grilled to the fall-off-the-bone stage.  It did.  And, I picked it clean.  With large weisen brews (wheat beers), the bill came to something about $60.  Not bad considering we dined in a fab and ancient restaurant in the midst of the tourist center of Germany.

Afterwards, we found a secluded café for coffee and vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce.

Don’t let the $60 supper scare you.  You can go less expensive and still eat well.  For one lunch (at the Hotel Garni) we had the best weisswurst I’ve eaten.  Matter of fact, there were a pair of them, herbed perfectly and served with soft pretzels straight out of the oven, and full-grain, sweet mustard.  Cost was about $5.  The hotel itself is an old world delight.

But, let’s get back to the main menu.  Just in case you don’t know what pfifferlinge are, the name normally used in the U.S. is chanterelles.  They come in season in Germany in August to September, but I’m beginning to see them a bit earlier than usual.  If you live in the States, you can probably find them in Whole Foods.  If you do find them, give yourself a tiny taste of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.   As you slurp your soup, picture stone, 12^th Century walls, cobblestone streets, winsome frauleins, and Franconian cuisine at its best.  Try not to cough.

Pfifferlinge Soup

15 oz or 400 grams of pfifferlinge, or substitute brown mushrooms, thin sliced

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

3 Tablespoons butter

2 rounded tablespoons all-purpose flour, mixed with enough cold water to form a milky solution

1 Can Campbell’s beef consume, with one cup of cold water added

3 Tablespoons whipping cream

1/3 Créme Fraiche, or substitute sour cream

2 egg yolks

2 Tablespoons medium sherry

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, or Dutch oven.  Add the chopped inions and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes or until the onions are golden.  Don't rush this. Add thinly sliced mushrooms and cook another 5-6 minutes.  Heat the consume and water and add it to the onion/mushroom mix.  Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and cook another 10 minutes.  Add the flour-water mixture and stir until blended.  Mix the egg yolks, cream, crème fraiche and sherry, and then add it to the soup, stirring to blend.  Once you add the cream mixture, do not let the soup boil.  Scoop a ladle or two of the soup into a blender.  When blended, add it back into the soup and stir.

Serve with toasted bread.  Baguettes work well.

Pfifferlinge - Chanterelles