I'm a fair share German, and I would say, other than meats, their food sucks. Very bland.

Another lifetime ago when I was a camp counselor for mentally challenged kids, I met a guy, Robert Easton, from England. We hit it off and on one of our days off went with some other people to NYC for a visit. He was absolutely amazed at the quality of the food. Even sandwiches. He got a corned beef on rye and asked for mayo. The guy looked at him and said, "I'm not putting mayo on corned beef. You can get it with mustard, or plain." Well, that's Brooklyn for you, but he did say that it was amazing how large it was. According to him, you normally get a slice or two of meat and that's it. His was probably 3 or 4 inches thick. Plus he thought it was great. There are some English and Irish places here - we're not all as backwards in this area of the South as the rest of the country would like everyone to think - and I really wasn't very impressed. Kind of bland, lots of fruit capote type stuff with meats, small portions. I don't know, maybe the four or five places I've been aren't that authentic.

>I'd be interested to know what marks Germany as a gourmet capital of the world. Saurkraut? pumpernickel? (spellings?). The last time I ate from a German chef I got something called "I car of dirty" which turned out to be a small wooden wheelbarrow of extremely grisly, chewy, disgusting hunks of an indeterminate meat - took me hours to get half through and left me with jaw ache.