Osnabrück Christmas fair

A week ago, on Friday, my mom, dad, aunt and I went to Osnabrück, Germany to visit one of Germany’s many Christmas fairs. It was only an hour or so by car. My parents and my aunt love cakes and since Germany is quite famous for all their special cakes, we first went to a little tea room. I had some Bionade Holunder (elderberry) and bought a few fondant stars in their shop (because of course, non of their cakes were vegan). Quite expensive (3 euros for 6 stars), but after tasting one, I thought the price was actually quite worth it. It tasted kind of buttery; I guess that was the cocoa butter? They also sell a lot of chocolate bars with ‘weird’ flavors. I bought one with wasabi, but haven’t tasted it yet.

I can never resist foreign grocery stores. Each country has their own specialties and I love finding those. Health food stores are great too, because the likelihood that I find something great that is vegan is vastly improved. When I saw a health food store in Germany, I immediately went in because I was on a mission: I want Soyatoo brand rice whip and I knew Soyatoo is a German brand. I was right: they sold rice whip! By now I've tasted it, and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. It doesn't have a light Rice Dream taste, but more of an rice syrup taste... I like the soy version better!

Another thing to buy in Germany is sourdough bread. In the Netherlands, almost all bread is made with yeast. I found this perfectly hole-y, crusty olive sourdough bread and now I know, I’ll definitely have to try and make sour dough bread myself!

Then, we finally went to the Christmas fair. There were a few streets and squares with little stalls. Mainly lots and lots of food stalls, but by far the most were glühwein (mulled wine) stalls. I had a Apfelpunch, mulled apple something-with-alcohol.

Off course we also bought some 'Heisse Maronen' (roasted chestnuts).

Twenty minutes or so after we visited one of the glühwein stalls, I suddenly realized what was bugging in my mind: I didn’t have my backpack. Since it contained my wallet and some camera equipment among other things (fortunately, my camera was hanging around my neck!), I ran back (yep, all those morning runs paid off…). and they had found my backpack and stored it nicely for me. Phew!

By that time, it was really, really crowded. I guess lots and lots of Germans go straight after work to Christmas markets for after work glühwein? I really loved how cozy it all looked in the dark, with all the lights…

Because it was already dinner time, we went to a little falafel restaurant we saw earlier: Bistro de Cameleer in the Bierstraße. I told the waitress ‘Ich bin veganerin’ (I’m a vegan) and she immediately told me she would make sure to give me only vegan sauces with my falafel. It was seriously one of the best falafel sandwiches I had in a long time. They also had an ‘Es wird kalt – karte’ ('It is getting cold menu') with hot beverages. I had a 'Bratapfel in heiße apfelsaft' – mulled apple cider with pieces of apple. Yum!

Since the falafel restaurant was really close to one part of the Christmas market, we went back for a last stroll to see it by night. There were lots and lots of people, all with stone mugs with steaming hot beverages in their hands (and unfortunately, lots of really gross very non-vegan stuff…) and a little band playing silent night.

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Does anyone know what Mutzen/muzen are? I saw a little stand with little dough balls frying in oil. They looked like the Dutch 'oliebollen' to me...

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And I like to conclude this post with wishing everyone who reads my blog...

(a Merry Christmas!)