Darmstadt, Germany

Have you ever starved yourself during the day so you can justify a pig-out in the evening and to much disappointment only moments into your much awaited meal you find that you are full, all too soon? Now luckily for my sake I learnt this little fact quite early on in life and when it comes to food I am rarely disappointed by my own doings, however how the food tastes and how it is cooked is out of my control unless of course I’ve cooked it, and then I can only blame myself. Being able to eat regularly and to have an appetite most of the day is one of the best things about being a tennis player. There’s nothing better (though there are many things that are just as good) than being hungry and eating a great meal. Now I was recently in Germany and the best food is always the fresh local food. I was lucky enough to be staying with our really good family friends the Ganssmann’s and you can’t get much better than home-cooked, especially when you are constantly on the road eating out with a smaller budget. German food for me is amongst the best. All types of sausage, schnitzel (although it’s from Austria it’s still readily available in Germany and just as good), spetzler, German handmade pasta which is basically a dough hand made into squiggly shaped pasta, which comes from the Stuttgart area of Germany. It can be served plain with a bit of parmesan or with fresh herbs and sausage, pretty much anything can be put through it just like regular pasta.

It’s the Mediterranean vegetables oven baked with olive oil, sprinkled with rosemary with a hint of garlic. Europe has a different way of doing things when it comes to food, it just seems civilized, not rushed. One of my little pleasures in Deutschland is the pretzels whether they are for breakfast, accompanied with lunch or dinner or a snack anytime during the day. I was there in the summer month of July, a very hot summer, over 30 degrees celsius everyday and on the last day it had called down about 10 degrees, ironically as we were leaving. I don’t mind the heat but even this weather was a little excessive.

Winter food is different altogether and the food can be quite different from the summer. My favourite treat which the little vendor in Darmstadt serves is called kartoffelpuffer, its fried potato that’s served with apple sauce, not bad on a freezing cold day in a warm coat.

I can’t wait to go back to eat my favorites, I could eat schnitzel everyday!