Welcome to the Vegan Wirtshaus!

Even though I was born and raised in Germany, traditional German cooking is not my usual business. I am more like the Italian girl, my cupboards crammed with pasta and my head bursting with Tuscan, Sicilian and Neapolitan recipes.

For MoFo 2011 I decided to host a string of veganized German food and I liked it so much that I just want to go on. One month of traditional German cooking really changed my point of view. I realized -even though there are lots of similar recipes and some of the usual prejudices may be true- that there is a lot of stuff I want to try, loads of food based traditions to discover and many specialties to veganize and that I have to make it.
I know it must be hard to imagine but especially Northern German kitchen was totally strange to me. I had no clue what those people traditionally eat (even though Germany is quite small compared to for example the US and German kitchen doesn't necessarily stick to it's traditions- I guess spaghetti bolognese is Germany's most popular food nowadays) and while doing the research for my daily posts I learned so much about my "own" culture.
I think it's funny- I have always been very happy to try out new things for cooking - I asked all my friends to bring me spices from everywhere in the world, I try loads and loads of foreign stuff but it never occurred to me to make traditional food.
And even though I know some of these dishes some of them are still waiting for their vegan version.

Of course I won't be able to stick to my daily posting. But I'll make sure to publish at least one post a week and don't forget to tell you about special German holidays and traditions. This blog won't be food only - I will also tell you about German traditions around the year. I hope you'll enjoy!

By the way: Wirtshaus is German and means inn, but it also carries a subtle note of sociability, cosiness and tradition. I think this word describes German cooking the best.