For one of our Each One Teach One meetings, Christoph invited Laura, me and our friend Ulrich for a German cooking evening. The idea was simple but nice — to share a bit of our national cuisines and learn some new vocabulary along the way.
This time it was my turn to discover a traditional Bavarian dish: Schnitzel. Christoph explained how important it is in German cuisine — thin slices of meat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried until golden and crispy. On the side, we made oven-baked potato wedges (Kartoffeln in German, brambory in Czech) and served everything with lingonberry jam.
While cooking, we talked about how many European countries have their own version of Schnitzel. In the Czech Republic, we call it řízek and usually eat it with mashed potatoes (bramborová kaše) or cold potato salad (bramborový salát).
It’s one of the most typical meals back home — it’s so important for us that we even have řízek with cold potato salad as our traditional Christmas dinner.
Christoph and Laura also taught me a few German cooking words: Paniermehl (breadcrumbs), Pfanne (pan), Kartoffel (potato), and Soße (sauce). We had a short discussion about whether a “real” Schnitzel should be served with sauce or not — apparently, this is a never-ending debate in Germany. In the end, we agreed that it depends on personal taste (and how hungry you are).
Once everything was ready, the Schnitzels looked perfect — golden, crunchy, and smelling amazing. We sat down, tried both versions (with and without sauce), and compared them to the Czech řízek. It was interesting to see how similar our national dishes actually are — just slightly different in preparation and tradition.
Over dinner, Laura told us about a “Schnitzel Friday” tradition from her village in Bavaria, where people meet every week at a local Schnitzelhaus. Afterwards, we ended our German evening in a truly Finnish way — with a cup of coffee!
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