German Food Etiquette

I can’t say that I have the best table manners, but I don’t think that I’m awful to eat with. (Unless you ask my brother) I try not to talk with my mouth full or chomp too loudly. There’s the occasional burp, but I don’t make it loud or obnoxious. Well all of that seems like it’s not enough here in Germany.

Earlier when Ben and I started dating, I learned that burping of any kind is not acceptable—not even a small barely audible burp. When Ben first mentioned it, my first response was, “I don’t burp that much!” But as I started paying more attention, I noticed that, in fact, I did burp quite a bit. (Not a lot by American standards) I don’t mean the loud obnoxious kind, but the slightly bubbly kind. It didn’t matter because Ben could hear it. Not surprisingly, I became extra self-conscious about my burping habits. I worried that when I visited his parents and his grandma, I would accidentally burp and it would be the deal breaker. Ahhh, what to do? What to do?? :-O

Well, I’ve managed to keep the burping to a minimum, at least as far as I can tell. No one has mentioned it to me yet... But I’m still a little confused about the social customs surrounding food. Ben and I went to a Scottish dancing event at the university last week. It was definitely a contrast to school events in the States. 

Aren't their kilts great? The one professor
also played bagpipes.

First of all, there was beer and wine being served. It was completely natural. Most of the students were standing around socializing with a beer or plastic cup of wine in their hands. There were also cups of snack pretzels. --Side note: I have a very low alcohol tolerance. Very. Very. Low. But I thought that I could handle a small cup of wine since everyone else was doing the same.-- It didn’t take very long for me to feel the effects. I saw the pretzels and

asked if I could have them. The lady said that they were free. I wasn’t sure if I was just supposed to take a couple or just grab the little plastic cup they were in, so I took the whole cup…I felt better, but I noticed that some people were kind of giving me weird looks. Guess it’s not acceptable to eat the free pretzels, at least not a cup of them if you’re not completely wasted. I’m thinking that drinking a small cup of wine at a school function, did not fall under that category.

I learned from the pretzel incident and when I went out with some girls one night, although there was a cup of pretzels in the middle of the table, I did not embarrass myself. :-) Nibbling is the name of the game. :-P

Overall, I’ve just noticed more formality when it comes to etiquette. Ben and I were invited to have brunch at his friend’s house, and I noticed that it was still kind of formal even though Ben and his friend were close. Back in the States, if I invited close friends over to eat, I would want them to grab anything they wanted (if they actually wanted to the food I had) and it’d be pretty relaxed. The conversation was easy flowing but I got the sense that I was supposed to nibble more than eat. It seemed that the “brunch” was more for the purpose of socializing, not for both eating and socializing. All in all, even though we were all young and (at least Ben) knew them well, it a lot more formal than I was expecting for Sunday morning brunch.

So, I've learned a couple of things: any kind of burping is rude, the pretzels at a gathering are not to be eaten except in the case of an emergency (alcohol related), and eat a snack (or meal) before going on any sort of group-social outing. The foodie inside of me is a tad sad. I really like being able to enjoy food when I'm with different people. The German culture I've experienced so far is the opposite of a lot of Asian cultures (at least Chinese culture) in the sense that social gatherings are not so much centered around food. It's hard for me not to get excited and zealous about food, but I will try to keep it from being too obvious.

Foodie Pic: