Food in Swabia - Shopping

I admit when I moved here, I had fears about the type and quality of food - both ingredients and at restaurants - I'd be able to access here in Stuttgart.  And I have jumped the gun in believing some of the stereotypes about the German palette caring only about wurst and kartoffeln (sausage and potatoes). In fact, a wide range of products and ingredients that I commonly use for cooking can be found here, albeit not in normal grocery stores. I think the fact is, large metropolises are maybe not that different worldwide - regardless of the local cuisine, any city with an international population (and it is estimated that 1 in 5 Stuttgarters are not German-born) is going to have a diverse range of ingredients available.

My first realization of this took place on our very second day in Germany, when I visited Stuttgart's famous Markthalle (Market Hall). It reminded me of San Francisco's Ferry Building Market, until I realized that market was based on indoor European markets! There was stall after stall of high-quality meats, cheeses, produce, and specialty food products from all over the world. I was delighted to recognize familiar ingredients such as high-quality tortillas and habaneros, and excited to try some produce I'd never seen before, not even at the famous Berkeley Bowl. And truffles (the fungus, not the confection) for reasonable-ish prices! Totally a foodie's dream, especially the affordably priced European cheeses.

Also, international markets do exist here!  Whether it's GoAsia, a Chinese chain grocery with 37 locations in Germany, or the lovely little shop underground at the Stuttgart Rathaus U-Bahn, high quality Asian ingredients can be found for reasonable prices.  There are also specialty Italian, Greek, Turkish, and Russian stores, so almost any ingredient can be found.

There is also a large farmers' market in front of the Rathaus (City Hall) three times a week, which carries almost all the basic kinds of produce I'd see at the Grand Lake farmers' market in Oakland as well as a few new exciting varieties of European winter squashes.  And the smaller squares usually have a once-a-week market as well, usually Saturday morning.  

German grocery stores are relatively easy to navigate, and not dissimilar to American ones except they seem to be smaller than a typical supermarket, and have a much better bread, cheese and meat selection (they take that stuff seriously here). Beer is incredibly cheap - a large bottle of any local brew is usually under 1 Euro, although the catch is you can only get local beer, aside from a couple of nationwide brands like Becks, everything is either from Baden-Wuerttemburg or Bavaria. 

All shops - literally, everything - are closed on Sunday. This lead to quite an adventure when we realized Sunday morning we were out the cat food we'd packed for our cat. I walked about a mile through the suburb of Moehringen looking for some store that would be open, to no avail. We finally went to the "Shoppette" on base, which had no cat food, but it did have packaged tuna, which apparently has made my cat quite happy.

Up next: Restaurants and wine in Germany - we might have a few annoying American complaints for this section, as I'm badly craving a glass of good California chardonnay and apparently that is NOT going to happen.