Breakfast at Bäckerei Frank

One thing I love about living in Germany is the bread. Unlike American Wonder Bread, German bread is baked fresh and comes in a variety of flavors besides "white". In fact, "wheat bread" doesn't exist here, because most of the breads you can buy are a kind of wheat bread, or rather, just bread. In fact, the bread is so fresh that once you slice it, it's really only good for two or three days max until it starts to get stale. I suppose this explains why bread is so cheap, and why it's normal to buy fresh bread every day as you need it. 

Bakeries are a much bigger deal here than in the States, and it's not uncommon to see two or three on the same corner in a city. We do most of our shopping at the bakery just outside our local grocery store out of convenience, although I'll also stop at one of the two bakeries on the way to work when I need bread or breakfast rolls for school. I find that the quality at these bakeries is fine for every day (and still above what we used to get at our grocery store bakery in the States), but when I have the time, I like to go to my favorite bakery in our neighborhood: Bäckerei Frank. 

The real thing to get at Bäckerei Frank are the Brezeln, or pretzels in English. They're made fresh daily and are still hot when you buy them. Now these are not your American-style Auntie Anne's pretzels. I have nothing against Auntie Anne's, but after living in Germany for some time, I've come to realize that American-style soft pretzels aren't really pretzels. German pretzels, for one, aren't as salty so that you can actually taste the bread. They've also got the right kind of crusty-outside-to-soft-inside ratio. And whereas the twist in American soft pretzels is the same width as the bottom and sides of the pretzel, the twist on German pretzels is much thinner, giving you a crispy treat after you enjoy the soft body. This explains why when you see German pretzels, they usually appear "upside-down" from American pretzels, with the thick body on the top and the twist at the bottom.