Street food does exist in Europe, and in Germany where the society is used to the concept of ‘take away’ snacks, it is no wonder that there are countless of these wurst stands all over the country, selling variety of sausages and meats stuffed in a bread roll, just enough to fill the gap between main meals.

Wurst, is the German word for a sausage, and can be used for the  sausages as we are used to in English speak (long and stuff, and I am trying to keep it clean here), but also used for bigger rolls where we might otherwise classify as ‘ham’ or simply ‘cold cuts’. They can also come in a paste, with Leberwurst (liverwurst) spread on crusty bread eaten during breakfast.

Back to these wurst stands. You can say that I’ve had my fill of them, having a sausage a day. It’s just too easy, to stroll down the road and hand over my two Euros for a wurst in a bun. I would squeeze the bun tight and eat the grilled juicy sausage in between (oh seriously, how hard is it to keep this post clean??) and as the juices of the sausage soaks into the bun, I would then polish it off crumb by crumb.

That’s how I have been keeping the wurst economy alive in Bonn.

Another way to have the sausage is to order the currywurst. It is cut up sausages soaked in Germany’s version of a curry sauce – more of a sweet tomato/bbq sauce mixed with yellow curry powder – with a sprinkling of more curry powder on top.

This is often also eaten with a side bun, or for the greedy guts (whom that I am) – a side of fries.

And the street food doesn’t stop here.

Once I’ve had my main snack, I’d stroll a little further (a whole 200m to burn off what I’ve just eaten) and visit the Crepe man.

Crepes, are another delight to be found on German streets. Yes, you are right, they are not exactly German, but this French pancake has made its way into the average German snacking diet.

I can’t walk past a crepe stand without being tempted, the sweet smell of dough on hot plates had this attractive presence drawing me in like the sound of The Tardis (oops, my inner-nerd just showed itself), and to resist is to fight against a strong current of sand, and so the saying goes, I might as well just fall for it.

So I line up among the old and the young and wait for our freshly made crepe, some like it with sugar, some like it rolled with a banana with a generous dollop of Nutella. Either way, every customer walks away happy.

So, you would think I’d stop after devouring a crepe? Nope, because just like wurst stands, there is an ‘Eis cafe‘ (ice cream cafe) around every corner in Germany.

It’s not my fault I have a soft spot for ice cream, and it’s not just any ice cream, many serve Italian style ice cream (gelato, as we know it) and my will is no match for the brightly lit shop fronts combined with colourful flavours. Every Eiscafe is different, some make their own some don’t, so I did my ‘research’ and visited every single one to eventually find my favourite.

And at one Euro per scoop, I’ll have two please!

On top of the above, there are loads of bakeries that sell bread, cakes and slices galore and on market days in certain areas, ‘Flammkuchen’ which feel like a pizza, but topped with sour cream, onions, bacon pieces and sometimes, potatoes.

Yummo.

It’s probably a good thing I am now in the United Kingdom, a place not known for their food (it’s ‘one meat and three veg’ country after all) but for their gloomy clouds and horizontal rain. Perhaps it might be time I lay off street food for a while.