Finding Schnitzel
/Schnitzel is a traditional German meal. It is a piece of pork, chicken, or veal pounded thin, breaded, and baked to a delicious golden brown for a melt in your mouth flavor. Add a side of German potato salad, a little lemon and you will just about be in Heaven.
This particular dish is a staple to my concept of Germany, aside from the massive beers and leiderhosen of course. But for being, what I consider, a main dish in German culture we have been having a difficult time find a reasonably priced dish—reasonable for a backpacker is less than 10Euro. Nevertheless, on this very cold night in Heidelberg, Germany we have decided to search for Schnitzel.
Just off the river there is a place known for its Schnitzel called the Schnitzel house. We walked about 10 minutes from our hostel down a very unlit road near the edge of the city to find the average price for this place was 11-12 Euro. Now, the hostel advertised that you get your money’s worth here but that is a little steep with pockets as little as ours.
We turned around and headed to the main drag, Hauptstrasse; I could have sworn I saw an advertisement 7,50 Euro schnitzel on our walk around the city earlier in the day. I had, but it was at the Hard Rock Café Heidelberg. Ask yourself this: when was the last the cheapest place to eat was a Hard Rock Café? The answer is never.
Out of principle we bypassed the Hard Rock and walked a little further. We found ourselves at a restaurant we still do not know the name of advertising 7,95 Euro schnitzel. Walking in, the staff immediately directed us to a table in the corner. It wasn’t until we sat down and opened the menu did we realize we were in a glorified Long John Silver. We aren’t picky about where we eat but ordering schnitzel in a fish house doesn’t seem like a good idea.
We decided that the Schitzel House, although it was over a kilometer away from where we were, seemed like the better option. We checked our wallets and decided what the hell, beer was cheaper there anyway.
After hoofing from one edge of town to the next and a 30-minute wait later we were handed menus with over 100 different types of schnitzel all with unique names. They had the Bangkok, the Parma, the Firenze, anything you could imagine could be put on a schnitzel.
Our dishes arrived quickly, one Parma with cream sauce, bacon, and breaded with parmasean cheese, and one Rhoner Bauernschnitzel with bacon, carmalized onions, and a fried egg, each with two pieces of meat the size of my hand.
Taking half of our food to go and buying 0,50 Euro pretzel rolls we were able to create the worlds greatest leftover sandwich. If you have one place to go in Germany, you have one dinner, and only one restaurant to go to, it has to be the Schnitzel House.
