German culinary regions?
 

Aside from fairly specific areas such as Baden, Thüringen, or Bayern, for example, is it standard to speak of Northern, Southern, and perhaps Central German cuisine?

In another thread, I asked about southern German restaurants in Frankfurt, but the responses all dealt with local cuisine. I would have thought Frankfurt on the fishy side ;) of the Weißwurst Equator, but I seem to have been mistaken.

Is Frankfurt considered southern Germany?

Are you kidding? Almost every country has their own dish in Germany.... read up on this in Google books, like on page 74 of this lonely planet guide to germany

or this guide to the culinary regions: http://books.google.de/books?id=TEoZ...bs_toc_s&cad=1

Thank you for the very nice links, although I think I have failed to express my earlier question properly.

There's no question of the specialty dishes of many regions (see for example the discussion about Rheinland sauerbraten vs. that from Schwaben in the other thread); the question had more to do with general similarities of cooking styles and ingredients within a larger area consisting of several of those regions.

For example, as a non-German, I think of things like Weißbier, Spätzle, and bread dumplings as "southern German food" and Pils, fish dishes, and potatoes as "northern German". Maybe that's too simplistic for a native though and that renders it meaningless?

So, to ask a very specific question: Has there been enough diffusion of the "southern German" food listed above that it would be found in "local" Frankfurt restaurants? That's what the answers in the other thread seemed perhaps to imply.

Well, the Hilton serves Weisswürste on its breakfast buffet....

This is just an example of many. Germany is about 1000 km from the north to the south and we are living in an age of great mobilitly. There are certain dishes originating from certain regions you will find more or less all over place. In particular Frankfurt is a very international town in respect of German regions and you will find dishes originating from southern Germany (Bavaria starts 20 minutes by car south of Frankfurt) in Frankfurt.

Depends on what you mean with "local" restaurant in Frankfurt. If you mean a restaurant with local Frankfurt cuisine you will find mostly food from the Frankfurt region. That's there speciality. Something you only find in Frankfurt and around.

If you mean just a German restaurant which is in Frankfurt you will find all sorts of German food on the menu there.

If you want to eat more Southern/Bavarian German food maybe the Paulaner am Dom, Domplatz 6 is interesting for you (No idea how good it is, only now the Paulaner in Wiesbaden which is good)

Its all relative ...
 

It really depends where you are. Northern Germans do in fact consider Frankfurt as southern Germany. However, in the part in Bavaria I am from, people consider Frankfurt as northern Germany (and Hamburg as southern Sweden) :p. I am also aware of two definitions of the "Weisswurstäquator". The one most Germans use, that is the Main (and most of Frankfurt is north of the Main), and the one used by quite a number of people from the very very deep south: the Danube (Donau) :D, since not even northern Bavarians (Franken) have Weisswürste in their local cuisine. BTW: the later one can even be found in Wikipedia. ^

It's really all relative!
 

As a native Franfurter, I feel lucky because I'm not considered a (fill in the blank) Bavarian or a (fill in the blank) Prussian. My parents now live about an hour away from Frankfirt in the "Free State" of Bavaria, but the true Bavarians don't consider that part Bavaria as it is in the Region of Franconia, Lower Franconia, to be precise (Unterfranken).

The cuisine is similarly varied. When I look at menus from "Southern Germany", the dishes sound familiar. Some dishes from the north I've never heard of, or at least don't know what they consist of.

Frankfurt has a few specialities. To start, there is Apfelwein/Ebbelwöi/Apple wine, a type of hard cider without any residual sweetness. We have a hard cheese which is prepared with a marinade of vinegar, oil, onions, and caraway, salt & pepper (Handkäs mit Musik--accent of the u not the i). There are other diverse pork dishes, all served with Sauerkraut. I look at Sauerkraut as a Frankfurt, perhaps even a Nürnberg specialty, not a pan-German dish.

Weißwurst is generally form Munich, Spätzle are from Swabia, Grünkohl mit Pinkel is from around Bremen, Baumkuchen is now mainly from Dresden.

Germany is fairly small as compared to the US but very varied in its cuisine.

And wasn't even a nation until some 140 years ago.

And for ca. 45 years of that it was two...

Not that that has anything to do with food...
My hometown close to Frankfurt has been around for more than 1200 years. Long enough to develop a local cuisine. :D

Sure it does...it helped to lead to some of the variation in food in what is a small geographic area.

Precisely.

I am quite a big fan of Sauerbraten and Senfrostbraten Would any of the German food experts here now if these roasts are only avaiable along the Rhine or have indeed traditionally been enjoyed in a wider area?

Sauerbraten comes in several local variations which include those from the Rhineland, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony, and Westphalia.

I had never heard of Senfrostbraten. I looked it up; it seems to have originated in Duesseldorf.

Followup: We weren't able to find any Badisch or Schwäbisch restaurants, having been told that the only one known to the concierge had closed several months earlier. It wasn't clear if that were for all of Frankfurt or only Bockenheim. If the former, I have to admit I'm surprised at the lack in one of Germany's largest cities, especially one so close to Baden-Württemberg.

IMHO Frankfurt is about plumb in the middle of Germany and definitely not south. You need to get nearer Nuremburg to start being in the south!