Note: Germany is a prominent feature of your contributor’s posts (for example), but now he lives in the country, not far from Stuttgart. He believes German food is not a contradiction in terms, and he looks forward to sharing the tastes of his newfound home.

The church refers to Easter as a feast day, and my German family truly lived it out here in Baden-Wuerttemberg. One of the nice things about Germany is that Easter is an official holiday. On Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, everything is closed, with Saturday set aside for holiday hustle and bustle. In fact, having a little time off gives the most important day of the Christian year almost the same respect as Christmas – you could go through the holiday rituals without thinking of pressing work deadlines. My German family feasted like they believe in Resurrection, like they believe Easter means death truly is overcome. The food was heavenly. Here are the highlights.

I grew up eating sweet ham on Easter, but in the Germany, lamb (appropriately) is the traditional Easter meat. Uncle Gerhard grilled some choice cut from a lamb raised in near-by Goeppingen. My mother-in-law used lamb to make a delicious Hungarian Goulash. In addition, we had a surprisingly-juicy turkey breast served in an exquisite wine sauce.

Grilled lamb

Lamb Gulasch

That same wine sauce was served over one of my favorite German foods, spaetzle (pronounced shpet-zleh, not spate-zull), home-made egg noodles. For Easter, my wife’s aunt prepared two varieties, one plane, and one mixed with Chives.

Spaetzle: German comfort food

Spring in Germany is asparagus season – they even have asparagus festivals. Our Easter asparagus was served baked with Gouda cheese, though it is normally served in a hollandaise sauce. Of course, my preferred vegetable is anything that goes in a good salad, and our salad was a spring garden mix of arucola, lettuce, tomatoes and herbs grown in the garden. Any German grocery store provides great salad seasoning, which, mixed with the right amount of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar makes a delightfully tangy dressing.

Swabian Potato Salad

Speaking of vinegar, spring is also that time of year when the Germans start to make potato salad, and our Easter feast was no exception. Potato salad in southern Germany has less mayo and more vinegar than in the north, which makes it a light, cool side on a warm day. Yes, it may look like a big bowl of scrambled eggs, but let me assure you, the flavor makes it one of the tastiest things on the menu.

Of course, a Resurrection feast needs the appropriate drink:

An afternoon thirst quencher

Perfect. You probably know that Paulaner Hefeweizen is available in major grocery and liquor stores in the U.S., and it’s one of the best German beers on the market. It’ll be on the pricey side, but if you want some authenticity at your next biergarten party, grab some Paulaner instead of some American Oktoberfest seasonal (which, I do admit, have their place). Hefeweizen is served in beautiful vase-like half-liter glasses. I could go into more detail (that’s for another blogpost), but mistrust anyone who serves Hefeweizen in your average pint glass.

Let’s not forget dessert. I struggled to include it after maybe overeating just the teensiest little bit, but I coudn’t resist the four varieties of cakes. Generally speaking, German cakes are a little less “cakey” than the American variety. In terms of consistency, if there is a scale with “cake” on one side, and “pie” on the other, most German cakes fall somewhere in the middle. They are not cake or filling heavy; they have  a lot of both. German cakes usually have less sugar, but make up for it in the fruit or chocolate area and some are made with enough liquor to knock out a water buffalo.

For example, egg nog is an Easter drink here in Central Europe, and my wife’s aunt bak ed a delectable egg nog cake. Yellow. Creamy. Egg Noggy. Goodness. The only thing that could match it would be some sort of chocolate bottomed caked soaked in cherry liquor, topped with fresh cherries, cream and cocoa: A Black Forest Cherry Torte. I apologize in advance for any hunger caused by the following pictures.

It's not Christmas, it's egg nog!

Black Forest Cherry Torte

Wait, did someone order a fresh strawberry cake?

Or what about Rhubarb? Yes, we had both. I had space on my plate for a piece of each.

Strawberry goodness

So, on Easter, we feasted. It was all delicious. It was a team effort; everyone contributed. Everyone, except… well… hey, at least I wrote about it afterwards!