The Döner

Since I touched on eating habits in the last post, I figured I'd use this post to highlight my favorite fare here in Cologne, the döner. The döner is a wonderfully delicious contraption of homemade bread, chicken or lamb, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, onion, carrots, and specialty sauce (pictured). Words can't describe the taste and pleasure it brings to my life. I visit my favorite döner shop, the Durener Döner at least three times a week.

I've had döner before in France. It was a staple of my diet during my solo travels through Paris and Normandy. Basically because of the language barrier, and the ease in which to order a döner. I wasn't impressed with it then, and merely looked at it as something that occupied space in my stomach. That is of course until I came to Germany, particularly Cologne, and sampled what they had to offer.

One thing you must get over is the manner in which the meat is prepared. It is set on to a metal rod, which turns at a slow pace in front of a heating unit. Kind of like a vertical rotisserie. Check out some pictures on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner. It's not the most appetizing looking thing in the world, and watching them shave and slice off the meat is a little disgusting. The taste more then makes up for it though.

The döner is funny because it is the European's way of eating fast food, without the guilt of eating fast food. Hands down, the number of döner shops in Cologne outnumber the total amount of McDonalds, Burger Kings, Subways, and KFCs combined (at least it feels that way). Since each döner shop is individually owned and operated, it doesn't have that stigma of falling under a chain of fast food joints. Therefore, it is ok to eat there multiple times within a week. Right? I hope so.

Another interesting phenomenon about döner shops is that they all seem to be operated by the large Turkish community that has immigrated to Germany. Therefore, you can order various Turkish fares including falafel and Turkish pizzas. I go straight for the döner though. Why pass on something so good?

Speaking of the large Turkish population, a large amount of German born Colonians seem a bit "annoyed" by the number of Turks that have moved here. That's funny considering Germans, Colonians in particular, have a very open and liberal viewpoint of things. The country is socially conscious, but the boisterous Turks seem to be touching on a slight nerve.

That point considered, it should be interesting to see how both sides react to this Wednesday's Euro Cup 2008 semifinal between the two countries. Last week, Deutschland beat up on Portugal, and Turkey slipped by Croatia to set up the match. The streets of Cologne were in a kind word "jubilant" after both victories, so I'm curious to see how one side will react when the other is celebrating in their face.

We are not sure where we are going to watch the match yet. We watched the Portugal match at the Kölnarena (pictured), which is a little smaller then the Xcel Center. Every time Germany scored, I got an elbow to the head, elbow to the side, beer down the back, heel to the shin, you name it. The people here go absolutely nuts over this, which is the exact reason I'm curious to see how this week shakes down.