Michelin Guides have been compiling lists and reviews of the best restaurants in the world for over a century.

In their latest series of European restaurant guides issued yesterday, restaurants in Germany beat ones in Italy. Yes, the schnitzel beat the lasagna as more German food places (9 in total) got the coveted 3-star Michelin rating than Italian ones (only 5). French food aced the ratings with 26 French places given the highly aspired for stars.

I know it's possible that these 9 restaurants could be a mix of Chinese/Japanese/German/Indian restaurants in Germany, but since we are talking about Germany, I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about typical German food.

Never having been to Germany, as far as I'm concerned German food is beef, potatoes, sausages and schnitzel. So to see how these items could beat anything that comes out of an Italian kitchen, I thought I'd enlighten myself on the subject. This is some of the interesting information I found:

• There are over 1500 types of German sausages, and the country boasts over 6000 types of bread!
• Germans also eat vegetables! The main vegetables in their diet are carrots, turnips, spinach, peas, beans and cabbage.
• Asparagus can be a made into a full meal.
• Potatoes are not included as vegetables.
• They do use herbs and spices: parsley, thyme, laurel, chives are common and the most popular spices are black pepper, juniper berries and caraway.

So the Michelin rating, and knowing that German food does go well beyond the schnitzel, it looks like Germany is strengthening its position as a European Gourmet nation.

[Via Sydney Morning Herald]

Filed under: Food and Drink, Europe, Germany