Final Fest in Frankfurt

The final glorious Weihnachtsmarkt was in Frankfurt - sort of a full circle moment for me. I was finally able to visit the place that started my German Christmas market dreams. The wonderful thing about this one, however, is that since my sister-in-law grew up in Frankfurt and had been coming to this festival her entire life, she was a stellar tour guide.


We basically ate and drank our way around the fest, and it was glorious. Dany took us to this fantastic meat vendor - and I don't narrow the description down because they sold so many different kinds of delicious, grilled confections that it would be difficult to characterize them. They cooked all these sausages and steaks (pork, beef, etc) and ribs on a giant saucer grill. It was about 5 feet in diameter and was suspended from the ceiling of their hut, swinging gently around and around. It was a beauty. If we can figure out how to post the video I took we will. Sausages for dinner were a must, and I was remarkably impressed with my nephew Timothy (who is 3 years old), who ate as much as I did. He was a little smarter than I am, though, (a frightening thought) since he waited until the sausage cooled down (mostly by his dad blowing on it and cutting it for him - such good service) while I just burned my mouth by devouring it immediately.


As at other fests, tasting the gluehwein was something I had been looking forward to - and again, Dany was our education guide. She introduced us to the different types of hot, spiced wine available. The standard/foundational/regular-no-frills hot mulled wine is gluehwein - red wine heated in a pot spiced with cinnamon, cloves, citrus fruit, vanilla and sugar or honey. (In some locations, you can purchase bottles that are ready made and you just pour the prepared liquid into a microwave safe cup, heat and serve. I, for one, do not like the presentation of this method and believe that it cannot taste as good, although D has told me from the vin chaud (hot wine, as they call it in French speaking countries) that we had in Brugge this way tasted very good.) However, you can have gluehwein with shots of liqueur in it, like amaretto for example, or with rum which is called Feuerzangenbowle. This word literally means flaming fire tongs punch. This is one that I had been wanting to try since German Club in college. The red wine is prepared as above, but then a giant sugar cube is soaked in rum and then set afire over the mixture, melting and caramelizing the sugar. Yummy. My favorite, however, was the Mon Ami, which was the name for the gluehwein that was made with cherry wine instead of red/grape wine. It was WAY good. The whipped cream and cinnamon, as shown above, only added to the glorious experience. It was good we ate first - although they served the gluehwein in smallish cups, after 3-4 cups one is feeling warm and friendly.


We tromped around and sampled the sugar encrusted almonds and the giant dumplings smothered in vanilla sauce and poppy seeds (another item that was served in a ceramic bowl - it really does help make it taste better) and enjoyed the atmosphere. I was grateful that the weather cooperated and the crowds weren't too awful. My brother had mentioned that crowds could get to be a mess, and that he was pleasantly surprised that there was a reasonable number of people, but not the regular crush. We were going on the last day of the fest, so the fear was high that the crowds would appear.


What a wonderful day. With tummys full of goodies, we started for home just as the crowds started showing up. I have to say that I had The Night Before Christmas running through my head. I felt like a kid who had got to live in the dream with sugar plums. A special day with special people.