In the state I live in here in Germany, students have two weeks of fall break in the second half of October. I went on a road trip with a friend to Bavaria, in the southern part of the country. I was eager to try some regional dishes, since the Bavarians have a strong local food culture. While I was there, I tried Schweinshaxe, or what we might call “ham hock” or “pork knuckle.” I had seen it featured in a video about traditional Oktoberfest dishes, and was glad to see it on a menu so I could try it for myself.
While I was in the town of Mittenwald, just north of the Austrian border, I tried traditional Bavarian Schweinshaxe. I had hoped to try it because I don’t cook much meat for myself at home, and I was in the mood for a specialty of the area that would warm me up after a long cold day outside hiking and exploring. Was I in luck! The large cut of pork meat wrapped around a big bone was served with a potato dumpling, but not the kind of dumpling you’re probably familiar with. Here, many types of bread- and potato-based foods are called “dumplings,” and they can be sweet or savory. A lot of them are more similar to the “dumpling” in chicken and dumplings than a Chinese dumpling.
