When I travel to foreign countries, supermarkets are high on my list of places to visit. Call me weird, but I think they are interesting and full of wonderful new discoveries!
So, while bf and his mother were running errands, I took a stroll through the northern German supermarket chain, CITTI Markt, in the city of Lübeck.
When it comes to food, Germans take several items very seriously.
Beer. Bread. Sausage.
But, I realized on this venture that though sausages are their mainstay, it also translates to deli meats.
For example, in San Francisco, I do the bulk of my grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. I think combined, they have a decent deli selection. In Marbella, the Spanish definitely take their deli meats more seriously (ham!) and I think their selection at the butcher is pretty impressive….until now.
Let’s take a tour of CITTI’s sausage/deli section, shall we? Follow me this way…oh, and…vegetarians, you’ve been warned.
We’ll begin with an entire aisle of canned sausages…
Patriotism…for sausages, ja!
Moving along…
I’m getting hungry…are you?
Should we take a break? Maybe go to the fridge and make a sandwich? What I would give to have this selection right now…
By now I was drawing some strange stares at the market. I’m assuming it was because, a: I had a delirious grin and look of unabashed excitement on my face, and b: I had my camera clicking away like a fanatic paparazzi…at sausages.
I mean, seriously…are these Germans truly unaware that this is type of selection is…not normal!?!?
Are you still with me?
Big sausages, little sausages, long sausages, curly sausages…
Spicy sausages, tiny sausages, white sausages, dark sausages…
The end is near…
And we appropriately end on the extra large sausages…
Phew!
Honestly, I left out a couple of shots for fear of boring you. Can you believe this? It’s a wonder to me that Germans can even survive outside of their country!
a conscious appetite 
I always like to go to supermarkets in other countries because these are the places where the “foreigness” really stands out. What a great idea to do a photo essay on the topic. It would be great if one could do it a grocery stores around the world. Great post.
Thank you! In essence you see what is common locally. I’m so glad I’m not alone, most people think I’m strange when I ask to go to their supermarkets and pharmacies. 🙂
Good grief. All I could think of are those nitrates and preservatives. Not surprisingly Germans do not rate highly on the scale of nations with high rates of longevity.
So true, but impressive choices nonetheless! Thank you for stopping by!
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Mind boggling…
It was, I’m still reeling from the variety. I’m so glad you’re enjoying my posts, thank you for your comments!
Wow amazing photos and incredible selection …awesome post!
You would love it there!
that’s an amazing insight into German food culture!
The variety was truly astounding. I’m so glad you enjoyed my post, thank you!
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Thanks for stopping by!
WOW…I could definitely live on that alone, oh along with that basket of breads from your bf’s darling mother.
Right?? I wish you could’ve been there with me. But then we would have looked like two crazy people gawking at sausages, rather than just me. 🙂
Holy Smokes! (no pun intended). Austin would go buck-wild in this “funky meats” market. Great post!
Thanks!! Luv seeing pretty little Kylen!
I can spend hours in grocery stores. The less we understand, the more fun the experience becomes.
Me too and pretty much anything food related can become an experience for me! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
How do you survive with our skimpy selection? It took CITTI to make me truly understand the importance of sausages to you. 🙂
Thank you for this post! It makes me hungry and oh how much I miss Citti Markt. They have such an amazing selection and great quality products. It amazes me that no matter what time a day you go there everything always is perfectly displayed like someone took a ruler to it. Great shots! Yum.