Back in November 2009 on my old blog, I wrote about eating a doughnut in Berlin. At the time, I titled the post “Ich (ate) ein Berliner” because I didn’t know how to say “eat” in German. How times have changed … fast forward two years, and I can now write that whole sentence in German, which is the title of this post. Impressive, I know. 😉

However, as they say, the more things change, the more things remain the same.  Back in Bolzano, one interesting food phenomenon was the popularity of doughnuts before Lent. We were told it was a Germanic (not Italian) tradition, and sure enough, now that we’re in Tübingen, we’ve run into it again. In other words, it’s doughnut season here in Tübingen, as we head toward “Fat Tuesday” and the beginning of Lent.

BTW, “Fat Tuesday” is not so named because of all the doughnuts people eat around here in this period before Lent. At least I don’t think so. 🙂

Anyway, in Bolzano, they were referred to as Krapfen, which is a generic word for doughnuts in German.

However, there is a specific type of doughnut that appears to be the most popular to eat in this “season”, which is called a Berliner. Well, it’s called that unless you’re in Berlin, where it’s called a Pfannkuchen. Now, Pfannkuchen are really what they call pancakes or crepes everywhere else in Germany, including here in Tübingen.  The person at a bakery in Berlin helpfully supplied Chris with the word Berliner when he was trying to order one and wasn’t getting the Pfannkuchen word right, realizing he clearly wasn’t from around those parts. Why they call a doughnut a pancake in Berlin, and why everyone else in Germany calls it a Berliner is a question I can’t answer today.

But I digress.

A Berliner is a type of filled doughnut that resembles as North American jelly donut, although it is most often iced here, not covered in powdered or granulated sugar like it would be in North America. Here’s a photo of one we ate in Berlin in 2009:

"Berliner" jelly donut, Germany

As I said, it’s like a jelly doughnut. It can come filled with various jams, or with chocolate cream, or even with a cream that is flavored like the locally popular eggnog-like liquor, Eier Likor. There are many, many types to be found, as you can see in this photo I snapped the other day:

Doughnuts for sale, bakery, Tübingen

If you click to see that photo larger, you’ll see that on top of the counter there is a huge tray of Berliners. I don’t know whether they are real or fake, though – the sign on top of them says something like “only for decoration”. The ones in the case below that, though, are real.

I still haven’t found a great Berliner here in Tübingen, as I have as yet done only a little research into this most important topic. It took me 3 years to discover the best place in Bolzano to get this type of doughnut, so it may take me a while to figure it out here. That’s a big pile of doughnuts I need to work my way through, so hope I get some volunteers to taste test… But remember you need to get here soon if you’re willing to help … Lent begins the middle of February this year. We have our work cut out for us.