What is fed in a German hospital

Remember my suffering from hospital food in Russia? It was so tasteless that I had to order from restaurants. And after all someone defended this food, assuring that it is "home" and "diet"!

Well, what about the Germans? Let's show what really is homemade and dietary food, which is fed in a Berlin clinic, where I restored my hand after a fracture.

I continue to talk about my treatment in Germany. I spent two weeks in January at the Medical Park Berlin Humboldtmühle, restoring my arm after a complex fracture and surgery. Here is a paradox - the Germans were able to turn even a dull hospital kitchen into a feast of the stomach!

Three times a day I went down from the room to the ground floor to eat in the Mendelssohn restaurant. That would not be just a "dining room"! But in Germany they like to give everything a name or to call in someone's honor. So, in a hospital built on the site of the ancient mill of Alexander von Humboldt, the pool is named after Queen Louise, and the dining room is the Mendelssohn restaurant. In summer, when the weather is nice, tables are laid outside, and dining in the fresh air at Cafe Fountain is even more pleasant. Such orders are arranged, and it is curious.

Everything is like in the best houses: tables are covered with tablecloths, napkins and appliances are laid out according to etiquette. Salt, pepper and sugar substitute on each table. Nothing special, in any restaurant "free" will be the same serving. But why is this surprising in the hospital? Perhaps because I just flew in from Russia. In “my” Moscow hospital, they did not even give ordinary napkins.

On the day of hospitalization, they issued a menu two weeks in advance and offered to choose the main dishes for each day from three types of food: meat, fish or vegetarian. Yes, they have a menu in Russian! (And also in German, of course, in English and Turkish). The clinic is treating not only local residents, but also foreigners.

At the breakfast buffet, as in a hotel. The choice is a little monotonous, two types of yogurt, cottage cheese and fruit salads in two weeks are a little tired. But you can always take the supplement.

But the slices with meat and cheese were different each time, always at least 2-3 types of each product. On weekends, they covered it “festively”, this photo has the largest selection. I really liked the German "brawn" - such jelly in the cut, very tasty thing, have not tried before.

Muesli, cereals, dried fruits. Breakfasts were just like in classy European hotels, only an omelet station and smoked salmon were missing! And they don’t give nuts, instead of them seeds. Still, this is a hospital, and nutrition should be dietary. How does this fit with the sausage in the previous photo? It's just that in Germany it is made from meat :)

A delicious and healthy breakfast looks like this!

I don’t even want to remember what they give in Moscow hospitals, but you need to show it for contrast. And no choice!

Every day I came to the dining-restaurant with a phone or camera. I hoped that today they would stop pretending to be served real hospital food! Nasty in appearance and fresh in taste, sticky, overcooked, unappetizing! But the cooks continued to cook deliciously, as if trying for themselves! Chicken leg with ratatouille, green noodles with tuna, stewed mushrooms with boiled potatoes, pork schnitzel and potato salad, meatballs, veal medallions and risotto! Where is buckwheat, watery soup and ax porridge?

You also need to pour the soup yourself, at the same time there is a salad bar where patients can take fresh vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, lettuce.

For dessert, cakes or a variety of mousses were given.

Separately, you can buy "premium" cakes, cheesecakes and strudel.

And for especially hungry patients, on every table there was a blue booklet menu, where already for the money you can order all kinds of dishes from snacks and buters to beer and stronger alcohol. In the evenings and on weekends, I often saw entire families eating up cakes or chatting for beer - this is how visiting patients in Germany look and this is normal :) But don’t wear oranges in the room and sit on the edge of the bed.

Take breakfast yourself, bring lunch hot, dinner will wait on the table. With all the “touchiness” of German cuisine, an evening meal was the easiest. They say that in families families often have dinner with sandwiches (in our country this is often the opposite of the most hearty food, as there is no time to eat especially during the day).

As you can see, they are fed here not with lobsters and oysters, but with ordinary food familiar to every German. At the same time, the food looks beautiful and tastes good, and not something boiled, as was the case in the Moscow hospital.

In Russia.

I’m already waiting for comments like “Well, this is a private clinic” - look, I’ve collected a collage of photos of food in other German hospitals from the Internet, you see, it’s about the same thing, well, maybe the dishes are simpler and the plastic trays.