Meat (lot’s of it), potatoes and veggies - that’s all there is to it.
In particular sausages come to mind and beer is also considered ‘food’ in Germany …
“[Boiled?] How else would you advocate cooking peas, carrots, potatoes? A few minutes in hot water leaves my veggies (…)”
For carrot-like vegetables,
Boiled is spoiled,
While steam is esteemed
Half an hour about
And tastier it will be 
EB
Adorable speakpigeon! 
I came across an ode To a Haggis by Robert Burns (where’s Sandman when you need him?):
Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ye tak your place,
Painch, trip, or thaim:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm
There is some debate on the relative merits of steaming and boiling.
The steaming crew would argue that it leaches fewer nutrients out of the veg so it retains more flavour and healthy stuff. (It’s true, steamed veg does taste good).
The boiling tribe counter that steaming takes longer, thus may destroy more vitamins, particularly vitamin C, and in addition, steaming also leaches nutrients from the veg (it’s true, look at the colour of the water after steaming).
I would suggest that if you boil, use plenty of water and get it to the boil before putting the veg in. This will ensure that they are cooked as quickly as possible, retaining flavour and nutrients.
Whichever method you use, use the boiling/steaming water as stock for soups or stews (of course you will need to add other stock ingredients as well).
My mother bought this super-expensive pan that would boil/steam your veg with just a couple of spoons of water. The veg tasted good when it was done right, but it was very easy to leave it a minute too long and burn it, ruining the flavour entirely.
I know very little about German and Eastern European cooking, but there are some things I really like.
I love sauerkraut, and provided that it’s made in the traditional way it has lots of healthy bacteria that are great for your digestion. I’m not sure about sauerkraut chocolate cake, though, although many people say it tastes great. Anyone tried it?
I also love some of the herbs and spices that are commonly used, such as juniper berries, fresh dill leaf, and dried dill seeds, cloves and paprika.
I’m not keen on rye bread but I like other kinds of German bread.
When I was staying in a cheap Berlin hotel, the breakfast buffet included fresh yoghurt, and big bowls of various fresh berries. Breakfast heaven!
[quote=“joesax”]
I also love some of the herbs and spices that are commonly used, such as juniper berries, fresh dill leaf, and dried dill seeds, cloves and paprika.
[/quote] herbs are fun!
so you’re not fond of caraway seeds. german breads, jewish ryes, pumpernickle, YUM! I bought some german country bread at Costco last week. A new kind of bread they sell there now. Pretty nice stuff.
YES! YUMMMMMMMM! They have big huge things of blueberries at costco now too. And blueberries are the cutest fruit of all. If you stop and look at one before shovelling them in your face. They have adorable little faces.
I forgot caraway seeds. I like them too, especially in bread.
Do Germans go much for garlic or onions?
One of my enduring memories of Spain is the smell of garlic and bleach. The Spanish xiaojies’ passion for garlic was only matched by their almost religious enthusiasm for cleaning everything, preferably with bleach and a wire scourer. A friend told me that she lived with a Spanish girl who scrubbed the stove top so hard that the enamel started flaking off.
Not to mention the serving of little boy “fags” to their lusty elders.
[quote=“fredericka bimmel”][quote=“blueface666”][quote=“fredericka bimmel”]I reckon ya’ll never got any hushpuppies in UK. Poor sods.
Btw, blueface, that recipe sits there on my fridge and I’ve yet to have the grease temptation to make them. Why don’ t you make me a batch? ;-)[/quote]
If you fry us up a mess of fish, you’re on. 
[/quote]
Can you even get catfish in Taiwan? I’ve never seen it here.[/quote]
Then you haven’t been looking very hard. You can usually find them in any decent wet market. Look for a big orange plastic bucket on the floor beside the fishmonger’s stall. It’ll be empty of water but will have several gross, wriggling catfish in there. They’re also readily available at night markets, cooked as soup served in little brass-coloured teapot things.
Although why anyone would eat the stuff out of choice is beyond me – I’m reminded of my dad’s recipe for pike, in which you season the fish carefully with butter and lemon, bind it tightly between two flat wooden boards, cook in a fish kettle for one hour, throw away the fish and eat the boards.
Blueface is quite right as to the origins of the stereotypical Brit diet, though. Although its a disgrace that it took until the last 20 or so years to get past Big Dunc’s HILARIOUS 70s dinner party menu and into something interesting (btw, you forgot to mention that for true culinary artistry, the cheese on toothpicks should be presented a la porcupine – sticking out of a half-grapefruit wrapped up in tinfoil).
I just came back from Britland and Germany and while German food can be a bit boring to my mind (apart, of course, from that wonderful breakfast institution that is weisswurst, sweet mustard, bretzel and hefebier – that’s one meal that they should DEFINITELY export! Mmmmm!), the food I had in UK was wonderful in its sheer variety.
And as for Floyd – he’s great. I have a copy of his Floyd on Fire and the stuff I pull off my barbeque will make your nipples hard.