While I'd been to Amsterdam before (albeit briefly last year), Monday morning was the beginning of the trip wherein I was going to places and countries I'd not once ever been before, starting with Germany and its major northern city, Hamburg. To be honest, all I'd really known about Hamburg my entire life up to this point was that the Beatles played there a lot in their very early days (like, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe early).
However, Hamburg is indeed a major city! The second largest in all of Germany (behind Berlin) with a population at around a million and a half... also making it the largest city I'd end up visiting this entire trip. Yet despite that, I never quite got "major city" vibes from Hamburg at all. I don't mean that as a slight whatsoever, rather that it lacked a certain intensity I find almost every big city (at least in North America) has in bucket loads throughout their downtowns. There's certainly a lot of bustling around the train station, sure... which also must be mentioned is definitely the sketchiest part of town I encountered. Germany has very, very relaxed liquor laws (you can drink certain beers at 16!) but around the train station there are signs painted on the sidewalk expressing that alcohol cannot be consumed within this zone.
Naturally my hostel this time was about a block from said train station, which was incredibly handy for catching my next destination... not so great having to walk around there a lot at night. To be fair though, the "characters" as I'll call them, don't really bother you all that much. I just generally avoided eye contact (I'm a master at it, heh) and kept my hand on my phone in my pocket just in case.
There's an area just south of the train station, Speicherstadt, that looked neat to me... so once I'd settled in at the hostel I took a stroll out towards these unfamiliar roads right as the sun was saying its goodbyes.
I later learned this was some kind of hands-on museum of chocolate and I rather regret not being aware of this sooner. Would've been a fun tour to take had there been an extra day... instead I only took this picture at the time in service of a Simpsons reference I never made (hey, I was in the land of chocolate...)
The evening was coming on strong and I had my sights set on a particular burger spot not too far from the hostel. Obviously such a burger would require some local refreshment, no? I mean, we are talking about Germany here... this is a nation known to brew a brew or two. For whatever reason these two radlers (from a random convenience store) appealed to me most and neither were disappointments. The Gosser Radler in fact was absolutely stellar. Lemony smooth with just enough crackle of beer. If those ever came to Toronto I know what I'd be drinking after every ballgame...
My route searching for this burger place was far from optimal (side note: I like to use Google Maps as an actual reference map rather than rely exclusively upon the Directions feature when I'm out and about... when travelling alone the wrong twists and turns often lead you somewhere equally interesting). Nevertheless eventually I came across Europa Passage: a pretty large modern mall very close to the Jungfernstieg (auto-correct just loves these German names).
I surmised that this burger spot, named Hob's Hut of Burger, was somewhere inside Europa Passage. Problem was... what had seemed on first glance like a modest sized promenade from the outside was in fact five floors high and stretched length-wise at least a few city blocks. Not to mention at this point I had about thirty minutes before Hob's closed for the night. Oh no! However will I search all over and fi---yeah I did make it with maybe ten minutes to spare. Naturally it was on the fifth of those five floors and at the very end of one side... though finding the right escalators to even get up there might've been the biggest challenge.
First cheeseburger of the trip! Certainly not the last, lemme tell ya.
I was rather spoiled last year during my first ever trip to Europe when it came to burgers: Dublin's mini-chain Bunsen was truly excellent and London's Bleecker may very well be the greatest burger I've ever had anywhere (it is also ranked #1 in the world so this is far from hyperbole). Even the random late night one I tried in Amsterdam (Food Brothers) was very tasty, if a few notches beneath those other two. So no pressure, Hob's. Considered among the best Hamburg hamburgers? Let's see what you've got...
So yeah... this was indeed pretty, pretty.... pretty damn good. I'd forgotten places in Europe can cook their hamburgers only to medium and thus you get a very tender, juicy, drippy, incredibly flavourful slab of beef in here. Tremendous! In fact, to elaborate on what made this such an enjoyable burger, let me check my written notes...
"Hobs! Real real good"
Um... yeah! You heard it here first, folks. Truly this is the in-depth level of analysis you all keep coming back for.
Honestly though it really is that sensationally cooked beef flavour that makes this so good, with those other elements playing their supporting parts to elevate the overall experience. There's even ketchup on this thing (bleh) and not even that can detract from the deliciousness of the burger (though that sweetness does disrupt my enjoyment of their burger sauce somewhat).
In fact, I think I left about a third of this for later and ate it cold in the hostel a few hours later... and it was still pretty darn tasty. Some of the soft juicy texture magic had faded of course, but the beefy char was very much still there.
The fries were... okay. A very light crisp to them but very little else, you can hardly taste the potato or even the oil they were fried in. Hob's is definitely a spot you go for a burger and maybe consider some other side.
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There were some botanical gardens northwest I wanted to check out the next day (as well as the infamous Reeperbahn) and while I could've rented a bike from the hostel... for some reason I didn't! Oh well. Get those steps in, Canada Man.
If there's a European major city that isn't incredibly walkable, by which I mean you can walk in any direction from the city centre and within fifteen minutes you'll find something compelling enough to pull out that pocket camera... well on the off chance it actually exists I'll scratch that city off my list to visit.
Certainly a lovely park to wander through and not a whole lot of people either despite the very mild and pleasant afternoon. I'm positive the teens drinking bottles of rose wine just behind that gazebo agreed as well (three empty bottles among the three of them... and it was only three in the afternoon at this point).
None of that grape water for me, though. This is Germany! Gotta go for the beers. Ratsherrn is a brewery I'm sure I'd seen when doing my (admittedly minimal) research about Hamburg, however it wasn't a place I'd made a point of visiting at all until by chance I happened to be walking by it, saw the sign, realized what it was... I mean when the universe suggests a minor detour...
It also needs to be mentioned that if you're in the right places... German beer in Germany is really damn cheap! Ratshernn here is essentially a craft brewery and while they had a few specialty brews that were considerably pricier... the price for these three bottles totalled in at under five euros (I think it worked out to like 6.75 Canadian). Considering the prices I saw later on my trip (looking at you, Denmark)... this is absolutely crazy. And it was terrific beer! A crisp refreshing pilsner, a smooth lemon radler... and I haven't tried the Helles yet as I write this (gotta bring something back).
Looking back and knowing this was a quality brewery... I wish I could've carried like a dozen of these bottles around to last me the rest of the trip! Keeping them cold would've been a challenge, what with hostels not providing ice or fridges or really anything remotely resembling a kitchen... but I would've found a way, damn it.
Why somebody decided to paint "ZZ Top" on the side of an overpass in a non-central part of Hamburg? Your guess is as good as mine.
Back to some food reviewin'! For whatever reason this place BUNS Street Food stood out to me as a place I might like to try in Hamburg... I think it was the Japanese Egg Bread look of their sandwiches? That's some good stuff. Anyhow, I got myself their fried chicken sandwich with fries and a truffle mayo dip (there really are a lot of truffle mayo dip options all over Europe and I highly approve of this fact).
The fries have a lightly battered feel to them and I was instantly more pleased with these than what I'd gotten from Hob's (awesome burger aside). Plus this portion was massive! Just look at that top photo... this wasn't exactly a small sandwich either nor was I sitting on a child-sized bench. And that truffle mayo! Stellar. The perfect balance of rich, creamy, the viscosity just perfect for French fry dipping... I thought I could genuinely taste some of the mushroom in there. Probably the best sauce/dip of the entire trip.
The sandwich, while very good... didn't quite blow me away like that truffle dip did. The bread was indeed very soft, lightly sweet and fresh... but there was also so much of it compared to the amount of fried chicken that the off-kilter ratio just lessened the amount I could enjoy it.
There's also a lot going on inside of this thing: cheese, a mild sweet pepper-like mayo/sauce, lettuce and strangest of all... thinly sliced green apples! Wild. I'm not entirely sure if it worked with fried chicken or not... but all of these together made for a very odd eating experience. Certainly the quality was very high (those thinly sliced apples still had some crisp) but it was a lot of different varieties of subtly sweet up against a slab of fried chicken that was simply overmatched and undermanned to balance it all out.
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