Is das ein “Pie” auf Köln, Deutschland?

Ist das ein “Pie” mit Köln Dom? Wünderbar!

Ich habe Köln (Deutschland) besucht. Es war sehr gut! Für mein Mittagessen aß ich „Apfeltorte“ aus Merzenich. Es war Super!

Okay, so enough of the really poor level of German I vaguely remember from School lessons (and thanks to Google Translate for helping me!) What is important is that, despite calling it in the German an “Apfeltorte”, you can buy a pie in Germany! The research was conducted upon a recent trip to Cologne/Köln, in Western Germany. The Pierateer was helpfully assisted by his spy comrade to search out if in fact the pastry loving Germans were fans of the pie. Upon stumbling across a delightful lunchtime eatery in the centre of Cologne, just a stone’s throw from Cologne Cathedral (however I wouldn’t recommend throwing a stone at such a marvellous piece of architecture and world heritage site), the lads found to their delight that Merzenich did indeed sell pies! The pie in question, as seen above, was a sweet apple pie, served per slice but clearly being a sweet apple centre encased in pastry with a clear lid. As such, it passed the “is it a pie?” benchmark which can leave so much foreign produce outside the pie parameters.

The pie itself was a lovely, sweet apple pie which crumbled beautifully in the mouth when eaten. While not served with anything such as ice cream or custard, the simplicity of the pie was one of its strengths. Nothing needed to be added to the slice of pie, as it tasted delicious just as it was! The pie was certainly on the sweeter end of the spectrum, but this made it a very nice pie to end your lunch with. The beautifully buttery pastry was lovely and golden, crumbling in the mouth. The only downside to it was that it was quite hard to hold, as the slice of pie was almost too crumbly for its own good! This made taking a photo of the pie – and more importantly, eating the pie – in front of the Cathedral rather a challenge! The pie was delicious to eat and well packed with apple goodness – a sure fire way to get one of your five-a-day. The only other thing to warn you about is that the top of the pie is covered in white icing sugar, which on a blustery day like the one it was purchased on was always going to leave the eater covered in icing sugar themselves. A recommendation would be to wear white clothes, so that it doesn’t show up when you get covered in sugar! The pie will set you back at least 2.75 Euros, but for the taste sensation it is certainly worth the investment. Wünderbar!

Score: 5.7/7