To count the Michelin stars in Alsace is nearly as useless as to try to count the stars on the starry sky. It is nearly impossible to go for a mile and not find a cozy Winstubb (wine tavern), brasserie or restaurant that can offer you the finest food and local specialities.

Whereas the highly decorated restaurant generally experiment in combining fine cuisine, based on the rich Alsatian products like game, fish, meat and vegetables, with the local specialities, the more basic restaurants and Winstubbs give you the full range of the original Alsatian food. Ham and Strasbourg sausages are offered as the main ingredients in the assiette alsacienne, choucroute, the white cabbage, is served with a range of meat, sausages and ham. A must, is the coq au vin, chicken cooked in a Riesling gravy. The list goes on with Beackeoffe, a blend of meat from pork, beef and lamb, cooked in a pot for hours together with potatoes and carrots.

Flammekueche is the most astonishing speciality. Flatter than Pizza and baked in a very hot oven, best with a wood fire, for less than minute. The top is covered by a kind of sour-crème and originally bacon and onion. Several “modern” varieties, not less tasty, also include cheese and or mushrooms. Some sweet varieties with cinnamon, sugar and apples have been seen!

The Alsatian secret weapon to finish a rich meal (besides one of the extraordinary fruit brandies) is the spicy cheese varieties from the Vosges. The Munster, from the Munster valley, is an unpasteurised, soft fermented cheese that is often enjoyed with a little cumin. The Géromé, produced in the Vosges at the border to Lorraine is a four months stored cheese with a creamy interior. The sweet “terminators”, generally known as desserts, are at least as tasty as countless, and predominantly based on an Alsatian origin fruit, like plumbs, blueberries, peaches, apples and a number of others, which are cultivated here or can be found wild.

Do not miss a visit to Ferme Auberge (a mountain farm inn), which provides good and rich food. They are gathered under the Ferme Auberge society, which only accept members that produce most of what they offer on the farm itself. Always a good choice!

But this is not the end of the story, and this is just the traditional cuisine! you will also find many fine international dishes prepared across the region.