u/notSeanP

My friends and I took a trip to Germany to visit a friend who lives there. One of the food items on my list was, without a doubt, mett, as it's quite hard to find outside of the country, from what I know.

For those of you who aren't aware, mett is raw ground pork, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, optionally garnished with onions. I've been told German butchers have high standards due to the dangers of consuming raw pork, so I wasn't too concerned in that regard.

It was a quiet morning, and we walked into the butcher shop. My lord, the Germans are lucky to have such a selection a wall away in their neighborhood. We would try a number of their selections later, but for breakfast, mett was on the menu.

From one bite I knew I wanted another one. It was deliciously fatty in the way pork tends to be, and the simple seasoning highlighted the taste of the raw meat. The texture was great as well, with the fatty spread on top of crispy bread giving a great crunch on the initial bite, followed by satisfying chews. I'd eat mett a few more times on the trip; maybe it's because it's served cold, but it really is quite a refreshing and delicious savory breakfast, as someone who prefers savory over sweet.

For context, I consume raw meats more often than the average American and have no qualms to it, having consumed beef, fish, poultry, and horse meats from all ranges of raw to (regrettably) overcooked. If you're squeamish about even, say, tartare, then I would suggest avoiding this dish.

Location:

Fleischerei & Feinkost Schulze

Kesselsdorfer Str. 38, 01159 Dresden, Germany

Echizen crab refers to male snow crabs caught only in specific ports of Fukui prefecture. It's widely regarded as the top of the line snow crab in all of Japan, and it comes with a hefty price tag, to boot (~10,000 yen for the set meal in the picture). The yellow tag you can just barely see peeking out from underneath the crab's body in the first picture denotes its authenticity.

In terms of flavor, it's up there with one of the best crabs I've ever had. That said, I'm no crab connoisseur, so don't stone me. Its flesh was very buttery, and its guts (also called mustard in some regions of the US) had an incredible rich flavor, stronger than any other crab I'd had. I would say its flesh is comparable to the west coast rock crabs, but less sweet and more buttery.

The restaurant/rest stop was called Kaneichi, and was one of the many stops my friends and I made along the way during our road trip up the western coast of Japan.

71-335-1 Kuriya, Echizen, Nyu District, Fukui 916-0422, Japan