Settling into German food is one of the quiet joys of moving here, and one of the cheapest. The country's bread culture alone is worth the trip: walk into any bakery and find dozens of dense, hearty, wholegrain loaves unlike the soft white bread of elsewhere. Beyond bread, German staples are honest and affordable, and the discount supermarkets make eating well on a budget genuinely easy. The one thing newcomers worry about, finding the ingredients from home they miss, turns out to be largely solved by the country's many ethnic grocery stores. Knowing what to buy, what to cook, and where to find both German staples and international ingredients makes feeding yourself here cheap, healthy, and enjoyable from the first week.
This guide covers German food staples: the bread culture, what to stock and cook, cheap healthy eating, and where to find the international ingredients you miss. Eat well, eat cheap, from day one.
The bread culture (and what Germany is known for)
You cannot talk about German food without starting at the bread (Brot), because Germany has one of the world's richest bread cultures.
- Hundreds of varieties of bread, often dense, wholegrain, and hearty, very different from soft white bread
- Rolls (Brötchen) in many forms, a breakfast and snack staple
- Bakeries (Bäckerei) are everywhere and genuinely prized
Bread is central to German eating: it anchors breakfast, and the traditional Abendbrot ("evening bread") is a light supper of bread with cheeses, cold cuts, and toppings. So fresh bread and rolls are an everyday pleasure and a staple worth exploring, try the many wholegrain and seeded loaves, the rye breads, the pretzels (Brezel); there is far more than the white-bread newcomers expect.
Beyond bread, the foods Germany is known for:
- Sausages (Wurst) in many regional varieties
- Potatoes (a staple in countless forms)
- Cured meats and cheeses
- Pretzels (Brezel) and other baked goods
- Regional specialities that vary by area
German food is generally hearty and savoury, with bread and the bakery tradition at its heart. So your first food explorations should include the bakery (sample the breads and rolls) and the regional specialities wherever you are. The bread alone repays the curiosity, it is a genuine highlight of living here.
Eating cheaply and healthily
Good news for the budget-conscious: eating healthily in Germany is relatively cheap.
- German supermarkets, especially the discount chains, offer good-quality basics at low prices: fresh produce, dairy, bread, eggs
- So cooking healthy meals at home is affordable
- Eating well on a budget is very feasible by shopping the discounters and markets and cooking from staples
The key insight: cooking from staples beats eating out or convenience food by a wide margin on cost. The discount supermarkets (the famous German discounters) sell genuinely good-quality fresh food cheaply, so a diet of home-cooked meals from basic ingredients is both healthy and inexpensive. Newcomers who rely on eating out or ready meals spend far more; those who shop the discounters and cook eat well for little.
So the budget-and-health strategy is simple: shop the discount supermarkets (and markets for fresh produce), buy staples, and cook at home. This is how most Germans eat affordably, and it works just as well for newcomers. (How the supermarkets themselves work, the bagging, the speed at the till, the Pfand deposit on bottles, is covered in our supermarket guide, worth reading before your first big shop.) Note too that supermarkets close on Sundays, so stock your staples ahead.
What to stock and cook
For practical everyday eating, here are the German pantry staples worth keeping in:
- Bread and rolls (the foundation, for breakfast and Abendbrot)
- Potatoes (versatile and cheap)
- Pasta and rice (everyday carbohydrate bases)
- Eggs
- Dairy: milk, quark (a versatile fresh cheese worth discovering), cheese, butter
- Cured meats and sausages (if you eat them)
- Mustard, onions, and seasonal vegetables
- Muesli/oats for breakfast
- Plus the staples for whatever you usually cook
So a basic German shop, bread, potatoes, pasta/rice, eggs, dairy, seasonal veg, and your usual cooking staples, from a discount supermarket gives you cheap, flexible ingredients for everyday meals. Build from there with whatever cuisine you cook; these basics cover German-style eating and adapt to most kitchens.
A few staples worth trying as a newcomer: quark (great for breakfast, baking, and savoury dishes), the wholegrain breads, German mustards, and seasonal produce (German cooking leans seasonal, asparagus in spring, pumpkins in autumn, and markets reflect this). Eating with the seasons is both cheaper and tastier here.
So stock the basics, explore the distinctive staples (quark, the breads, seasonal veg), and you have an affordable, flexible everyday kitchen. The eating-out counterpart, restaurant culture and its norms, is covered separately in our eating-out guide for when you do dine out.
Finding the international food you miss
The worry every newcomer has, "will I be able to get the foods from home I love?", is largely solved in Germany, especially in cities.
Where to find international and ethnic ingredients:
- Specialist international and ethnic grocery stores: Turkish, Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and many others, common in cities and immigrant neighbourhoods
- International sections of larger supermarkets
- Online stores for harder-to-find items
So the ingredients you miss are usually findable, particularly in cities with diverse populations. The ethnic grocers are the key resource: a Turkish supermarket for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern staples, Asian markets for East and South Asian ingredients, African and other specialist stores, these stock the spices, sauces, produce, and pantry items that mainstream German supermarkets may lack. And they often offer better prices and selection for those items than the international aisle of a regular supermarket.
So if you cannot find an ingredient at a standard German supermarket, seek out the relevant ethnic grocery store, especially in a city. Between these specialist shops, supermarket international sections, and online ordering, most newcomers can recreate the foods of home with surprisingly little difficulty. (Note smaller ethnic grocers and markets often prefer cash, so carry some.)
The bottom line: German food rewards exploration and is kind to the budget. Start with the famous bread culture (the bakeries and their hearty loaves are a genuine pleasure), eat cheaply and healthily by shopping the discount supermarkets and markets and cooking from staples, stock the basic German pantry (bread, potatoes, pasta/rice, eggs, dairy, quark, seasonal veg), and find the international ingredients you miss in the country's many ethnic grocery stores. Feeding yourself here is affordable, healthy, and more enjoyable than newcomers expect, the bread alone is worth the move.
What to do this week
- Explore the bread culture: visit a bakery (Bäckerei) and try the hearty wholegrain loaves and rolls, and stock the German pantry basics (bread, potatoes, pasta/rice, eggs, dairy, quark, seasonal veg).
- Eat cheaply and healthily by shopping the discount supermarkets and markets and cooking from staples, far cheaper than eating out or convenience food (and stock ahead since shops close Sundays).
- For the international ingredients you miss, seek out ethnic grocery stores (Turkish, Asian, and others), common in cities and often cheaper, plus supermarket international sections and online stores.
