In Munich, it's never too early for a breakfast beer with sausage and pretzels

+ World In Munich, it's never too early for a breakfast beer with sausage and pretzels August 9, 20268:48 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday By Esme Nicholson In Munich, it's never too early for a breakfast beer with sausage and pretzels Listen &middot; 4:31 4:31 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5900954/nx-s1-9880806" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Bavarians traditionally wash down a breakfast of boiled veal sausage, sweet mustard and a giant pretzel with beer — all before the church bells ring at midday. Sponsor Message Transcript AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: It's breakfast time, and all this summer, we're taking you around the world to see what's on the table at this time of the morning. Today is correspondent Esme Nicholson in the German city of Munich, sampling a Bavarian breakfast that's meat- and carb-heavy and not for the faint of heart.

+ ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: (Speaking German). DEMETRIOS KYRIAKIDES: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: Bavarians don't wait long to drink their first beer of the day. KYRIAKIDES: Cheers. NICHOLSON: After all, it's known here as flussiges brot, or liquid bread, and it's part of their daily dose. It's not even 10 o'clock. It's 9:50. That gentleman over there has already finished his beer. And what is it? It's a liter? I believe this is a Bavarian tradition. KYRIAKIDES: Welcome to Bavaria. NICHOLSON: (Speaking German). That's Demetrios Kyriakides (ph). Like most of the patrons at this establishment, which makes beer and is famous for its breakfasts, he's wearing lederhosen, his Sunday Bavarian best. Kyriakides spent a year in his free time researching the best Bavarian breakfast joints in Munich, and this is one of his favorites. He says the weiss beer, or wheat beer, helps wash down a breakfast of boiled veal sausages, sweet mustard and a giant pretzel. KYRIAKIDES: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: (Speaking German). The sausages come in a big tureen. Kyriakides lifts the lid to reveal four pale, cylindrical weisswurst, as they're known, floating in warm water. KYRIAKIDES: I'll try not to drop it. I'll give you one at a time so they can stay warm in there. NICHOLSON: Kyriakides, who prefers to be called Jimmy (ph), is as Bavarian as the breakfast. Even if, when speaking English, he sounds like he should be tucking into bacon and eggs. He's both British and German but says he prefers weisswurst to an English breakfast. KYRIAKIDES: There's two ways of eating them. One is called zuzeln, where you literally, like, cut the head off and then just suck the meat out. NICHOLSON: Sounds a bit disgusting. KYRIAKIDES: It's not my cup of tea. I prefer to be old-fashioned and use a knife and fork. NICHOLSON: We both opt for cutlery. It's simple fare, but removing the sausage skin, which you're not supposed to eat, is not a simple affair. It's kind of a surgical procedure. So you're cutting the sausage in half length ways. KYRIAKIDES: Yeah. But not cutting the skin at the bottom. NICHOLSON: OK. KYRIAKIDES: And then, essentially, it peels off quite easily. NICHOLSON: (Speaking German). KYRIAKIDES: (Speaking German). (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) NICHOLSON: But Kyriakides says this is not just about food. It's about Bavarian gemutlichkeit, which describes conviviality, often accompanied by a bit of brass oom-pah-pah (ph) for good measure. But as the Germans say (speaking German), or this is now about the sausage, which means this is serious, something master butcher Andreas Gassner (ph) agrees with. Based in the city's slaughterhouse district, known as the belly of Munich, Gassner uses his grandfather's weisswurst recipe. ANDREAS GASSNER: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: He says a good weisswurst is made from veal and pork fat, which he says, like butter and a cake, defines the texture. Then it's seasoned with salt, pepper, mace a little bit of lemon zest and fresh parsley. And there's certainly an appetite for them. GASSNER: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: Gassner makes about 1,200 sausages a day, but ramps up production for Oktoberfest, when they deliver 18,000 weisswurst for breakfast in the beer tents on the first weekend alone. GASSNER: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: As I try to sample a Gassner weisswurst, the boiled white sausage slides around the plate, evading my fork. When I finally get hold of it, it's much lighter in taste than you'd expect from such a fat sausage. And that's the veal. Gassner also prefers to eat his Bavarian breakfast with a knife and fork, but says, sometimes you just have to suck it up. GASSNER: (Speaking German). NICHOLSON: He snaps the sausage in half and deftly extracts the contents. GASSNER: Mm. Mm. NICHOLSON: He says the trick is to try it without mustard first to get the unadulterated, full flavor profile of the sausage. He advises giving it a good sniff, too. (SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELLS) NICHOLSON: Traditionally, a Bavarian breakfast is eaten before the church bells strike midday, a sign that all good things must come to an end, except for sausages because, as the German saying goes, (speaking German) - everything has an end, apart from the sausage, which has two. For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Munich. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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