Cheers! Enjoy your meal in #urbanana
The hunger for travel and the thirst for experience have brought you to #urbanana. So now you would not only like to see Düsseldorf, Cologne and the Ruhr Area, but also taste them? Well then – welcome to the stew of the west. What is bringing the luscious stew pit to boil are traditional ingredients from the region, the best of decades of immigration, intrepid experiments and the good, old stuff - newly seasoned.
15 x protected: #urbanana eats special
You would like to have a little bit of everything? You got it! The list of #urbanana-originals is long and ranges from Westphalian ham-on-the-bone and the liquid gold from Dortmund (Dortmunder Beer) and Cologne (Kölsch) up to Düsseldorfer Mostert (Düsseldorf mustard), whose spiciness is going to tickle your nose. 15 specialties from North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in total enjoy the official protection by the European Union. This means: They are being produced only here and served authentically, that is: NRW-style, throughout the world.
Kölsch, Pils and Alt: #urbanana is liquid
Long and slim is the so-called “Stange“ (Stick), in which the Kölsch beer is being served almost ceaselessly in the hearty brewpubs throughout the city of Cologne. The glass for Düsseldorf’s typical dark Alt beer is rather short and wide, whereas #urbanana-natives, prefer their Pilsner beer from a tulip-shaped glass. Not to mention the popular “Wegbier“ (beer-on-the-go) directly from the bottle – enjoyed on the way from the living room to the club or on a bench on a tepid summer’s night – which has a lot of fans in Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr Area likewise. And when bought in the evening or at night, then certainly at the Kiosk, Büdchen or Trinkhalle – the nostalgic minimarket has a lot of names and offers a range of products that make every gas station-shop shiver. On the occasion of the annual “Tag der Trinkhallen“ (Kiosk-Day), the Ruhr Area renders homage to the very specific microcosm called “Kiosk“. Concerts ranging from schlager music to techno, guided cycling tours featuring the most beautiful kiosks around and a lot of candy make this day a worthy excursion.
Best of: #urbanana amalgamates
Although the mining-era came to an end in 2018, it still lives on, on the plates and in the glasses of #urbanana. Waves of immigration, also due to the mining business, have brought a lot of delicacies from Italy, Poland, Japan, Turkey, and former Yugoslavia to NRW from the 20th century until today. You could get hold of tropical foods and a proud range of pasta already in the 50s. No wonder, that the best street food and star-awarded cuisines have evolved that diversly: In Cologne and in the Ruhr Area, feasts take the form of djuvec-rice and cevapcici. Lamb en brochette and pide, saltimbocca, Sicilian arancini, and a proper espresso are easily ordered in the metropolitan region in the heart of NRW.
In Düsseldorf’s Little Tokyo around Immermannstreet you find Nagaya – the only Japanese restaurant in Germany awarded with a star by the guide Michelin. If you are looking for a more down-to-earth option, you will find plenty of sushi and soup in the Immermann-area. Düsseldorf’s Japanese community comprises more than 6,000 members and is, therefore, the largest in Germany. A neat neighborship of food-cultures can also be found at the Carlsplatz amidst the old town of Düsseldorf. As a market and open-air-restaurant, it is a popular spot to meet, eat and shop throughout the week.
Cologne is proud to host “Laden Ein”, a pop-up-restaurant following the concept of restaurant sharing. The whole kitchen crew and along with it – of course - the menu changes every two weeks. Thus, giving gastronomers, hobby-chefs, food-bloggers or street-food-vendors on one side, and hungry guests on the other the opportunity to witness the most surprising culinary experiments.
Look: #urbanana eats pretty
#urbanana is full of spectacular places to eat at: The former headquarters of steal-tycoon Thyssen – that is the elegant Dreischeibenhaus in Düsseldorf and the Unesco World Heritage site Zeche Zollverein – a former coking plant in Essen, a water tower built in Cologne in 1868, just to name a few. Let alone the castles and fortresses in #urbanana, that have either been transformed into lordly hotels and star-awarded restaurants as castle Hugenpoet in Essen and castle Bensberg close to Cologne or into cozy, wild gardens with a charming hippielike feeling at castle Türnich in Kerpen.
Museums throughout #urbanana are surely worth visiting for their exhibitions, but don’t miss your chance to have a coffee amidst the meadow landscape at Museum Insel Hombroich (Neuss), a prime dinner at Museum Küppersmühle in the former industrial harbour of the city of Duisburg or a sunny breakfast next to the river Rhine, on the KIT-terrace in Düsseldorf. Enjoying art, food and drinks at the same time in #urbanana will surely leave a mark in your culinary biography. Admittedly, you sometimes don’t even have to leave your hotel in order to enjoy a good meal or drink in a great atmosphere. Rooftop-bars and restaurants, not only open to hotel guests but also every other hungry person stepping by, offer great views of the triple metropolis #urbanana: Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr Area, improving your cocktail taste even more so.
#urbanana – Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr Area.
More info on #urbanana: dein-nrw.de/urbanana
Social media (Twitter, facebook, Instagram): @goingurbanana
More info on NRWs culinary delights: nrw-tourism.com/culinary