Press

The EDBL team goes German at Pompano’s famous Checkers Old Munchen restaurant. See what the teams eating and find out more about their “Das Boot Tour” and more!

If you can’t travel to Germany, you’re still in luck if you live in the Pompano Beach area. You are lucky enough to have Checkers Old Munchen German restaurant right here in your own back yard. It’s a taste of Germany with a Florida twist.
But if you are able to make the trip to Germany, travel expert Rick Steves has some food recommendations for you, ABC News reported.
Steves said Germans are now taking their food as seriously as their neighbors in France do.
He said that the wonderful food is a big part of why you should travel to Germany. He says the ingredients in German food are “wonderful,” especially if the chef is using local, seasonal crops.
Food in Germany is a good value compared to prices in other places in Europe, including France, Britain and Italy. It’s easy to eat a meal for $12 or less, he said, or you can eat at a Schnellimbiss, a small fast-food takeout stand, where you can get a bratwurst or other grilled sausage for about $3.
And although traditional cuisine is still very important, there are a lot of smaller, foodie places getting creative, Steves said.
He said that immigrants are adding their influence to German food. There are also a lot of people who are getting more adventurous in their food choices.
But Steves emphasized that traditional German dishes are still extremely popular.
There are hundreds of varieties of sausages, a longtime staple of the German diet. It is popular at both sit-down restaurants and takeout stands.
Also popular are meats on the bone, like pork knuckle or shoulder, as well as schnitzel, a breaded, fried meat cutlet.
Steves also says to be on the lookout for whatever local specialty is popular I the region you’re visiting, often influenced by whatever other country is nearby.
In Berlin, “German” food can actually include sushi, Peruvian, Cuban, Thai, Georgian, Indian, Argentinian and Vietnamese cuisine.
Germans are now taking their food as seriously as their neighbors in France and beyond.

The Christmas holidays mean scrumptious desserts, and Checkers Old Munchen German restaurant has many wonderful choices, like Homemade Apple Strudel, Black Forest Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Kelly’s Raspberry Sponge Cake and Kelly’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.
German Chocolate Cake is the dessert that probably comes to mind first when thinking about German desserts. The interesting thing, though, is that this pastry didn’t originate in Germany — it comes from the United States.
German Chocolate Cake actually got its name not from the country but from German’s Sweet Chocolate, a type of chocolate developed by Sam German for the Baker’s Chocolate Company (now a subsidiary of Kraft Foods) in the mid 1850s, Baking Bites reported.
Legend has it that a misprint in a 1957 newspaper recipe for a cake using the chocolate left off the apostrophe and s at the end of the name, and after that it was known as German Chocolate Cake. The recipe was developed by a Dallas, Texas woman and printed in the The Dallas Morning News. Sales of Baker’s Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73 percent after the recipe was widely distributed.
The chocolate has a higher sugar content than semisweet chocolate so it’s a little bit sweeter, but you can substitute semisweet chocolate for German chocolate in recipes and have pretty much the same result, per Baking Bites.
German chocolate cake (or German’s chocolate cake) is a layered chocolate cake with coconut–pecan frosting. The filling is a custard made with egg yolks and evaporated milk and includes coconuts and pecans as well. Sometimes, especially at the holidays, Maraschino cherries are added as a garnish.
June 11 is National German Chocolate Cake Day in America.
A small town in Germany had its own “chocolate day” last week when a technical glitch caused a ton of milk chocolate to flow out onto a street, The Guardian reported.
The chocolate spill came from the DreiMeister chocolate factory in Westönnen. The milk chocolate quickly hardened when it hit the cold pavement, and about 25 firefighters had to scrape the chocolate off the road with shovels then use hot water and torches to remove the rest.

If you want a taste of Germany right here in Pompano Beach, you head to Checkers Old Munchen German restaurant, the premiere location for German food.
But perhaps at some point in your life you’ll be able to take your dream trip to Germany and enjoy German food in its native country.
When you take a long trip, there are always details at home to consider. Who will water the plants? Who will take care of the dog? And is there someone to bring in your mail, or will you have it held at the post office?
In the United States, you can now get an email each day from the post office showing you what will be in your mail. But in Germany, the postal service is piloting a program that takes it a step further: the postal service will now open a customer’s mail, scan it and send it via email if the customer prefers it.
The digitization pilot program is run by Germany’s national post. It allows the postal service to open consumers’ mail and send it to them in a digital format anywhere in the world.
Customers who choose to use the “e-scan” waive their right to privacy in order to enjoy the convenience. A machine will open and scan letters and will also scan postcards, the Deutsche Post told CNN. Larger printed items like magazines and catalogs will not be scanned.
The promotion price until July to try the e-scan services will be 5 Euros a month, or about $5.74 Deutsche Post said. Similar private services available to individuals and small businesses cost almost twice as much.
But the service might allow someone who is on a longer trip the opportunity to stay in the loop as far as what kind of mail they are missing, in case something important shows up in their mailbox. And after all, it might be more private than having your nosy neighbor see what you’re getting while you’re off enjoying German food!

Michelle Bernstein and guests review Checkers Old Munchen in Pompano Beach.