German food is a regional cuisine with half a dozen distinct traditions that the national image of sausage and beer homogenises unfairly. The Bavarian tradition — Weißwurst (white veal sausage, eaten before noon with sweet mustard and pretzel), pork knuckle with sauerkraut, Obatzda (spiced Camembert spread), and Maßkrug wheat beer at a biergarten table — is the template. But Rhineland Sauerbraten (slow-marinated and braised beef with raisin sauce) from the west, the smoked ham and green sauce of Frankfurt, the Maultaschen (pasta pillows, the Swabian answer to the question 'what to do with leftover meat') of Baden-Württemberg, and the fish market breakfast of Hamburg (Fischbrötchen with herring and mustard at 7am on a Sunday) are five other versions. The bread culture — over 300 recognised bread types from dark pumpernickel to light milk rolls — is the aspect of German food that Germans miss most acutely in diaspora. It really hits differently.