Austria may have its Eidelweiss, but Frankfurt has its Holunderbluten!

From the beginning, Frankfurt has been both a commercial and political center of Germany.  I read that at a 14th century cathedral downtown, over 30 kings had been crowned there up until the mid-1800s.   Frankfurt is actually smaller than Salt Lake City, having about 660,000 residents.  We were told that during the day, the population increases dramatically with almost half that many people driving in to work from the outside! Since the Germans are very flexible with their working hours--putting in eight hours any time of the day--we've been told there is no late afternoon rush hour due to such staggered work schedules.

Actually, there are many "downtowns" in Frankfurt. There are numerous business centers as well as historical/tourist spots.  One Saturday afternoon Elder G and I visited one of each.  First we rode the local U-Bahn trolley downtown to a very nice shopping district.  There were quite a few high-end stores, none of which tempted me into spending my money; however, it was nice to browse in a few of them.  (Birkenstocks, by the way, are about half the price here in Germany!)  In the middle of this particular shopping area a Farmers Market is held every Saturday during the summer months.



 The many covered booths were selling mostly food items--fresh vegetables,

a variety of fresh meats and cheeses, and pastries,

and bratwurst sandwiches.  The sandwiches looked rather strange as the bratwurst was 12" long

 and yet the small buns were probably less than 6" long.

All the bratwurst vendors seemed to be selling the same uniquely presented sandwich, so it must be an acceptable thing to have the filling be twice the size of the bun!  (I wish I'd have taken a picture of the funny-looking "floppy sandwich", but I got distracted by my next discovery.)

So now, onto the purpose of this post and my new-found Farmers Market favorite:  HOLUNDERBLUTEN!!!

The most unique food item of all was Holunderbluten--an EDIBLE BOUQUET of 

ELDERBERRY BLOSSOMS, no less, 

DIPPED IN BATTER AND DEEP-FRIED!!!

It looked just like those "drizzled scones" you would see at a fair except for the number of flower stems proceeding out of the top!  Cinnamon-sugar was offered as a topping for this delectable treat!  

I just HAD to try this--regardless of what it might taste like--because it was so surprisingly different!  Luckily, it was well worth the gamble!  It tasted just like any good old scone would have without the hidden surprise inside!  It truly was a fun experience to have tried and enjoyed a fried flower bouquet!  (Disclosure:  This was not the same opinion held by Elder G, however.  He much preferred his weird, overhanging bratwurst sandwich!)

I had thought about my little town of Midway selling these treats at Swiss Days until I was told that the elderberry blossoms are in the spring, not the fall when Swiss Days is held.  Maybe we can find some other late-blooming blossoms to fry???

I've tried to include a video below.  But it keeps on playing and repeating itself.  I'm not sure if it will do the same once this post is published, but I'll give it a try.  If it presents a problem, I may have to delete it. But for now, I'll try to include a video of my new-found Farmers Market favorite.