My husband recently travelled to Berlin Germany and had a private medieval dinner at Zitadelle  Castle.  What follows is an e-mail he sent to me about this unique dining experience.   Enjoy!

After crossing a wooden bridge, we entered Zitadellen Schaenke through massive wooden doors and were shown into the dining room where we were greeted by two women in period dress who helped us wash our hands.  One woman had a large copper basin filled with warm water and rose petals.  You held your hands over an empty bowl, and she poured rose water over your hands. Another woman held a large white cloth to dry your hands.  We entered the large candlelit room and were greeted by our host for the evening.  He gave us instructions and played music for us on a beautiful ancient version of a bagpipe, and a guitar.  We were given thick paper bibs to protect our shirts and use to wipe our hands on.

Our utensils included only a pewter plate, a knife, a ceramic cup and a crude metal ladle sort of thing (for the soup), and nothing more.  Tables were long solid wood, lit with large candles; at the base of the candles, were bunches of radishes freshly pulled from the ground and only washed off (still had all the greens).  A two-tiered plate held cut celery and carrot sticks and the top plate had a variety of very fatty meats.  One was a kielbasa-like sausage curled around a pickle.  Another was a cooked pig’s knuckle.  The last was a thick slab of a fatty piece of some sort of ham.  Lastly, there was a large round loaf of spicy sour dough bread, warm and freshly baked, on a pewter plate set over a small candle to keep it warm.

Once we sat, we were handed a two-foot-long hollow bull’s horn filled to the brim with fresh mead.  One person would take a gulp from the horn and then pass it to the person next to them.  It was delicious and potent.  We had no forks or spoons, so we tore hunks of bread off with our hands.  There was a container of what looked like butter to spread on the bread.  However, it turned out to be very delicious duck fat.  We used our knives to hack of hunks of the meats to eat with our hands.  I’m sure my doctor would have cringed at the fat content, but it was delicious!  The radishes were nice to clear your palate.  There was also a rough cup full of a mixture of very large grained salt and pepper.

Next was Farmhand’s Soup — a wild animal broth.  Not sure what animal though.  It was very basic, but incredibly tasty.  It was carried to the table in large black metal pots, and then you scooped your serving into your “ladle” and drank it out of there.  In addition to broth and meat there was potato, onion, and turnip.  Meanwhile, waitresses brought tall mugs of beer (light or dark) or wine to drink. 

After the soup course they brought a large boneless leg of lamb that was stuffed with a sausage.  The lamb was very tender, perfectly roasted over a fire, and covered in peppercorns and such.  We just cut off hunks with our knives. They also brought delicious fire baked potatoes and dumped them right on the table.  Just grab one with your hands and eat it like an apple!

After the main course, servers brought a huge ladle filled with fruity schnapps, which was passed around the table for everyone to take a swig from.  Like the horn, there was no way to set it down (rounded bottom), so it was passed until empty.

Dessert was a shallow dish filled with baked pears and raisins.  Delicious!  We actually got forks to eat this.  After dessert, came the cheese course, which included three large chunks of aged mountain cheeses to conclude our trip back to the medieval era.  A memorable evening that I wish we could have shared together, but I hope that through reading this, you feel at least a part of what it was like to have been there.