Those “some people” have either never been to Germany or, if they had been, they had traveled with eyes closed. Or they have looked for boring cuisine and selected the country’s most boring restaurants.
First, Germany has a diverse landscape, with sea coasts, plains, rivers, lakes, mild mountains and steep mountains. So, already geography provides a diverse cuisine, with fish and seafood, freshwater fish, beef, pork, chicken, lamb and lots and lots of venison (roe deer, red deer, fallow deer, wild boar, hare, pheasant, partridge…).
Second, Germany is located in the centre of Europe, with nine neighbouring countries. So, there are many cross-border influences.
Third, Germans travel a lot. And the bring holiday cuisine home.
Fourth, Germany has a lot of immigrants. Many of them have opened eateries in Germany.
As a result, we have an extreme variety of food: traditional German food from various regions, Dutch food, French food, Swiss and Austrian food, Czech food, Polish food, Danish food, Italian food, Greek food, Turkish food, Spanish food, Arabian food, African food, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian food and more. In every village you find ethnic eateries. In a city, you find cuisine from several continents.
These influences have been integrated in home cooking, of course. Every grocery store has ingredients for Italian, Polish, Turkish, Asian, Mexican, Russian cuisine. Many German families cook pasta with ragù bolognese, chili con carne, Thai curry, Croatian cevapcici, Spanish paella, French flammkuchen or other “exotic” dishes. They may not always be authentic and a mix of German and ethnic cooking traditions, but they add to culinary diversity.
According to a survey, here a few of the most popular dishes which are eaten in Germany (home cooked):
