Food and drink of Luxembourg

Luxembourg cuisine has been influenced by the cuisine of nearby France and Germany for many years. More recently, it has been inspired by the cuisine of its many Italian and Portuguese immigrants. Luxembourgers usually adopt the best from each culture.

Among the national favourites are some of the best pastries you're ever likely to eat; Luxembourg cheese (delicious); trout, crayfish, and pike from local rivers; Ardennes ham smoked in saltpeter; hare, wild boar, and other game (during the hunting season); and lovely small plum tarts called quetsch (in Sept). Other tasty treats include the national dish of smoked neck of pork with broad beans (judd mat gaardebounen); a friture of fried small river fish such as bream, chub, gudgeon, roach, and rudd; calves' liver dumplings (quenelles) with sauerkraut and boiled potatoes; black pudding (treipen) and sausages with mashed potatoes and horseradish; and a green-bean soup (bouneschlupp). French cuisine also features prominently on restaurant menus, and German and Belgian influences are felt as well.

French wines are the most commonly drunk, and many of the fine beers of Belgium and Holland are also available here. Luxembourg itself is a wine producer, and its white and sparkling wines, produced along the north bank of the Moselle, are very tasty. Winemaking along the Moselle has a history that dates back to the Romans. Look for Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Rivaner, Elbling, Gewurztraminer, and Crémant de Luxembourg, and for the National Mark, which certifies that they are true Luxembourg wines.

In 1993, it was reported that Luxembourg had the highest worldwide per capita consumption of alcohol--the equivalent of about three beers a day for every man, woman, and child.

In Luxembourg spirits are cheaper than elsewhere in Europe. You'll also come across home-produced eau de vie, distilled from various fruits and around fifty percent alcohol by volume.