I got to go to Cologne for a long weekend, courtesy of Essence to celebrate their Beauty Blogger Secrets Range. I won tickets through Mary from Srike A Pose who is the creator for the Essence Shapes and Shadows Palette. I’ll talk a little more about the party in another post, for now I thought I’d talk about all of the food that we saw and ate.
On the first night we stayed in the Art’otel and whilst waiting for the party we went to explore around the area. There was a food market on at the time and it was fab! We saw gherkins, bratwurst, smoked fish, amazing floral cheese and loads more! 
It was a struggle to choose what we wanted to eat but eventually went for pulled chicken with coleslaw and crispy potatoes with a side of sweet potato fries. It was just what we needed after an early morning start and was so delicious! We washed it down with some Fanta Klassik which I really liked, it was a little less orangey and more tart than the standard version as it has Apple extract and whey in it which meant it went nicer with food as it wasn’t as sweet. Also it was free so couldn’t complain!
Out evening meals consisted of a BBQ at the party and going for steak at a place called Loren & Fitch. It was next to our second hotel, the Motel One, Mediapark and it’s had the most beautiful balcony looking out onto the courtyard of the hotel. We figured it would be the easiest place to go and got a reservation on the terrace for that evening.
The bread and toast garlic was amazing and my starter of prawns could not be faulted, they were the biggest prawns I’ve ever eaten and tasted amazing. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. The steaks which were meant to be blue-rare and rare all came out the best part of very medium. Considering the menu had pages dedicated to the different types of steak and the different ways of cooking them it was quite a surprise. When we complained and waited another 25 minutes they still came out the lighter end of medium and no where near rare but we gave in by then! Mine was well done (I’d asked for medium/well) and was strip steak served with artichokes and Parmesan. It was beautiful, if again a bit too well done. It was such a shame as the ambience, the wine and the company was all excellent so we just made the most of it all. 
We didn’t snack a lot as we also had some amazing breakfasts at both hotels, but some of our travel partners went along to chocolate museum where I’m told the waffles are a must! It was nice to explore and find more traditional types of German food as well as some classic dishes at the market to see and taste, hopefully I haven’t whet your appetite too much!