Dark red goo, a few strange grains in it and a sauce that was much too thin and flavored with vanilla – this is how “red fruit jelly” presented itself in the refrigerated counter of the canteen in my first semester at the University of Erfurt.

Most of the plate desserts there didn't look particularly convincing, but this stuff, which reminded me of kids' goo, topped it all.

I walked on quickly.

I didn't think too much about it though.

After all, canteens are known for their unconventional food creations.

A few months later I learned that this "red fruit jelly" is a political issue and a real GDR classic.

Instead of boiled berries, it consists of fruit juice and starch, berries were hard to come by back then.

The grits also exist in bright green, with a woodruff flavor and are then – unsurprisingly – called “green grits”.

A good friend who, unlike me, grew up in the East, told me that she tastes her childhood every time she eats this grits.

The missing berries didn't bother them.

I thought it was nostalgic transfiguration of the East, but I pulled myself together and tried the stuff.

It doesn't taste bad, kinda like jelly, but it wasn't exactly an awakening experience either.

In principle, however, it is not appropriate to make too many jokes about the food in East German canteens.

While in almost all of the statistics that I have read and quoted for this column, the East performs worse, things look very different with the university canteens.

According to a ranking by the portal MeineUni.de, four of the ten best canteens are from eastern Germany, even though there are significantly fewer universities there.

Canteen food in East Germany is therefore above average.

Reason enough to take a closer look at what is served there.

Currywurst, schnitzel, pasta counter

The first question is: is there typically East German food in the canteens in East Germany?

Not really at first glance.

In my first few years at university, the most common things I saw were currywurst, schnitzel, the ever-popular pasta bar, a salad bar, and about one and a half more or less sensible meatless dishes (no, I don't think soy meatballs are a good substitute for meatballs).

The fact that the vegetarian main course at the University of Erfurt was available for an unbeatable 1.75 euros at the time made up for some really questionable culinary combinations.

At some point, as my colleague Leon Igel recently described, the desire for healthy food arrived in the canteen.

A daily wok plate with fragrant rice (I still wonder what that is) ended up on offer.

But then it cost more than three euros and was therefore largely ignored by me and my friends.

So far, so average.

At second glance you can find them, the Eastern classics.

At my first university there was always a choice of soup or stew – solyanka was particularly common.

The soup comes from Russian or Ukrainian cuisine and consists of tomatoes, cabbage and lots of sausage.

And that brings me to the second question: do the dishes from the East taste good?

For me personally, solyanka is usually too hearty, but there are worse dishes on a cold winter day.