I think that if your own kids are that young, and the visitor DOES ask if an ale or whatever is ok with a meal, that it wouldn’t be an awful thing. Then again, it’s not an awful thing NOT to have it either, so that one’s up to you, the point being that your little ones really won’t be affected by it. (Unless the 4 year old suddenly starts asking for Lowenbrau 
)
Maybe it’s the recent spate of cannibalism stories in the news that made me immediately think the response to “Feeding a German teenage boy?” is, well sure, but only if they are are both in to that sort of thing.
I don’t know if it was here, but I recall a thread on why there were no “German” fast food resteraunts. One reason given was that North American cooking more or less is German cooking.- fsirly bland, frankfurters, hamburgers, and such. I knew a German exchange student once and he ate the same things the rest of us did.
In every German city/town/village you will find an “imbiss” - a quick, snack food place - that sells the local, quick fix trappings for quick eats. In Berlin, the specialty is Currywurst - basically a sausage that is quickly dredged in flour, then grilled (or sometimes deep fried), put on a paper plate and then smothered with ketchup, topped by liberal sprinkles of curry powder and then red paprika spice. They slice it bite-sized and give you a teeny-tiny plastic fork and off you go. They also have “bouletten” - basically a mini-meatloaf in the form of a chubby burger…and in Berlin you can even ask for the ketchup/curry/paprika topping as well.
And of course, pomme frites (french fries) everywhere with a huge glop of mayo on top.
True - not many “chain” fast food German restaurants, but these imbisses are everywhere, practically on every corner, and a quick, cheap place to eat on the go.
But they do have McDonalds and Burger King and even Kentucky Fried Chicken places throughout Germany and the rest of Europe; quite pricey and with regional flair - you can order a beer at a German McDonalds and wine in French McDonalds. (At least you used to be able to do so - not sure if they still do…)
the point is that your 16 year old German exchange student will know very well what is on the menu at those American fast food chains, but might be surprised at how much cheaper it is on this side of the Atlantic and also be surprised that you can fill your own Coke (they don’t allow that there) or get all the ketchup you want (they are stingy in Germany and actually charge you extra for the packets).
If you don’t feed that young man fresh, hot, buttered, salted, corn-on-the-cob at least once you’ll be a traitor to the North American community.
Dmark, I think mdcastleman meant “there are no German fast food places in the US” as opposed to the ethnic fast food places we do have in the US.
I am joining the chorus of “feed him what you eat.” Half the fun of new cultures is new food.
There always the universal food of teenagers: PIZZA!!!
We sent the Colombian home with many packets of ramen. I grew up eating Sapporo Ichiban, and he’d never had it, and fell in love.
There will probably be corn at least once or twice- my four-year-old adores corn on the cob, and we visit the local farmer’s market weekly. It’ll be corn season when the German student is here.
Our family hosted a lot of German exchange students when I was in high school. One of my sisters and I both went over for a short exchange, and until we both graduated, we housed a lot of kids in the place of families that didn’t have the space but whose kids wanted to go.
Generally cooking normal American fare, which did include some mild Asian dishes, was not a problem. My mom doesn’t really cook spicy so we didn’t try that, but we were basically told in general to make what we normally make. If they balked, they were invited to make a sandwich or something like that, but this was generally rare with the boys we hosted. After all, it’s part of the experience – if you want to make corn on the cob, do! It’s something they’d never get at home. When I went, the differences in food leapt out to me as one of the most memorable parts of the experience. It’s polite to ask about some snacks or ‘stand by’ foods to have around in case the kid is hungry in between meals, and they may buy some things with their own money anyway, so they won’t starve just because they didn’t like one dinner.
I will say that there were a few things that delighted the Germans. Chocolate chips (at least at that time) were not well known in Germany and they almost always loved chocolate chip cookies and muffins. My mom would just buy the muffins from the grocery store bakery and I know at least a couple of the students ate them for breakfast daily for the entire stay. (Our house was a forage-for-yourself on weekdays for breakfast, so the exchange students fell in line with that.) Also, Oreos, for some reason. Pretty much every German would go home with a backpack full of chocolate chips and Oreos.
Living close to Germany and having spend many vacations there, the only food I’ve been surprised about there is popcorn with sugar instead of salt.
He’ll probably be used to slightly different kinds of bread that the white toast I’ve mostly seen in the US, assuming it’s the same stuff you’ll find in Canada.
I just came in to say I misread the thread title as “Feeling a German teenage boy?”
When I blinked and the first word resolved itself properly, I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.
So Tommy, do you ever wear lederhosen?
Do they even have proper sweet corn in Germany? If all they have is feed corn that is not tasty until it’s been pigified.
When I was in high school, my BF’s friend was dating a German exchange student. After the initial, “oh cool! Foreign exchange student!” wore off, I was horribly disappointed to find she was pretty much just like we American teenagers. Ate pizza and drank Pepsi with the rest of us, no discernable accent, and pretty much blended right in. I was quite disappointed at how non-exotic she was after I got to know her a bit. Now the Swedish exchange student at my high school was a smidge more exotic – at least she had an accent – but I didn’t know her well enough to know what she thought of the food.
And yes, my German grandmother thought corn was pig food and not for people.
The whole point of the exchange student experience is for the student to be immersed in another culture. So, cook what you’d normally cook on a daily basis. We did this with our exchange student from Xi’an, she developed quite a taste for spaghetti, BBQ and collard greens.
What does a teenage German boy devour?
Historically, France.
This answer actually on-point. Feed 'em American cultural chow. Microwave pizza rolls! Err…maybe something a bit less likely to kill him.
We are just finishing hosting a girl from Switzerland and some of the other host parents had kids from Germany. Generally, what everyone here said is true: feed him what you would feed your family. If he doesn’t like it, he’ll tell you. We were extremely surprised to find out that our little Swiss miss hated cheese. All kinds. On everything. The only exception was mozzarella on pizza and Gruyere. Every try making a grilled cheese sandwich with Gruyere? Gross.
Anyway, we asked her what she normally ate at home, what were her favorite meals, what she didn’t like, etc. She was very impressed at the variety and availability of fresh fruits in the States. She also discovered Skittles here and can’t get enough of them. She also went absolutely berserk for barbeque sauce. We are shipping a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays home with her.
I agree about the alcohol. While drinking in the home is common in most of Europe, our exchange program had a very strict “no alcohol” rule. The kid could drink in our house but if they were caught drinking anyplace else they were shipped home immediately. This was especially hard for the kids from Norway and Sweden who talked about drinking at the clubs at 16 and not coming home until 2 AM. So we let her have a little wine with dinner sometimes (we’re not big drinkers) but that was it.
As an experienced host you’ll have a blast. Kids are kids no matter where they come from. The only exception is teenage boys will eat food by the tons. Have lots of meat and potatoes and bread standing by. Let everyone take their servings at dinner and then let him eat out of the serving bowls. Keep your hands away from his face when he is eating or you might lose a finger. But above all, enjoy your time.