[_ph_]

Yes, cafeteria food can be increadibly bad to the point where I wonder whether the cooks are especially trained to achieve this. With the same costs as in ingredients, one should be able to make much better food. Also, they often overuse cheap oil, so that can be difficult to stomach.

If you get well cooked German food, a lot is outright excellent, with the style strongly varying across Germany. Northern and southern German cuisine is very different. I personally prefer the southern style. Also, there is quite a bit variation between south-east (Bavarian) and south-west German cooking. In a sense there is a food continuum between France and Austria, with different parts of southern Germany on different points of that continuum.

Likewise, if you go to eastern France, like the Alsace, the French food blends with German cuisine.