In 19th-century Prussia and Hesse, the main meal was the Mittagessen, taken in the middle of the day. Among the bourgeoisie and wealthy bachelors like Schopenhauer, it was often eaten at the table d'hôte of a good restaurant: a soup or tangy starter, a Hauptgericht (main course) of meat with lacto-fermented vegetables or potatoes, all washed down with wine or cider, and finished with a sweet treat or coffee. Controlled abundance without ostentation was the ideal: you ate well, at length, and talked.

Frankfurt's green sauce—borage, chervil, chives, watercress, parsley, salad burnet, and sorrel—is the living emblem of the city where Schopenhauer spent his last twenty-eight years. Its tangy freshness, mounted on curd cheese and cream, defines all of Hessian cuisine: straightforward, herbal, without heavy fat.