The German's, meanwhile, have "dirndl."

Dirndl, as you will see if you visit the Brauhaus (meaning brewery) restaurant on the second floor of the Hotel Sofitel, is a puffy-sleeved, A-line, calf-length skirt plus pinafore affair that creates a dowdy, "hausfrau" (German housewife) look.

Before I start offending the hausfraus among you, I am half German on my mother's side. I spent many holidays in the land of sauerkraut and wiener schnitzel when I was growing up, and when my brothers and I were little, my mum's otherwise perfect dress sense occasionally lapsed, and we would have to wear lederhosen (leather shorts.)

So I think you'll agree I have a right to criticize German traditional dress.

But while the aesthetics of the uniforms leave much to be desired, the food in Brauhaus, especially on a cold winter's evening, is beautiful.

I had been hankering after a German meal - potatoes, sausage and home-brewed beer - for ages.

Noodles are nice and all, but there's something about good, wholesome - comfortingly fattening - German food.

So when I walked into the Brauhaus restaurant I knew exactly what I needed: wiener schnitzel.

"I'd like the veal, the schnitzel, please," I told the waitress.

"It's pork sausage," she said.

A 35 yuan ($4.21) soup of the day - hot goulash soup with dark bread and creamy, white butter - more than made up for the absence of real wiener. And the pork wiener, at least, was big. I also had a nice, cool, 25 yuan ($3.01) glass of beer from the bar which houses two huge decorative beer vats.

From my window seat, I could look down on people skitting past outside on rain drenched Nanjing Road East, and enjoy the wonderful crowds of colour from the neon lights, as though the scene were set for an old Chinese gangster movie.

For main course I had trout grilled in butter with toasted almond flakes. Even at 80 yuan ($9.64) and with a required 20 minute wait - it was still well worth it. The fish, tender, white and cooked to perfection, was really enough for two people. Except, however, that the dish, described as "trout with potatoes" on the menu, came with only three quarters of a potato which seemed a little stingy. Good continental cuisine, especially French, does usually require a separate side order of vegetables, it's true.

But with German cuisine, bigger is definitely better.

I have a vivid memory from a childhood visit to Germany of a vast advertising hoarding in Dusseldorf which struck a chord with me. The word "Grosser" was splashed across the image of a gargantuan German hotdog. It was much later on that I discovered "gross" is in fact German for big and has none of the English connotation of "revolting." As a child, German cuisine was fairly foreign to me. I remember thinking it was very stodgy and there was usually too much of it on the plate. I have since learnt to apprec

iate its warm, filling tastes and I now agree with that bold jingle: the more, the better.

So, more on the potatoes please, Brauhaus Sofitel, but maybe less on the dirndl.

Business hours: 11:00am-1:30am Sunday to Thursday and 11:00am-2:30am Friday and Saturday

Place: 505 Nanjing Road E.

Tel: 5831-5888 ext 4281