BonVivant

SV calf's ribs. Sauce is a "master sauce/stock" (but I use tamari). With steamed aubergines. The ribs are stunningly rich so a little goes a long way. Lasted 3 different meals. Then something quite different the next day.

Comté is in the tortilla

Crabs from Madagascar, chilli paste is my own. The basic paste contains no fresh turmeric but for this meal I added some. SV duck breast. Cherry compote with red wine and balsamic vinegar.

Leftover crabs became lunch, using the same chilli paste, just more seasoning and more chilli paste added to make the broth. Various shoots and soft tofu with seaweed. Roasted aubergines, filled with yogurt. Some chilli-paprika butter for both the aubergines and dumplings. Comté frittata Half of the ingredients are mixed in the yogurt. The rest is on top. I still dream about this crispy octopus pancake I had in Korea. Possibly the most expensive octopus pancake... I got 2 live ones, for eating raw and for this. You can try recreating your seafood crepe... just get the ingredients and give it a go. (Incredible seafood market in Busan, Korea.) A seaweed stall, also in Busan, Korea. (stars = seaweed)

Fresh goat's cheese and chilled creamy pasta. And chanterelles Kimchi brined SV calf's ribs. Chilli-paprika butter. (Mahjong tile from 1 of the 2 sets I brought back from Chengdu many years ago.) Got this idea from my trip to Okinawa last year. Okinawans often simply steam or stir-fry the vegetables and top them with bonito flakes. They also add a drop or 2 of sesame oil and soya sauce. Tofu gets the same treatment. I love the simplicity of some Japanese dishes. This is home-style food in Okinawa as mentioned above:

Fresh goat's cheese with pistachio, stone fruits and honey. The cheese Seaweed and mussel omelette. Plus chilled tomato soup and melon.

Good for the skin. There are chunks of crunchy nectarine in the quark. Name of this dish in German is "housewife-style Matjes". My favourite way to eat ma(a)tjes. I passed your message on to Oinker...

Got mangrove crabs imported from Madagascar and Vietnam. These are Vietnamese. Only the sauces are different.

"Currywurst" without the curry (I don't eat curries or any curry mixes). Made the sauce using Mutti tomatoes. Used white balsamic vinegar to make white "caviar". For the other ones I also added liquid smoke. The sausages are from Thuringia.

Mussel season has started here. Blue corn tortillas Another dinner Noodles, prawn roes, shaved bonito.

Beetroot-cured salmon belly Herring and scrambled eggs on bread Very soft cheese

Have been eating mostly chilled food again. Tomato soup. Ground almond added for body. Chilled beetroot soup. That's not butter on my bread, that's triple-cream Brillat-Savarin. Cold quark for the soup. The same cheese Leftover beetroot puree with pasta. Had to make the food earlier so I could chill it. Fresh tomatoes with pasta. Pureed half the tomatoes for sauce. (Photo above was taken somewhere here 5 weeks ago.)

Chilled food. Grated tomatoes, olive oil, minced garlic. A week without herring is quite unthinkable.

Wolfed down the last kilo of asparagus today. Bits on the sides are salmon roe and crab claw meat. Potatoes with quark. Beautiful creature...

Spring was worthless, now hellish temperatures. Beetroots in the style of "beef tartare". Curls are grated salt-cured yolk, on top is confit-style SV yolk. Raw asparagus. Prawn roe on avocado

"In the grip of a heat wave" food. Chilled creamy parsnip soup Smoked herring salad Poached chicken salad

Asparagus from a farm near my house (15mins by bicycle). Season ended yesterday but I got enough for another week (3 kilos). Sourdough, butter and crispy shallots. The rest of the salmon...

Almost Lyon. This is the one I got (Les Halles de Lyon). Chorizo and squid

Wednesday marked the start of "New season herrings". I ate 2 standing next to the market fish stall and took 3 home. Austrian Tyrolean Speck and melon. Home-cured salmon

Thai curries with shellfish. This one has coconut cream for the partner. Squid and cockles. Tempeh shawarma

It's good to come home to the freezer.

Back in food hell now. Last dinners on the island, the same food I often make at home (but without German Mettwurst, which are the.best.). Herring with green beans and Speck. That's literally the name of this meal. Smoked Mettwurst 2 kinds of Mettwurst and Speck. You must come to Germany! Start with Bremm. It will blow your mind. Try a bunch at one tasting place, walk to another and do it all over again. I am particularly fond of Riesling with predominant mineral characteristics, the slate rich soil in this area of the Mosel ("middle Mosel") gives the wine those slatey mineral notes. Brut Riesling (made in the style of Champagne) is hard to find even outside of Riesling producing villages and surrounding areas so forget about finding it elsewhere. This is Bremm, one of the prettiest villages along to Mosel river. It has Europe's steepest vineyards and produces some of the most stunning Riesling. I got a few to take home. (One of far left is actually from Netherlands but bottled in Germany)

Simple lunches. Regional ham and farmer-style brawn. Last half of the exquisite smoked eel. Honey with sea buckthorn. Ham is sea air-dried from an island nearby. Cheese is from south of Germany. Northern cheeses from around here are mostly like the Dutch stuff which I scoff at. "Kutterbrot" is a typical north German light meal. "Kutter" is a type of small fishing boat. Every day after many hours of walking round the island I had some pastry and beer. No "Kaffee und kuchen" for me. They ran out of poppy seed coils/snails so I got "French Kuchen". Cinnamon ruins everything. (Beer is oatmeal stout) If you put poppy seeds in something I dislike, such as cakes and pastry, I'd probably eat it. I had to scrape off the crumbly bits on top. 3 different kinds of poppy seed filled cakes. Beer is imperial tiramisu stout I brought from home.

Dinners on a a traffic-free island in the North Sea. Brought smoked eel and halibut from the town I visited previously. Smoked halibut with potatoes and kale. Actually, the food I've been eating this week is pretty much like what I usually eat at home, which is nice. The sparkling Riesling also came with me from the mainland. The partner scoffs at eels but loves the halibut. This is only half the eel. The locals eat a whole one each, using their hands bringing the eel to their faces. This type of rye bread is traditionally eaten alongside smoked eels. A brewery just across the water on the mainland brews this beer for the island.

It's been so hot I've lost all interest in cooking and eating. I try to do as little (and simple) cooking as possible in my almost worthless "kitchen". Whilst being here I try to use typical local/north German ingredients, even the beers I drink. Last dinner in Bad Zwischenahn: I am now on a small, traffic-free island in the North Sea. Yesterday everything was closed, I brought Mettwurst (this type requires cooking) and bread from the previous town for dinner. The last kilo of asparagus came with me from home. Every time I drink a beer from this brewery I tell myself I'm going there one day. Well, yesterday I worked out how to get there. Not that easy and straightforward but Rügen alone will be worth the trip.