BonVivant

I have made these dumplings so many times I don't measure anything any more. Check out this recipe with step-by-step photos and give it a go. Though, I must mention you need to work the dough fast and not too long or it'll get very sticky. Shock them in cold water right after boiling. So good fried in butter until golden brown.

Pickled beetroot, cheesy pasta. Loosely based on the original mac and cheese known as "Älplermagronen" (Alpine herder's macaroni with cheese) in Alpine countries. Lamb shank. Dear German food, it's not you, it's them. Now go and live your damn best life. Well, go on! ^^ This is a super thick piece of calf's liver, btw. And home-made potato dumplings ("Schupfnudeln").

Long weekend lunches. (Not for me. I'm no sweetie.) Another lunch. Leftovers became sandwiches. Now my long weekend is complete with these.

Austrian dumplings filled with Tyrolean Speck. Crisp-fried chopped Tyrolean Speck inside, on top and wrapped around the dumplings (the last is not fried).

Tyrolrean Speck (/shpegk /) blows prosciutto out of the water. Incomparable. People who make proscuitto must own many salt mines. I don't know the brand, there are a few. But first, check if anyone even imports this Speck to the US. Here's a nice photo I found of different types of Tyrolean Speck. I also have a salt-fat tooth.

One of those things I'd rather someone else do it, such as deep-frying. But I'd rather make the sauce myself. Mix quark, capers, parsley, garlic, grated horseradish, lemon juice. Fish without chips, the way it is sold here. You just get the chips from another stall or a snack bar. Brotzeit/Brettljause (German and Austrian respectively) is not considered a main meal. So filling I could eat it for lunch or dinner.

Is it from Vietnam? Then it's probably this.

Austria meets Korea. A type of potato dumplings (Schupfnudeln). Everything was fried in duck fat.

I've got pancakes and duck but there's nothing Peking about them. Delazed sauce has port, tamari, Bovril, ketcap manis and liquid smoke. Added smoked garlic separately later. Chilean pinot noir 2013 grand reserva made everything brilliant.

Germany: herring with green beans and Speck. That's actually the name of what's on my plate. Blood sausage. Austria: torn pancakes. Kumquat compote. I love Austrian "potato cuisine". They have endless ideas for (leftover) potatoes. What it is: mashed potatoes, egg yolk(s), flour etc are mixed to form a dough. Roll out long sticks and slice then pan fry. Served with Sauerkraut. This is Pinzgau style. Salzburg has this thing, too, in another shape. Salzburg style of the same thing. Also served with Sauerkraut. Hungarian duck fat, I use it a lot. And of course (smelly) cheese, always.

A common fish in north-west Europe. It was slashed deeply, filled with dill, lemon slices and oven roasted. I prefer brill but it's less and less common only recently. Price of turbot is around 12-15 euros/kg. Brill used to be 7 euros/kg but now costs the same as turbot! A typical meal in Germany's far west, all-the-way-to-the-border west. Most simple: mashed potatoes, apple sauce and blood sausage. With copious amounts of either Altbier or Kölsch alongside depending on where you eat it. Mine was a Bock beer. What do you see when you look up and down? That's the name of this food. Pretty sure Duvel recognises it at once.

"My" Wiener Schnitzel. I got air pockets and I got golden brown! It's actually 2 pieces. Check out this short clip (1.5min long) to learn how to make a proper Wiener Schnitzel. This one is made at 1 of Vienna's Schnitzel specialists. Watch to learn the proper technique, even if you don't under stand German. Basically... - Pound the meat paper thin. (My long rolling pin works find) - Remove all sinew, membrane, fat etc. - Do not press the breading. - Do not leave the breaded meat sitting around anywhere. Cook in hot oil straight away. - Shake the pan a little to encourage forming of air pockets. Also spoon some fat all over the meat. - Snip the edges a few times to discourage buckling (meat curls up when comes into contact with hot oil). It's like reading about something that doesn't interest me so much but I still read it anyway because there's nothing I like more than learning (and reading).

Not something I make more than once or twice a year. Don't want to eat any meat today but I did try just a little bit to test. The partner doesn't have a problem eating meat 3 days in a row, however. Air pockets! Golden brown!

Yes, I make my own kimchis and pickles because a, they are stupid easy to make and b, I live in food hell. I prefer perilla leaves but they are hard to get hold of. The pork rind is actually quite soft as it's not roasted. Thank you. Market in Busan.

Thank you, @gfweb. Acquaintances say "if I ate like you I'd be fat, but you are not, at all. How on earth?!". I give them 3 words: wine, fish and solitude. They don't see all the hours in the gym and pool I put in weekly. But really, it depends on other factors as well. I don't give myself a hard time. Eat what and when I want but it's important that I enjoy it (and be sensible).

Sometimes I don't eat meat for 2 weeks, sometimes I eat it 2 days in a row. Spicy radish (but not kimchi). Typically served with Korean pork belly (Bossam). SV pork belly with doenjang (Korean fermented soya bean paste). SV duck breast. Kumquat compote and chard.

A few lunches from recent weekends. Crisp-fried Tyrolean Speck and apple compote alongside. Something I almost never do. Saw the recipe in an Austrian food mag I was reading and well, I had all the ingredients in the cupboards. Viennese style hash with blood sausage and apples. There's no such thing as a perfect country but Austria ticks many boxes (for me). But nothing is better than this. The BEST food in.the.world!

The simplest things make me happy: barley beetroot "risotto" (without the constant stirring) and a very nice chunk of cheese. You would be happy, too, if you had such nice cheese. Just look how happy the mouse is.

Fast and easy. The potatoes, which were being boiled, took longer to be done than the rest of the meal. Kumquat slices and more roe on top. About to lose all natural light right here so that's another reason to work fast. The fish is in season Jan through April. At 30 euros per kilo there's a need for proper identification.

Beetroot marinated and breaded tempeh surrounded by seasoned fried eggs on all sides. Quinoa, minced cauliflower and red cabbage kimchi. (I don't want/like rice.) Gochujang and sesame oil for dipping. That's 1 of my 3 knifves bought at the fish market in Busan, Korea.

Yes sir, I can bulgogi but I need a certain song, I can bulgogi, bulgogi bulgogi all night long.

I drink gravy quite knowingly! That looks familiar... I have made something similar before. (PS: - insert Muriel Heslop's accent - you are now CanCookCanPhotograph. Yes, you are.)

Korean new year soups and noodles again because my usual camera stopped working last week whilst in the middle of making photos of this very same meal. Have been using my travel camera which is also new. Beef shin meat in a marrow bone. (I made the broth with a thick disc of beef shin and marrow bone.) The soups and accompanying bits. A kind of stew with fermented soya bean paste. Had it for the first time in Korea last month and liked it straight away. Makes Japanese miso soup look so dainty and refined. Doenjang Jjigae is quite something else. This is my version using only what I had laying around. Noodles with chard and Hokkaido squash. Ribs with fermented soya bean paste were leftover from one dinner. Quinoa topped with red cabbage kimchi, maatjes herring, pickled daikon, tamari-sesame oil tuna, samphire. Oysters, salmon roe and confit yolk in the middle. Buckwheat, confit yolks, salmon roe, pickled daikon, bean shoot kimchi, maatjes herring, tuna (same as above).

Thanks, Captain and Scubadoo. In Namibia and S.Africa they call it "spinach" (not perpetual spinach). What do they call spinach then, I wonder. Also nice in cheesy dumplings. Don't forget there are more ways one can use the ribs.