Duvel

Today a visit to Speyer and its spectacular cathedral … Followed by Tapas … Extra octopus for the little one … Some pleasant wine (disregard the stain) … And a little something for the cook … 😊

A truly nasty late German autumn day at around 4 oC, light drizzle and wind. And to top it off a soccer tournament for the little one (starting at 9.00h) … It was not the best day for my parents-in-law either, as the clothes they brought did not support watching 7yo play soccer for an extended time under these climatic conditions. After returning home, copious amounts of hot beverages and the prospect of a high calory dinner brought everyone back to life. So … Raclette! Cheeses Meat Bread … For me raw cured ham, potatoes and Raclette cheese works best, but I think we tried all the permutations. The same wine from yesterday (as per popular demand) … And a digestif to help breaking down the cheese … Felt rather warm & comfy after that 🤗

For loaves (at least the “simple” ones I prepare regularly) I bake in a preheated dutch oven in the -well - oven without added water.

Do not splash cold water onto a hot oven door made out of glass. Depending on the glass quality the thermal shock can lead to cracks. This is not an issue with steam, as it is already hot, thus not leading to thermal differences on the materials.

Simple dinner: Speckkuchen, served with a Weissburgunder from the neighboring village …

It has been a while … a veritable business dinner. At our companies restaurant, and conveniently available as a bilingual dinner: Tuna & veal tail Thai-inspired soup with some quail Steak Dessert Digestif - Talisker 25 yo … and a taxi home 😊

It really did not stop raining. I had reserved a table in a nice restaurant with local cuisine that I really wanted to go, so I dragged everyone (except my MIL) out to walk over … Little one and me shared an Eisbein (cured and boiled pork shank, with potatoes and mashed yellow peas) … Me with a Berliner Kindl, little one with his newly aquired favourite KiBa (or Kirsch-Banane, a mixture of cherry and banana juice …) My wife opted for the Schnitzel with a fried egg (and couldn’t wait, obviously) … And FIL went for the wild boar stew, served with a fantastic red cabbage and homemade potato dunplings … A Berliner Kümmel (caraway scented Schnapps) concluded the meal and warmed us just enough to make it back through the cold to our hotel.

After a nice and sunny day, it started to rain at night and it did not stop. Lucky, we had planned and reserved time slots for the Natural History Museum. Due to Covid the interactive parts of the exhibition were closed (much to the dismay of the little one), but luckily the dinosaurs were all there … The museum was nice, yet the most spectacular (in my view), yet creepy part was the basement collection of fish specimens preserved in formaldehyde. It was a gigantic room, indirectly luminated through the collection. I could have sworn I saw some fishes from @liuzhous excellent Chinese Fish thread, but maybe that was fishful thinking … Upon our return at 13.30h to the hotel, noone was in the mood for going out again. My MIL was feeling under the weather (or better suffering from the latter) and refused to leave the hotel again. I took my FIL to pick up a Döner, which we enjoyed in our room. It was very good. I decided to have a beer with it and took a nap afterwards, to be refreshed for dinner …

Nope … around 70 oC in slightly salted water.

Still entertaining the in-laws with traditional German food … Today was an easy sell - who doesn’t like Himmel un Ääd ? Freshly smoked blood sausage, Weißwurst (yes, traditionally Leberwurst, but this is my house), hearty potato purée and sweet apple sauce. Plenty of fried onions and some mustards … heaven indeed. They enjoyed, I enjoyed, little one asked for seconds … all good. And of course served with a cold Kölsch !

A gathering of colleagues decided that after not seeing each other for ~12 month, celebrations in the form of a Domino’s pizza was in order 🤔 When they found me in the office they insisted that I join, as they had ordered two (!) extra pizzæ - just in case. I couldn’t refuse. I got the “Korean BBQ Pizza”, with Korean BBQ sauce, pulled beef, beef “filet”, mushrooms, red onions and sesame seeds, by default. I know I should tell you otherwise, but it wasn’t half bad to be honest.

Yeap … the cassowaries 👍

A couple of years ago, Germany was hit by the “premium burger” craze, with new chains popping up (“Hans im Glück”, “Peter Pane”, “Burgermeister”, …), but also international chains branching out (e.g. “5 Guys”). The latter has quite a few branches in the bigger cities by now, just in my vicinity there is one in Mannheim and one in Heidelberg …

That looks so good ☺️ Suckling pig is on offer next week at my butchers … maybe it’s time to impress the in-laws !

They were actually in the tank next to the pictured underwater bugs. Made me wonder as well. I like to believe this account …

I think it is very straightforward: salt, pepper & nutmeg. Some softened onions & egg (as a binder). And enough breadcrumbs to make it unsuitable for Atkins followers …

Happy to hear all is fine, @Anna N 🤗

Yeap. Took the small portion and it was still all in all too much for the two of them … (lucky me 🥳)

Despite my best arguments, 60% of the family refused to step outside again. It was a bit rainy, yes, and the temperature did not support any linger walks either. I canceled our planned dinner and took my FIL to the Curry 36 branch next to Bahnhof Zoo. Curry 36 is the most popular West Berlin Currywurst vendor (we’ll get to the East Berlin one in due time). Eating the sausages outside in the cold and watching other people do the same was fun. A truly democratic food - inexpensive & delicious, enjoyed by teenagers, workers, hipsters, tourists, grandmas alike. We had one with and one without casing (the latter being preferred by most Berliners), and a Berliner Kindl to wash it down. On the way back I picked up the food for my wife and the little one. They had their heart set on two burgers from 5 Guys, the branch just being opposite of our hotel. Little one was allowed to eat his bacon cheeseburger with extra pickles in the bed, which made his day (beside of course the visit to the zoo) … I had a small dessert as well 🙂

The next day was supposed to be the one with the best weather, so we walked over to the Berlin Zoo. It is the oldest zoo still in existence in Germany, and an impressive one at that. The Aquarium featured a special on living fossils, some of which I had never seen before. Little one asked if one could eat these 😉 … Amphibians, insects and arachnids were on display as well … The day was bright and we enjoyed. For lunch we has the quintessential Berlin snack - Bulette mit Schrippe (or meatball on a breadroll). I bought that from a small butcher joint in the way. The meatball was heartily seasoned and “moist”, for the lack of a better description (no other condiments). A very healthy meat to bread ratio - one could argue this to be low carb. As the day commenced I found more and more animals to be lazy and Just hanging around, which turned out to be exactly what I wanted. About 5h and 12 km later we returned to the hotel …

Back at home after a short stint in Berlin. Still reminiscing about the food there, I made pork knuckle and potatoes in a different way … Pork knuckle massaman curry simmering away … Served with bomba rice from the Zojirushi (because I didn’t plan properly) and condiments … Served with a dark Bock from Lower Saxony (that worked pretty well) …

Mettbrötchen

Our waitress said it was also Georgia-inspired. I think this recipe would come close, plus some grated apple & a touch of coriander …

With the fries you mean ? You can get it just with a bread roll, but I had the feeling I was running already a dangerous calorie deficit with all that walking, so I better took the full monty …

In the afternoon we visited the East Side Gallery, a 1.3 km long preserved strip of the Berlin Wall, that was given to artists to paint on. Some more famous works can be admired there … Truth to be told, everyone was pretty done after that. Upon return to the hotel I had to use all my power of persuasion to get the rest of the family mobilized. It didn’t help that I had booked a table in a local Russian restaurant, a cuisine none of us was familiar with … A short (or „too long“, according to the little one) walk from the hotel we found ourselves in Grüne Laterne. I ordered a small crosssection of the menu … Borscht (Georgian) Kharcho - this was fantastic Pelmeni stuffed with meat, served with sour cream Carrot, apple & walnut salad Fresh blini with trout caviar & salmon Beef Stroganoff Cabbage rolls with sour cream All enjoyed with some local black beer & Georgian red wine - it was a fine dinner. The sceptics in the family were converted ☺️