Duvel

Coming up. A lot of Currywurst … come on - look who you are talking to 😜

You need to bear with me. While still in Berlin I‘ll write in the breaks I take from entertaining my in-laws 😜 We started on Monday early morning. For the ~600 km we opted for the train, which is less hassle for me and usually an efficient medium of transport in Germany. It should have taken about 5h. We had to change in Frankfurt, and the second train took us through former East Germany, right up to the beautiful village of Neudietendorf. About 500 m before the place in the middle of nowhere our train hit something. We all hoped for a wild animal, but unfortunately not. Due to problematic nature of train incidents with persons we had first to wait in the train for about 2h, then it was hauled into the station 500m further down the track and a new train was send from Frankfurt. Changing the train took almost 1h for all passengers (I‘d say maybe 500 persons), and then the train had to be integrated again into the traffic. All in all we lost about 5h and arrived in Berlin at 18.30h … The reservation for the Pergamon museum in the afternoon was gone as well, and spirits were not too high. I felt it was not the right time to impose a Berlin cuisine regimen on my mostly Mediterranean-oriented family. Little one behaved remarkably well, so we offered him to pick dinner. He wanted sushi and noodles 🤔 After checking into the hotel I found a small Vietnamese neighborhood joint offering both. Berlin has a huge Vietnamese population stemming from East German times, where Vietnamese were welcome migrant workers. The city now is brimming with Vietnamese restaurants, a Vietnamese shopping center and Karaoke bars. The restaurant was low key, but the food was nice & comforting and we had a good time after a somewhat unnerving day … Two versions of Bun bowls … the second one was spicy beef in betelnut leaves. Very good. My MIL wanted Pad Thai. The menu accommodated her 😉 A tiiiiny bit tired maybe ? A small stroll around the block took us to the Gedächtniskirche and a Späti (all night convenience store), before heading back after a not quite planned first day in Berlin.

The first week of November are „autumn holidays“ in the area where I live. We wanted to use that time to go to Paris, but when my parents-in-law somewhat surprisingly announced they‘d be coming over from Spain for the whole of November, we scrapped that idea and looked for something more German … So … Berlin. Not the best time to travel (cold & rainy), but with a couple of museums for the little one and the slightly older ones to enjoy together, plus some food options I was looking forward it was a destination we could all agree on. The Covid19 warnings in the Berlin subway support that notion …

Looks fantastic, @Chris Hennes. I can’t tell from the crust - was this done in the Ooni ? The sprouts look perfectly caramelized …

I had it a couple of times at Motorino Wan Chai in Hong Kong - great stuff indeed. I think in general cruciferous vegetables benefit from a hard char (think charred broccoli with romesco sauce, or toasted cabbage with sesame/miso, or said pie), maybe because then they are not „green“ anymore ..?

Maybe because to become palatable it needs to be cooked at least 3h with a looooot of pork products, by which time your pizza crust in the oven looks either like something resembling items they‘d study in vulcanology or the remains of count Dracula after being hit with a stake in the thorax (the outcome depending of course on the flour you are using) …

It was a bit of a strange Sunday pizza & movie night. First of all, there was no movie. The Halloween theme has finally caught up with Germany and little one and his friends went „trick or treat“ing … My wife accompanied him to his friends house and stayed for a while. I was left with quite some dough and my parents-in-law (who are visiting) to entertain. So pizza night with the inlaws 🥳. Luckily, there were a few cold Jever‘s left in the fridge … Mushroom & sausage Potato, goat cheese & cured pork loin Garlic, anchovies & capers Tuna & onions Margherita (my MIL took an interest and launched the pizza into the oven. And failed to retrieve it at 3.45 min. She is more of an „approximate“ person. Lesson learned - on my side at least 🤗). All enjoyed while watching TV3 Noticies streaming …

Temperatures have dropped and the season in between fall and winter has reared its ugly head. With ~5 oC and heavy rain it is not the most pleasant time to be outside. The inside in this time, however, offers shelter, warmth and ideally some comfort food befitting the season. Enter Grünkohlessen: kale, amped up with goose fat-fried onions and homemade stock, boiled for 4h with Bregenwurst (from my hometown), Kassler, Blutwurst and Bratwurst and served with a robust potato purée … A small plate of Sauerkraut for a non-german family member that refuses to see the light … A cold Jever to go with ... … and an ice-cold Kümmel to chase 🤗 Full !

When people talk about kohlrabi, they use comparisons like „oh, its a bit like unripe papaya and you can use it in Som Tam“, „boiled it reminds me of underdone cauliflower stems“ or recently „reminds me of Jicama“. Now, how many food items you know that actually taste decent and get compared constantly to other, more palatable items ? Opossum (tastes just like chicken) ? Balut (tastes just like fermented tofu) ? Pumpernickel (tastes just like the very bottom part of a traffic light) ? No, of there is something great it‘ll stand on its own (think oysters, matsutake or Grünkohl) and is not used by people thousands of kilometers apart (like @liamsaunt and me) to throw at critters around the house … Yep - that’s how bad it is.

I knew you were a good one 🤗 Managed to hit any ?

Fantastic ! I haven’t had that in years - thanks for reactivating my memory. It’s on my list for the next weeks now …

Point taken, @rotuts. I will see what I can do 🤗

It was not meant as an insult. I simply think you may have missed the reference of only „Knackwurst“ not being referred to as Braunschweiger … Regardless, this thread was about the US variety and I think there might be still more ideas to get the OP inspired.

Yes, they do. My apologies, but maybe your German might not completely up to the task in this matter. The linked text says: Braunschweiger is a spreadable smoked sausage made from soft, coarse pork, with and without garlic. But the Knackwurst, a finer, light spread sausage, is also a Brunswick specialty. As a rule, however, the latter is not referred to as "Braunschweiger". In the German food law only the addition "Mettwurst" describes the "Braunschweiger". In Austria, the Braunschweiger is a boiled sausage. In the USA, on the other hand, a smoked, spreadable liver sausage is known as Braunschweiger. I hope this translation is unambiguous. As an anecdote: (German) Braunschweiger is the favorite sausage of my sister. We hail from Lower Saxony (about 100 km south of Brunswick) and my parents go at great lengths to get my sister her favorite food when we have a gathering (just as I get „my“ Mett everytime i go home). I have a rather good idea what Braunschweiger is comprised of, lookes like, tastes like …

And I think that’s only fair - the US variety is a distinct product on its own right, as is the German one.

We are leaving for Berlin on Monday, and my wife is very OCD on finishing everything we have at home beforehand. Luckily I got some chicken wings before the order came, so tonight we had oven-roasted chicken wings (both classic and „Korean“), plus a kitchen sink salad with wafu dressing and a potato salad for the potato salad haters (with Parmigiano cheese, kewpie, garlic, …) …

For me, this is as good as it gets. Pâté, great bread & vinegar pickles. I am sure there was a great wine accompanying it, and I am jealous as can be …

Kill them all, I’ll say, shall god sort them out. Anyone who uses Kohlrabi (other than throwing it at rodents) is in league with the devil …

Does drinking the grains also count ..?’

Wasn’t me (at least I do not quite remember), but Hackmesser would be just about the right word for those beauties. Wiegemesser would be accepted as well … Beautiful setup, @weinoo !

Yeap … Unter Braunschweiger versteht man hier eher eine streichfähige geräucherte Mettwurst aus weichem, grobem Schweinefleisch. Braunschweiger is a spreadable smoked sausage made from soft, coarse pork. So exactly which part is it that you are struggling with ? Leberwurst (liverwurst) is an entire different dominion in Germany, and regardless what they sold you in your time here, it ain’t Braunschweiger (again, here. In the US it is a completely different story). Sorry about that …

The city of Braunschweig certainly agrees on the Mettwurst version 😋 (click)

Just a disclaimer: generally accepted in the US … in its birth land it is more of a coarse salami (a soft subtype of Mettwurst) …

Specifically chicken livers I love as yakitori - grilled over very hot coals until seared & pinkish inside, brushed with tare, a few seconds more just to get few scorched spots … and enjoyed together with some sake.

A good balance is about 3 parts fried minced meat to 1 part liver sausage to 1.5 parts stiff bechamel. The liver sausage melts into the mixture and - together with the bechamel - lends a kind of smooth & creamy gameyness to the dish. I find it quite pleasant …