Food Retrospective

I’ve decided it’s time for a virtual exhibition of culinary delights that have passed through my digestive system in the last year. We’ll start with the most recent and work our way back in time.

FYI: You can click on the photos to make them larger and more appetizing.

Rome: Delights prepared at home.

(AKA I’m a badass who can cook.)

Damon and I prepared this last night. It’s asparagus with roasted pine nuts, red pepper and fennel risotto and mussels cooked in dry white wine and heavy cream. We also made bruschetta (not pictured here).

I made this a few days ago for Damon because he’s never had brussel sprouts before. It’s polenta with sauteed mushrooms and steamed brussel sprouts. A word to the wise: If you think you hate brussel sprouts, you’ve either never tried them or you overcooked them. No biggie, just give them a second chance!

Leisha and I used to make shoyu chicken all the time last quarter when we were sick of pasta, but I’ll be honest. It was really Leisha who did the making of this dish. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I was successful without her guidance. Just add rice!

The Roman Culinary Experience Outside My Kitchen:

One food that I have absolutely fallen in love with here in Rome is the chestnut. Roasted, turned into a savory sauce, baked into bread, or candied–all delicious.

Castagnole are currently on my mind because they only come out during Carnevale. They’re kind of like doughnut holes, but oh-so-much better!

A typical Roman dish is Carciofi alla Romana, Roman-style artichokes. This was the appetizer to a lovely meal I shared with Dan and Oana their first night visiting Rome.

How could I neglect the open-air market right outside my front door? I can’t. So, here it is: fresh fruits and vegetables daily, people.

Paris: Dishes I cannot pronounce.

Well, I finally had authentic French creme brulee, but I have to say that Mama Skeers’ takes the cake… or the cream… or something. It’s good.

In reality, I ate a lot of finger food to save money while in Paris. Here’s a spread that Elyse prepared for us one night.

Greece: Food as divine as the gods.

This is just some pasta thing I had in a tavern in Athens.

Breakfast is delish in Greece. Fresh fruit and honey on top of a waffle in Santorini.

Dessert is also yummy. Here is some baklava. Man, honey on everything!

However, lunch was the best. Chicken souvlaki is definitely the most delicious thing I ate in Greece and a contestant for the best meal I have ever had in my life. You’ve never tasted chicken so tender or tsaziki so flavorful. *mouth watering*

Tübingen, Germany:

So, I ate the traditional pretzel and beer, but I couldn’t help but crave some Asian. It had been a while…

So, we made Pho from an instant packet and it was absolutely disgusting. Sure, it looks alright in the picture, but I’ll never do it again.

Salzburg, Austria:

Knödel smothered in sauce and mushrooms. Love it!

Prague, Czech Republic: Feeling a bit adventurous…

So, I ordered rabbit. It was interesting. Yes, it did taste a bit like chicken, but with every tender and delicious bite, my mind wandered to Chester… to Cottontail… to all those fluffy friends I loved growing up on the farm. Sorry guys!Lamb is still pretty adventurous for me, but not as crazy as the white rabbit.

After letting myself go out on a limb with a few orders, I decided to go with an old safety for lunch– the best bagels east of New York… Wait, I’ve never been to New York. Hmm. Best bagels west of Seattle that I’ve tasted. Haha

Copenhagen, Denmark:

This is Hallie eating a Danish in Denmark, which they actually call Viennese Bread there. It wasn’t that impressive. I didn’t get a picture of the hot dogs, which were much better, but ridiculously expensive.

We ate open-face sandwiches or Smørrebrød outside of the Hamlet castle and they were delish. I ordered a second! They had this odd, yet scrumptious tartar sauce type thing on them.

Budapest, Hungary:

Mmmmmm. Hungarian sweets!

Whoa, you could smell these from miles away. As soon as we stepped off the train, our noses were filled with the smell of their dough. And then we got to see Hungarian funnel cakes being grilled right before our eyes! You could choose to have yours plain or rolled in toasted almonds, powered sugar or normal sugar. They were so huge, I could hardly finish mine.

Munich, Germany:

Munich was the first place that I had the traditional German Bier Garten experience. Here is some curry wurst, a pretzel and a glass of Radler, which is beer mixed with lemonade. It’s quite a treat on a warm summer day.

And then there’s Käsespätzle, which is kind of like mac ‘n’ cheese only a million, billion times better.

Vienna, Austria: All things hearty

In Vienna, nearly every meal is a total gut bomb, but grease is delicious, right?

So, this is the most famous Viennese dish: Wienerschnitzel (breaded and fried filet of pork) with Erdapfelsalat (potato salad) and Sommersalat (veggie salad with tomatoes, cucumber and onion). This is the meal that we prepared ourselves at IKI, our school in Vienna.

Here’s your classic sausage + sauerkraut combo. I absolutely love sausage and Vienna has the best! I even liked sausage in Vienna better than sausage in Germany.

Okay, so I can’t remember what this is called, but just look at it. Whoa. What the hell is that? Well, it’s egg and potato and craziness. That’s what.

Here’s another one of those mystery meals. This is called Shaufel, which means shovel. As you can see, it’s served in a shovel. It’s basically whatever is left over in the kitchen, cooked up in some grease and put in a shovel. Genius!

On to the desserts:

This is another one of those really famous Viennese things: Sacher torte, the most expensive chocolate cake you will ever eat. Yum, yum.

Another very Viennese thing is Kaisershmarrn, ripped up bits of pancake with plum sauce and powdered sugar on top. Sounds irresistable, but Andrea and I decided that it’s just okay.

The things that really top my list as the best Viennese desserts have everything to do with ice cream. This is a Schneeball or snowball. It’s a ball of ice cream covered with hard marshmellows and served with a raspberry sauce. There are two other versions: Eismarillenknödl, apricot mouse surrounded by vanilla ice cream rolled in chocolate cookie crumbs and essentially the same thing, but it’s raspberry mouse and regular cookie crumbs instead. Great, now I’m craving ice cream dumpling.

Last but not least is this tricky little dish. Is it spaghetti? Is it ice cream? You’ll never know until you take a bite… or until I tell you! It’s both! They put vanilla ice cream through a strainer and top it with raspberry “marinara” and coconut “parmesan”. How creative!

Anyway, that is a sneak peak into the things I have been eating. The things I have been missing are great and many, but at least I have this to hold me over until sushi town.

Relaxing in Southern Germany

Flowers and Buildings along the Neckar River in Tübingen

I had a little trouble getting to Tübingen. After that scorchingly hot afternoon in Berlin, there was a lightening storm that delayed my flight. Luckily I arrived in Stuttgart just minutes before the last S-Bahn and train to Tübingen. Joey met me at the airport and we made it back to his dorm by 2:30 am. Joey had school the next day so I spent a lot of my time sleeping off my Berlin exhaustion. In the evening I explored the city. I saw the castle, the river, the Rathaus, the island and the H&M. 🙂

The next day Joey and I walked from his dorm to the city center. We visited the main church and then bought some ice cream to eat by the Neckar river. They have these boats that you can only find here in Tübingen; they’re called Stocherkahn and they kind of remind me of the gondalas in Venice. The boat driver, if you will, uses a big stick to push the boat along the water. We saw people barbequing sausages for a leisurely summer dinner on a Stocherkahn as well as people practicing for the Stocherkahn race.

Stocherkahn Boat Race

Afterwards we met up with his friend Ben to have a beer and a pretzel at the Bier Garten by the river. We then decided to be a bit adventurous with dinner and bought the ingredients to make pho at home. DISASTER. It tasted nothing like pho and was a bit hard to eat. Thank god Ben had chips and pretzels for us to munch on. After dinner we all met up with Lindsay and her Swedish boyfriend in the park and then we went to a bar for drinks. Then it was off to bed!

The next morning we had a lazy day trying to save up on sleep before heading to Greece. We did hop on the train to the next town over, Reutlingen, to buy some shorts for Joey to wear in Greece. We were mildly successful. Now we’re going to try to get some shut eye before heading to the airport at 3:30 am. Ahhhhhh, not looking forward to it.

The main thing that I learned during my time in Southern Germany: There are some differences between Austrian German and German German. I have trouble understanding and at times I sound like a fool.

Joey inside of my Authentic German Pretzel

A Few Days in Berlin

After saying goodbye to Vienna, Sarah, Andrew and I hopped on the night train to Berlin. We arrived early in the morning and promptly found the longest route to our hostel. Sarah found the Generator hostel by typing in “fun, hip hostel in Berlin” into Google Search. Success! haha

First, we finished our final exams in the Burger King across the street, then we wandered around the city a bit. That night we went on the Generator’s pub crawl and met some people from the East Coast and also from Wales.

The next day we took the free walking tour of Berlin that Tomasina recommended. It was amazing. Our tour guide, Stewart, starts out by introducing himself as a finance major and a part-time rapper. Then he proceeded to rap about German history throughout our tour. We pretty much saw everything on this tour, starting with the building Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of (RIP). Stewart showed us the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Bunker where Hitler committed suicide, the remains of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the square where the book burnings took place, some churches, everything. He also pointed out some famous artists’ graffiti. Berlin is well known for its street art and it is everywhere.

Checkpoint Charlie

After the tour, Sarah and Andew headed back to the Generator and I pushed on to the Pergamon Museum. I really wanted to see this museum because it has a lot of the artwork taken from Greece, particularly the Pergamon Altar. However, I also saw Mesopotamian art that got me really interested in that area. I might have to make a trip there someday… I also found a soldier’s head from the Great Trajanic Frieze that might help me with my research later on. I was able to study the helmet and facial hair pretty closely! After the museum, I met up with Sarah and Andrew again and we had a wonderful dinner of Indian food. Once again, scarfing down ethnic foods that aren’t available in Italy.

Andrew and I at Neue Palais in Potsdam

The next day we took the train out to Potsdam, the palace complex that belonged to the Prussian kings. We started out at the tiniest palace and worked our way up to the largest Palace, Schloss Sanssouci. It was so hot that we were melting while we trekked around the complex. It’s not just a complex, it’s a city and it’s huge. I would almost say that from one end of the park to the other is not within walking distance (it’s at least questionable). Just as we were getting a bit delirious because of a shortage of water and a surplus of sweat, we found an oasis: a little stand selling ice cream, water, potato salad and souvenirs. That little boost of energy was enough to get us through the rest of the park. After five and a half hours of exploring, we hopped on the train back to Berlin and we all passed out, three dead-tired tourists on public transit. Then I grabbed my bag and headed to the airport.

Tübingen, here I come!

Oster in München

I got home yesterday from Munich. Billy, Michelle, Amanda, Sarah, Rebecca and I left Vienna Thursday night on the train to spend Easter weekend in Munich because we had Friday and today off from school. Joey met up with us when we arrived at the train station. Andrew and his friend Nikolai met up with us the next day.

On Friday, Joey and I wandered through the city. We happened upon the Hunting Museum, but it was closed for Good Friday. Sorry Dad! We stopped at the Frauenkirche, the main church in Munich that was mostly destroyed during WWII. We had lunch in a beer garden at the Botanical Gardens. We ate curry wurst and the largest pretzel I have ever seen! Later that day we met up with our friend Markus who took us to see what he calls the “Bavarian Statue of Liberty”. Then we walked to a park and at oranges in the grass.

That night we met up with everyone from my program again. We split into two groups: boys vs. girls. The girls and I spent 23 euro to go on a Bavarian beer and food tour while the boys did their own thing trying to eat more and drink more for less than we spent on the tour. In the end I think the boys definitely drank more, but the girls ate better food and learned about the history and making of beer and traditional Bavarian food from our guide. We met up with the boys later that night at the Hofbräuhaus, the famous beer hall where Hitler gave a speech. I’ve decided that my favorite beer is Radler, a helles (light in color) beer mixed with lemonade. Here’s a photo of the girls and I during our tour. Notice how all the food is gone…

Bavarian Beer and Food Tour

On Saturday Joey and I wandered around again while our friends tried unsuccessfully to attend the soccer game. We took a short nap in the English gardens. We ate lunch at the Augustina Haus and had some of the best food! I had Käsespätzle, which is becoming one of my favorite dishes and Joey had a plate full of different kinds of sausage and sauerkraut. That night we went to Gärtnerplatz with Markus to meet up with some of his friends.

On Sunday we visited Schloss Nymphenburg, the palace in Munich. I’m beginning to enjoy our trips to palaces the most. They always have beautiful architecture, gardens and artwork. This palace is well known for its swans in its many water ways. My favorite part was when we took a break for some ice cream on a bench enjoying the view. We said goodbye to Joey here. After we finished wandering around the palace grounds, it was time to head to the train station.

Schloss Nymphenburg

On the train I finally finished reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The whole book seems like a bunch of beautiful poetic rambling, but in the last chapter you find out that every single word is as valuable as the next. This was quite possibly the best book I have ever read. Thanks for recommending it, Joey!