Le Asia Snack

Family Ties

2012-02-11T13:39:00.003+01:00

No snow, a lot of rain and wind, but the holidays this year were punctuated by family gatherings as warm as a summer day. The Lau family was introduced to Thanksgiving this year by two eager and nostalgic Americans who cooked their turkey for the first time in an oven that measured its temperature in Celcius. Other than a failed first pie crust attempt--"So that's what baking beads are for!"--the five course menu was a success and the happy hosts fell into tryptophan and cranberry induced comas that night.

Christmas Eve on the 24th with Mario's family was as beautiful as ever, with Jenneke's resolve not to buy a Christmas tree this year melting away as she looked at her one and a half year old granddaughter. The candles were lit, the carols were sung, the stockings were not hung by the chimney with care as St. Nikolaus comes on the 6th in Germany and fills your shoes instead, and the Weinachtsman--Germany's equivalent to Santa Claus--came as he does each year and loaded the area under the tree about two hours before we had dinner. Little Mia, Jenneke's first granddaughter from her oldest daughter Anna, received among other sure-to-be-passed-down hand-made gifts a beautiful newly sanded wooden rocking horse that used to belong to Mario when he was a child. After gifts, we all sat down to a hearty meal of rouladen with all the German fixings and finished up with a rich mousse au chocolat that Mario made.

Christmas Day started as relaxing as it ended. Santa Claus, the American one no doubt since many gifts were from the U.S., dropped by during the night and we opened gifts between forked mouthfuls of waffles and maple syrup. The afternoon was equally grueling with shifted sets between such classics as A Christmas Story on the couch and intense napping. That evening I made turkey and gruyere rouladen with a basil pesto cream sauce and Mario made his favorite buttered carrots. We played Scopa until our eyes grew weary and then we laid our little heads down for another long winter's nap.

The Monday after Christmas Day is also a holiday here in Europe and relatives migrated once again to Jenneke's. The candles were lit, the carols were sung, and gifts appeared just as magically as they did on Christmas Eve since the Weinachtsman put in a day of overtime. This time, dinner was raclette, that traditional holiday go-to involving a little broiler with pans on the table that I described in my New Years blog from last year. After dinner came another time honored tradition that many Americans also hold to after long holiday meals--Monopoly! And I actually won this year.

The icing to 2011's layer cake ended up containing a generous amount of alcohol as we endured a 19 hour bus ride into Poland to visit our good friend Ewa--pronounced Eva--and her family. We were shaken on the first day with vodka and song in equal parts with a more than generous amount of food. I can only describe Polish people through our experience with Ewa's family and friends, but from what I could gather from them they are a proud, hard working, warm and generous people who wear their hearts upon their sleeves and do not hesitate to welcome you into their home with open arms. Mario and I were treated like family and even better because Ewa had to do chores around the house and we didn't! Perhaps the old tradition of leaving an open chair at the dinner table during Christmas Eve sums it up best. The Polish do this each year as a celebration of their hospitality--or in some cases Baby Jesus--and an empty chair is always reserved in case unexpected friends, family members, or strangers in need of a hot meal happen to drop by. The bond of a Polish family is obviously tight, but not so tight as to exclude foreigners like us and with each song, each second, third helping of pierogi and shot of home-distilled vodka, Ewa's family drew us closer and closer to their inner circle. By the end of the trip the traditional Polish tunes were permanently stuck in our heads and there were already talks of a return to experience spring in Poland because the landscape shakes off its drab winter coat and reveals its inherently romantic plumage. Although we have to admit it will be hard to pull off since we already have so many other trips planned for 2012, it seems that when you've broken bread with a Polish family your place at their dining table will always be reserved, just in case.

Just in case.

Our 16 pound bird.

Belated Thanksgiving meal with the Lau's. Garlic rosemary mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn pudding.

Mario lays on the gravy.

Almost forgot about the homemade pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream!

Clever ornament wire hooks open with squeezing! Wish these were common in the US.

My purse hanger is my best friend. Here it is accompanying me on a train ride to Bremen.

The Bremen Christmas market had this cool little wine stand marketed as magical elixirs--what a great idea! Here's a potion for beauty and youth, actually a red wine.

Renaissance fair themed, people in costume were everywhere.

The cozy alleyways.

Our festive tree! No lights yet.

Christmas Eve at the Lau's is always special.

Little Mia got a rocking horse that Mario's dad had made for him.

Helping taste the rouladen.

Rouladen, red cabbage, meatballs and potatoes, always a treat!

And we have lift off!

Christmas day found us relaxing at home with our gifts from friends and family from the US. I made a turkey rouladen with gruyere cheese and a pesto cream sauce. Accompanying it are Mario's glazed carrots and an apple salad.

Look what Santa brought us!

Yes, I finally got one of those Christmas pyramids I've been lusting after for years!

The day after Christmas Day is also a holiday here and we got together again at Jenneke's for a repeat gift giving with her sister and extended family. Mia played Santa.

Helping Santa dress up for her trip home.

Playing our favorite game at Christmas time.

I actually won this time!

Our 19 hour bus ride to visit Ewa's family in Gorzyce, Poland looked like this pretty much the whole time. They played movies in English with a Polish guy who talked his way through the movie, that's the way they dub movies there.

Finally at Ewa's, her mom Christina feeds us borscht and meat filled croquettes upon arrival. Beyond delicious!

Christina, the powerhouse of the family.

She also made these cakes from scratch!

The Christmas tree that Ewa decorated came from their family's little forest not too far away.

This cake Christina also made is appropriately named Shrek!

Our first big meal is the day we arrive because it is Ewa's birthday celebration. We have potatoes, pickled red beets, and pork tenderloin so tender it melts in your mouth. This and about a shot of vodka every twenty minutes and you kind of get an idea where this evening is headed to.

There were also plenty of mayo infused salads including this tortellini one sitting in front of me.

Ewa's closest friends sit at a table restocked with a big helping of homemade organic cold cuts. Their family has friends with their own livestock and Ewa's dad and mom prepare the cuts to their perfect specifications. So yummy!

This is before we all started singing. For the true mood of the evening you'll have to watch the videos on my YouTube page!

Ahhhhh, pierogis! This has become one of my favorite foods and what's not to like? Potato and cheese mixed and stuffed into little ravioli like pastry discs and pan fried. To eat then like the Polish do you either salt them, dip them in Maggi, or ketchup.

Enjoying homemade vodka at Ewa's brother's house. The flavor of the vodkas are more comparable to smooth tequilas or whiskey, they have that much depth.

Daniel and Anette's kitchen reminded me of the all American kitchens back home.

Przeworsk, the closest big city to Ewa's home town of Gorzyce.

The old town area of Przeworsk.

We stop in for dinner at their local Italian restaurant.

I order the most non-Italian thing on the menu which is their pork cutlet with chanterelle gravy.

Pizzas are only €4.

The dragon of Krakow spits fire with donations to the castle it guards via text!

We make it to the other side to see what the dragon is guarding, and it's the Wawel Hill collection of cathedrals and the royal grounds for the neighboring Wawel castle.

The former beloved Polish president is buried here. Cool doors!

The majestic inner courtyard.

We're making peace signs but you can't tell.

Streets of Krakow's city center.

Thought this building was really nicely decorated.

On our way for some food. Guess where we're headed to?

It's McDonalds, istn't it? Yes, but in an old building that makes it look like we're eating in the medieval dungeon of a castle! So rad.

It's cleared up!

With Olka, Ewa's niece and my new homegirl as well as HUGE ACDC fan from Gorzyce.

Ewa and Olka--popular name--finagle us an entrance into the St. Mary in Krakow church. Here we are secretly entering the stairwell to the tower, which is supposed to be closed, but an overseer upstairs buzzed us in.

The stairs of my nightmares, and lots of them! They go really steep at times and coming back down was a head trip.

Beautiful Krakow at sunset.

One of the oldest cities in Poland, Krakow has maintained its inherent beauty quite well over the turbulent history it endured. Next time I return would be to explore the more infamous attractions--namely the Jewish quarter called the Krakow Ghetto and Auschwitz.

Warriors and heroes in their right.

Can I offer you some well trained children?

Ewa's brother Daniel and his lovely family.

St. Mary in Krakow from the outside.

An indoor market area for the holidays and beyond.

These were amazing little smoked and grilled cheeses.

They're chewy on the outside and taste like smoky mozzarella. You eat them with cranberry sauce!

Tasty local caramels that I wish I had bought.

The Polish answer to Ghirardelli's.

How does she do it? Street artists in Krakow.

Another of Ewa's favorite cities close by, Rzeszow.

We catch Mission Impossible in English in Rzeszow. They usually do the movies in the original version with Polish subtitles which I really prefer to dubbing.

Every year the local pastor comes to bless the house and the family prepares him a meal. I would have taken more photos of the finished product you see in these bowls, which is actually a delicious soup, but I didn't think it appropriate.

New years eve!! We go to a new restaurant that just opened the summer of 2011 to test out their NYE party package. It includes all you can eat food and non-alcoholic beverages. The vodka you have to bring yourself but as you can see we had no shortage of that beverage!

The feeling of the restaurant reminded me a bit of the Chinese restaurants back at home--a little disco with mood lighting.

Delicious pork chops and potatoes with red beets...

...plates of cold cuts, fried fish and chicken aspic up for grabs on the table.

Ewa's parents get down!

Their daughter follows suit.

We couldn't help but have a great time. The people were so friendly and love to sing.

At midnight they let go a few fireworks which we were on the wrong side of the building to watch...

...and then the kissing wars began!

Whether you're a friend or a stranger, no matter. The people draw you in for a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek.

Last meal that we semi-remembered.

More dancing. The music was a mix of traditional Polish folk dancing songs and modern favorites, including Tina Turner.

At Ewa's sister Beatta's house.

Pork tenderloin with gravy, mashed potatoes, beets and egg salad.

Christina cooks us our last meal before we hop on the bus to leave Gorzyce.

Super yummy and super filling, these are sweet ricotta filled blintzes or crepes.

A last walk around the private little lake lined with the family pine tree grove.

In the summer the family does picnics on the shore and boat rides on the water. In the winter the family gets to harvest one tree per household for the holidays.

Walking around the forest area belonging to Ewa's father. We spotted wild pig prints in the mud.

Auf Wiedersehen, Poland! We'll be back.

October and November Revisited

2012-02-10T10:13:00.000+01:00

As the weather got chillier, the food, travel, and the people grew heartier in compensation. We stopped by Hannover's Oktoberfest, the second largest in the world apparently, then took in Munich after the Oktoberfest craziness and followed that up with a tour of Neuschwanstein, the hefty fairytale castle with a crazy backstory pretty incongruous, albeit enhancing, to its claim to fame. Then we peppered the rest of the month and November with standout activities such as Dining in the Dark, a traveling charity dinner held in pitch darkness as blind people serve you your entrees, a Mark Knopfler/Bob Dylan concert, the Austria fireworks presentation at the royal gardens which is the second half of my birthday present (No photos, see videos for the spectacular show.) and warm gatherings with family and friends. November also marked the end of all my level one German courses and the passing of my integration course exams, which is the first step to getting my German citizenship. That made me a jolly person indeed, just in time for the holidays!

Hannover's Octoberfest, beer tent with live band.

Band from Bavaria plays all the big beer swilling hits!

Clap your hands and say ja!

Pho stop on the way to Munich.

Restaurant Mekong in Erlangen has a lot to smile about, including some pretty decent spring rolls.

Good pho! Better than Hannover by far, but not as good as Hamburg.

Matti and Vincent show you how the pros do it by slurping up the tastiness.

Rice dishes for the less adventurous

Erlangen town square on a work day.

Munich! Having a tasty brew with Nina, Mario's sister, at the Englischer Garden.

Some fancified brats and sauerkraut at Bachmaier Hofbräu.

I order their apparently famous leberkäse with truffles and a potato salad. It was every bit as delicious as anything with truffles would be! Highly recommend.

The farmers market in Munch was just stand after stand of gourmet eye candy.

Jarred wild mushrooms ready to kick up one of your favorite recipes.

Mario being lewd in front of the town hall in Marienplatz. Every day at noon the bells chime and everybody, I mean everybody, gets off work to go to lunch. There's also a little show put on by mechanical bell ringers in the balconies. The stuff of German coo-coo clock fantasies.

Mesmerizing market finds.

Best farmer's market this side of France.

The world famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich.

I imagine these guys to be regulars who meet to play cards every week.

Frauenkirche

Top of the Frauenkirche. The Bavarians are really friendly and this guy was giving us a free history spiel about the town.

View from the top...

...unfortunately marred by some nuclear plants in the distance.

BMW Headquarters and Museum

Private concert for Nina and Mario.

Olympic Park

Inside of the old swimming hall at Olympic Park.

Olympiasee

Double rainbow!!!!

In the subway in Munich, I catch something that represents some of Germany's favorite pastimes pretty well: knitting, bratwursts, pretzels, potatoes and beer.

Pit-stop on the way to Schwangau, the little village that leads up to Neuschwanstein castle.

Just parked at our hotel, this is our first experience at Schwangau.

In the distance, the castle looms quietly.

Eat me!!

Picturesque heart of Schwangau

Hohenschwangau, the neglected little brother to Neuschwanstein, sits on the hill to the right.

The happy gas they're pumping is getting to us.

I'll give you one guess who the locals in this photo are.

Mario posing for a silly shot we made him do.

Friends forever. :)

I know they said no photos but after the other Asians, the real Asians who didn't understand English, in our tour group starting snapping shots immediately after the guide said "No photos, please," I figured I could use some compensation. The tour guide literally only said ten sentences in total and the tour lasted half an hour and cost 19€/person.

Neuschwanstein was built by a crazy king who, I suspect, is gay. Who else would never marry but instead dedicate an entire castle, equipped with a private man-cave actually made to look like a cave, to his love of Wagner romance plays. This is a stage he had made just to show the plays. Everything is of course painstakingly hand painted and crafted.

Where the audience would sit during the play.

View from the back terrace of Neuschwanstein overlooking Schwangau and Hohenschwangau Castle.

I love old kitchens!!! Here is where food for that crazy king Ludwig II was prepared.

Just look at how many prime ribs and roast turkeys fit into these pans!

Natural waterfall behind the castle as seen from the bridge.

The inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, you can see how the tourists are drawn to believe it's a romantic homage or gift to a princess possessing beauty beyond words--nope, not a chance.

10 o' clock view from our hotel balcony.

2 o' clock view.

12 o' clock view.

So quiet and beautiful, cowbells are all you hear. Check out my videos for a private night concert held by our neighbors.

Mia walks Truffles! She's that big and mature already.

Auntie Hannah shows Mia how to blow a dandelion.

First course of the evening at Dining in the Dark at the Copthorne Hotel Hannover: German cured ham field salad with sun-dried tomatoes and a creamy parmesan dressing. I must admit, since there was nobody sitting to the right of me, little by little I pulled the salad off the plate and realized halfway through that the girl to the right of the empty seat was doing the same thing. Great foodie minds think alike!

Second course of our experience: lentil curry soup. I am very proud to announce I was the only one at the table to guess what we were eating correctly. You will have no idea how hard it is to eat soup in the dark until you've tried it.

Roast tenderloin of beef with a delicious jus and garlicky mashed potatoes with roasted peppers. This, Mario and I agreed, was the toughest to eat since we had to handle a knife in the dark as well as the fork. We had no idea how to find the piece of meat we cut off so eventually we both resorted to chewing directly on the tenderloin--hey! It's dark so nobody can see anyway!--or pulling it apart with our fingers.

For the vegetarians that night they offered an eggplant and cheese roulade that looked just as tempting as the beef dish.


Dessert was amazing and consisted of a hazelnut ice cream with pieces of brittle inside, fruits, and chocolate ganache.

Our table-mates of the evening who we had no idea the ages of. I think they were just as surprised with our appearances as well.

My first taste of real homemade Polish pierogis at Ewa's home. A little preview of what was to come around New Years.

The treelined area in front of the Leibniz University. We signed up for a sport pass that brings us here every now and then to play unlimited badminton.

Mario's little surprise for me after I got home from my German integration course test.

Celebration dinner at Mövenpick. A butternut and prosciutto salad, hearty and delicious.

I ordered their fish of the evening and it was stuffed with artichoke hearts and some other veggies in a turnip puree.

Mario goes traditional with rouladen, also outstanding!

The industrial entrance walkway to the TUI Arena. We're here for another "See 'em before they die!" concert with Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan.

Mark was great and played a lot of new hits along with a few favorites...

Bob, on the other hand, sounded like he needed a Fisherman's Friend. Still a powerhouse of talent though!

Having a very traditional German meal at our friend Jürgen's house for his birthday.

His mom ordered in goose with potatoes, gravy, and red cabbage. Warm and satisfying!

Jürgen and his wonderful mom. Cakes in the foreground.

I couldn't resist the temptation any longer!

Balloon fashion.

Mario tries it on for size.

If you want to win my heart you will do well to come home bearing a box of spicy scallop hand rolls like my Sweeto did one night, instead of flowers and chocolates!

July, August, September Revisited

2012-02-09T18:22:00.000+01:00

I've started a tradition of trying something totally new and exhilarating--euphemism for slightly dangerous, sorry Mom and Dad--if possible around my birthday each year and this past July found me jumping off a bridge in Denmark. It wasn't a particularly high bridge, and the water was deep and calm, but nevertheless I managed to slip on some rocks as I clambered my way back up the bank and I got a few lilac tattoos as a result. Come August the lights of the Spain fireworks show at the Herrenhäuser Gardens lit up the night sky and welcomed me into my thirty-first year on this earth. The bruises were long gone.

Schützenfest--the annual shooting match--in Hannover

Shooting festival ladies enjoying a few drinks in the drinking tent.

Fireworks marking the first day of the festival.

Vince and his wife Megan, our good friends from the US, visit for the first time and Vince actually shows us the correct way to drink Lüttje Lager, Hannover's signature drink.

Crazy mural and decor on a rollercoaster at the fest. Is that how people see America, as a bunch of scantily clad space invaders with tans and big boobs? It's not such a long shot actually...

The Teestube, of course, never fails to impress us.

On the island of Møn, Denmark. Weather was beautiful for five whole days.

The signature tall grasses on the way to the beach.

The high style on our private stretch of beach.

All in!

Mario and Truffles get some much needed sun.

So do I.

Most of our afternoons were spent like this.

My little niece Mia and Truffles captured in my favorite photo of the year!

The idyllic landscape on the island.

Playing coop on a rainy day. It's a German game where you have to throw wooden sticks at more wooden sticks set up on the ground from the opposite team.

Danish charm in a nutshell.

Heaven meets earth.

A trendy looking inhabitant.

Never wont for a snack.

The banana slugs.

Lau family shot.

We used the natural chalk on Møn to declare our love like teenagers.

Ice cream break with the Hüppe family, friends of the Laus who were also vacationing on Møn.

Hanging out in the yard of the cabin they were staying in.

We venture into the harbor area of Moen with promises of fresh fish...

But unfortunately left empty handed.

We weren't the only ones waiting for fish.

The Møn town festival that happens every Tuesday. A dizzying variety of cute shops and handmade items for sale.

Local church.

Danish on-location hard candies like these tempt festival goers.

Sizzling bbq draws a crowd on this warm summer day.

Viking graves!

Truffles looks out of the cave entrance.

Don't go towards the light, Truffles!

Grave number two.

Poppies are everywhere on the island.

Heading to Klekkendehøj, the famous Stone Age double chamber mound in Møn.

Top of the mound.

Exploring the innards.

Museum display of a classic viking burial in the sealed off second chamber.

I made Mario do this Gladiator shot on the way back because I'm a nerd.

Bryghuset Møn brewery. Best artisan food and crafted beers on the island. http://www.bryghusetmoen.dk/

I order the blinis with salman tartar and caviar, tasty Scandinavian fare!

Wash it all down with their honey porter, feel like a twenty-first century viking.

On the way home from our viking grave tour and brewery pit-stop, Mario and I stop the car to explore the abandoned halfway-house on the route back to the beach house.

Rumored once to have been home to troubled teens and others, this massive building was a much anticipated off-the-beaten-path attraction for us and we walked the halls in whispery caution. We went in alone but Mario's brother and girlfriend joined us when they saw our car parked in front on their way back from something. Check my YouTube videos for a ghoulish practical joke we pulled.

One picture I couldn't capture because it was too dark but felt was the creepiest was an empty echoing swimming pool hall we discovered in the bowels of the structure.

Our day in Copenhagen begins with a trip to a church, of course. Church of Our Savior on the inside.

Church of Our Savior on the outside with its standout corkscrew spire.

Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?

The canals.

Truffles observes the age old tradition of salutation at the royal palace.

Picture perfect scenery

The Langelinie Promenade

Asians congregating around the Little Mermaid.

St. Alban's Anglican Church

Ironically, we try to take Truffles into this grocery chain only to be told dogs were not allowed...

...because you'd think with a logo like this that it would be dog friendly, right?

The architecture in Copenhagen's city center.

Hipster part of the city.

Deer in the woods on our way back to the beach house.

Truffles' first encounter of the amphibious kind!

Last day on Møn, Mario and I finally see these FAMOUS chalk cliffs he's been babbling about for 10 years.

Whoa, that's pretty amazing!

One smug Mario.

Møn was a chiseled piece of relaxation and natural wonder and I am so glad I was able to experience it with the people I love.

Another luscious assemblage of raw fish from Sushi-do.

Made rosemary roasted chicken with a roasted potato salad one night on a whim.

We're already at my birthday! That went fast.

Mario surprised me with a pub quiz night with all our family and friends already assembled at the Dublin Inn. That's me two beers into it, tottering up to meet the quiz host who made the pub sing Happy Birthday to me.

Wuv wuv wuv!

Love my peeps!

Birthday loot. Thanks to everyone who came for making my big day away from home so special.

Made my favorite brunch food of all time one Sunday for old times sake. As of now, I have not seen eggs Benedict on the menus anywhere in Hannover.

The Hannover Maschseefest--lake festival--led to a bright idea by Vinni to go get a paddle boat from the school and take a tour of the event by boat since there are venues, restaurants and activities all the way around the 5 mile lake.

As the only boat on the water other than a big licensed tour boat, we were unsure if we were actually allowed to do this but continued on in a pioneering spirit.

Our crazy captain.

Sun setting behind clouds as we watch from the middle of the Maschsee.

First port of call--time to get a beer!

Our beverage break was highlighted by a live Pink cover band. "Hat Jemand bock auf Pink???" This lady's voice isn't as good as Pink's but she sure has a great body!

Back to the boat, the moon makes its appearance. Perhaps also a Pink fan.

Second port of call, another beer and to explore what is making that pretty light. We docked right next to a bunch of surprised dining patrons of the dockside restaurants at the festival. They ended up being really nice and thought what we were doing was a great idea so they kept an eye on our boat and paddles for us.

A bluesy band plays at our second stop.

Those nice diners who watched our stuff even help us with this photo. Lovely people, those Germans.

After two of our friends left, Vinni, Mario and I continue our tour and head over to the main drag of the Maschsee to check out the action from the water and then head home.

Mario makes a delicious paella, our first in Hannover.

So my birthday present from Mario were tix to the Spain in August and then the Austria in October presentations at the fireworks competition in the royal gardens in Hannover. Today is the Spain show.

A glimpse at the pyrotechnics behind the scenes.

Darkness descends and anticipation mounts.

No good still photos could do it justice that night, check out the YouTube videos for the entire show.

Pub quiz night on Thursdays at the Dublin Inn became an irregularly favorite pastime of ours. We win one round out of three each time we go and get free shots. Having the biggest group has nothing to do with it.

The Fisch Haus, a very good fish restaurant in the Kirchrode area of Hannover. I just wish Germans got a little more creative and didn't serve everything with potatoes and variations of tartar sauce.

Dinner at Ichiban. Dogs are allowed in restaurants here, remember?

One of my favorite pieces at the Sprengel Museum here in Hannover, just minutes walking distance from where we live.

It's a Hannover 96 game!! Fans show their love in a literal sense.

The stadium.

Sitting in on a game with Mario, my second of the year.

One of the best meals I've had since moving here and it was made by my Sweeto. Soupe de poisson with rouille and croutons. We went especially to a fish market on a Saturday to pick up fish carcasses for making the broth.

Heidelberg, well known to tourists as the 'most beautiful city in Germany.'

Mario in front of one of the oldest buildings in Heidleberg.

The old town.

Fall festival underway.

Christian and Caroline, our friends from Mannheim show us the best of Heidelberg.

Everybody outside, enjoying a beer, bratwurst, and live American ragtime style music courtesy of a vintage clad ragtime band. We were just missing the bandstand.

View on the way up to see the castle in Heidelberg.

You can almost hear angels singing as the rays of sunlight filter through the trees.

Made it!

View of the Neckar river.

Exploring the castle, which usually costs money but we somehow manage to get in for free.

Makes me think of Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene.

Many people fall in love in the city of Heidelberg and the castle does about 100 weddings per year. Already married, we settle for a smooch.

Truffles has been everywhere! She needs her own passport.

We walk into a wedding in the processes of setting up. Was tempted to steal a bottle of champagne from the many cases they had sitting around.

Burgers at Wittkoop in Mannheim come homemade in par baked buns and a thousand island sauce spiked with vanilla. All ingredients and meat are fresh and delectable in their signature combinations, a great find!

Hans Albers Burger, a 1/4 lb patty topped with all the fixins and caramalized mushrooms and onions.

Christian poses provocatively as a plate of spaghetti ice cream, a Mannheim creation at this fine Italian ice cream parlor, sits in the foreground. It's vanilla ice cream extruded into spaghetti 'pasta' topped with strawberry 'tomato' sauce and grated white chocolate 'parmesan cheese.' A feast for the eyes!

May and June Revisited

2012-01-23T21:27:00.003+01:00

Edging into summer was the best part of the year. The weather was more than agreeable and, we would later realize, the warmest it would get because the middle of summer brought yet more rain. We enjoyed all there was to offer during this season including eating outside, many an asparagus dish, and I even fit in an impromptu trip to Amsterdam because Christina's brother was studying there. It seems the only surefire cure for spring-fever is to get out there and enjoy it!

In the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, the most interesting exhibits were the ones displaying feats of human ingenuity in crossing from East to West Germany. Here is one of our favorites with two suitcases placed side-by-side inside a train to allow for a woman to fit, albeit snugly, inside.

A strange touristy Checkpoint Charlie moment occurs.

Our first time staying in a hostel in Berlin was an amazing one. Check out our Bug's Life themed room!

Somebody got a little too creative with the pipes and gold paint though.

The Zucker Fee, or The Sugar Fairy, was quite the find!

This restaurant and cafe offers an amazing assortment of sweet treats, beverages, and food made from scratch.

Housemade chocolate marshmallow kisses, cakes, and chocolate truffles.

We started off with a round of Cafe Cortado Leche y Leche, which is a layered coffee consisting of sweet condensed milk, strong espresso, warm milk and then a creamy milk foam top. There are also an amazing homemade hot chocolate and latte macchiato in the mix.

Now THAT is what I call a proper brunch! Pancakes, assorted cheese and fresh homemade baked goods, toast with homemade jam, soft boiled egg, and exotic fruits arrive in a pretty tiered tray.

As you can see I'm kind of in shock.

I ordered their special on the menu of tropical coconut french toast with pineapple sauce.

My french toast, along with a side of chives scrambled eggs and two orders of the Cafe Cortado cost me around €9. Insane!

That night we had a feast of authentic Indian fare!

We're wiiiiiild about Berlin!

Munchies in Amsterdam were met with a stop at a Chinese bbq pork sandwich shop that made little sandwiches which tasted almost exactly like the sweet bbq pork bao buns I so miss!

Amsterdam at night.

In the middle of the Museumplein area.

Amsterdam is hipster sensibility mixed with old world charm.

The house-boating life without the stuffy mentality.

Hands down the best pancake restaurant I've ever been to this side of the Atlantic.

Tim's pancake has mint sorbet and grapes with chocolate on it. Craziest combo I've ever seen.

Banana's Foster pancake.

View from the top of the Pancake Bakery.

The canals

Walking off breakfast.

At three feet across, who says size doesn't matter?

This city was made for strolling.

One of many historic alleyways with the ever notorious coffee shops.

My first bagel in Europe--they're starting to get really popular over here--and it was beyond amazing. Local camembert-like goat cheese with roasted walnuts and honey...

and a 'bacon' and goat cheese version with toasted pine nuts. Creative and gooey delicious!

Back at home again, we celebrate our niece, Mia's, 1st birthday.

I remember having one of these!

I was thrilled to see her immediately hug my present when she opened it. An organic cotton bunny with a self crocheted scarf for the bunny and a matching scarf for Mia.

My heart is melting!

Germany's answer to the live action spider musical.

It's asparagus season and the Germans go craaaazy! There are asparagus dishes offered everywhere but this one stood out from the rest. White asparagus soup and green asparagus ravioli's with a white asparagus cream sauce taste like the essence of spring.

I do my own version of gnocchi in a lemon basil cream sauce with green asparagus and a dill cucumber salad.

We go French the next evening and do a cheese plate with a refreshing apple green salad.

One warm weekend found us hiking in the Deister, the local woodland area of Hannover. Truffles is tuckered out after the first twenty minutes.

Mario picked me a pretty little spring bouquet of typical woodland flowers.

The Masala festival brought to Hannover the flavors and music of Africa. Fried plantains, a lamb stew along with messy rice and a fried donut-like pastry dipped in a sweet syrup.

Truffles makes friends with a fellow Masala festival goer.

The prettiest authentic offering of sushi we've gotten in Hannover, of course from the beloved Sushi-Do.

In Linden, the alternative bohemian quarter of Hannover, you can find all the coolest small businesses, restaurants and shops popping up. Here is one we stumbled upon one day called the Süß Kraemerey. One to watch, they sell home-made caramels and to-die-for nougats.

Loving the antique appeal of the decor.

You can buy nougat by the slice or the whole thing at one go.

Little teaser to-go bags of treats.

Flowers in bloom in Linden.

The appetizer platter at Zorba's, our favorite Greek restaurant.

A going away get-together for our dear friend Riti at his and our favorite Greek restaurant. A co-ambassador for Greece, poor Riti has lived in Hannover on and off for a few years but got called back to stay in Greece indefinitely because of the crisis. With a pay cut.

Discounted dirndls at the local TJ Maxx equivalent store.

I order something that I and Mario thought was something else, and got something entirely different.

Good although not what I was in the mood for, this big cold cut in aspic would be terrific in warmer weather. Too bad it was chilly and rainy that day. Oh well, the pan fried potatoes with pancetta bits was out of this world!

Katydid at the animal garden in Hannover.

Deer get to roam free, but never within petting reach!

It's tempting to try to get closer, isn't it?

The wild pigs need fences because they can be quite temperamental! However, that doesn't stop people from treating them to dry pasta! Catch the corresponding video on my You Tube page.

Popping plants! Who needs bubble wrap.

Jenneke's birthday brunch spread.

A bunch of baby ladybugs from a bouquet I picked ended up morphing into their adult selves and I set them free from our window.

Marylouise visits!

A Sunday brunch with Mario's family in our then still unfinished apartment.

The Hannover is Fantastic Festival--no joke!--brings one Michelin Star restaurant La Forge to town with a food tent. I try their venison medallions with chanterelle mushrooms and the best knödel I've ever eaten. I normally don't like knödel, which is basically a big giant flour gnocchi.

Mario goes for something a little lighter by ordering their foie gras melon terrine. Both dishes are pretty fantastic, Hannover!

I was so surprised by this southern German dish, unappetizingly called a germknödel. It's basically steamed bread dough with a plum preserves filling covered with vanilla poppy seed sauce, but the bun is exactly like a Chinese bao!

April Revisited

2011-12-01T15:09:00.154+01:00

I'm not even going to make excuses. I was away but now I'm back since the weather is once more encouraging more activities of the indoor variety.

Let's see, I believe we left off right around discussing the progress of our apartment and the upcoming vacations we were excited about. Yes, we finally got that bed that we had so anticipated. We were practically owing IKEA rent by the time May ended since we went almost every weekend to pick up something we missed or couldn't carry home with us the last time. Next thing you know, our apartment was finally 'finished' in June when we bought our last light fixture to add to the living room and had some of our photography made into large format canvases. I'll include pictures with the next posting as this one already has enough photos as it is.

Spring in Hannover couldn't have put people into a better mood, what with all the flowers doing their annual Vegas-showgirl thing and every store display decorated to the nines with either chocolate rabbits or flowers. The girls in town naturally felt compelled to get into the act by putting on their best spring outfits and parading about town like they just climbed out of an Easter-egg dye kit. To fit in, I eschewed purchasing pastel colored clothes and instead bought myself a paradox-combo of a rain jacket and a cheap 200 Euro two-wheeler -- now called my i-Bike after I ripped off the original non-brand stickers and slapped some Apple product stickers onto it -- that could get me around town in the warmer weather. At any rate, this native L.A. girl who never thought she would bike any further than her nearest Trader Joe's store, let alone through an inner-city forest for twenty minutes to get to school, is now biking daily and actually enjoying it--when the weather isn't wet and doesn't dip below 50º F that is.

At this time I was busy with my language class four days a week while Mario worked his five days in Braunschweig. But in the middle of April, Mario and I finally detoured out of our weekly grind to fly to Nice, France, to visit our good friend Christina. Christina is that blond girl you saw in my December blog right around Christmas, she had that kick-ass job teaching English in France?
Yeah, that one. We visited her as her teaching contract ended and her lease with her apartment was just about up so that she'd have more time to spend with us.

Our ten days disappeared faster than Parisians at a wine-less party. During our time in Nice we discovered the greatest transplants from Greece and Algeria as well as enjoyed all the local attractions and great atmosphere. The people in Nice are as warm as the weather and the city embodied its location--a French seaside maiden leaning so close to her once ruling Italian partner that you can feel his earthy breath in every bit of architecture and landscape.
A seductive combination to say the least.

The last three days of our trip was spent in the fashion capital of Milan, Italy, visiting Miss Paola Pandolfi. We had an amazing time getting to know Paola's parents as we first arrived that Friday in the afternoon since Paola was still working. Although they speak little English, Signor and Signora Pandolfi lavished us with the world renowned Italian hospitality that you can only dream about after watching one too many Italian movies. To give you an idea, Mario and I, upon our arrival to Casa di Pandolfi, were each promptly given a home-made espresso followed by a thorough tour of the premises. "This is where our Paola likes to sun herself!" We were ushered to sit in two of the home's most comfortable chairs with a strategically-placed ambient-lit view of a New York skyline painting hanging in the living room while Paola's mom handed us a home-made jar of her own sweet-spicy hot sauce since Paola's dad explained that he "like to eat-a piccante!" We were then whisked away to get a tour of the Galleria and Duomo in Milan's city center and meet Paola on her way home from work. That evening, Paola's mom cooked us a super dinner of spaghetti, roasted veal, and an egg and spinach pie. We topped off the meal by devouring one of the biggest Pannetone breads I've ever seen. The next morning, before we did our whirlwind day in the city, Paola's mom brought out an Italian pastry/pie for breakfast in celebration of Mario's birthday. Certainly our getting the royal treatment at Paola's home was definitely the favorite part of our Milan chapter. Paola, it was also nice to see you. ;)

Mario and I can't wait to share some more of our warm weather adventures in the next installment. For this entry there are accompanying videos of a Hannover basketball game we saw with a charming homage to American cheerleading, our Nice Easter Egg hunt with our new Algerian friends who got the idea a little too quickly, excerpts of how we spent the evenings with the people in Nice, and even a cat that plays fetch all on my YouTube page.

Different types of Magnolia trees on the street and at the Seelhorst cemetary in bloom, the Hannover fleamarket, the Teestube with it's cozy vintage atmosphere and amazing tea selections, and Aegidientorplatz--the area we live in--in spring.

A hot chocolate 'mit Schuss,' meaning a shot of alcohol, as part of our delectable breakfast at the Hollandischer Kakaostube.

The first place I saw scrambled eggs and ham on the menu in Hannover.

Normally though, the Hollandisher Kakaostube specializes in lavish desserts, pastries, and chocolates. This and the Teestube are my Extraordinary Desserts away from home.

They take their Easter offerings seriously here in Germany! Stores battle each other with lavish munitions of chocolate.

Chocolate bunnies standing at the Easter warfront...

chocolate egg bombs...

and an assembly of beautifully hand-decorated chocolate eggs ready to be put into action!

The nice weather induced a lot of grilling.

In the Lau family garden

Of course we had to have a sausage of some sort!

Our little flight to Brussels, Belgium on our way to Nice, France was practically empty.

Having our first feast of Nice seafood after we touched down and met up with Christina.

Thrilled to be there.

Add caption

Mario first took this shot because the champagne reminded him of Marylouise but then I kept this pic for the blog because of the weird ad with the Chinese Man text underneath. wtf?!

Beautiful rustic charm around every corner.

Crazy church in the heart of the downtown part of Nice.

Does anybody know the significance for this crucifixed random arm with a leather jacket sticking out of the wall?

Totally stoked about all the macaroons I'm going to eat.

Speak of the devil...!

Amazing looking bakery with a glow that looks exactly like the one they captured in the Ratatouille film.

Holy Macaroon!

The cheese selection at the local Monoprix. Priorities people!

Biggest rosé section I've ever seen.

Yay new friends!

Some of the best cheeses we selected from Monoprix. Stinky goooood!

Easter Sunday mass at the Notre-Dame de Nice, my first!

Nice's harbor.

A moment between good friends.

Nice at sunset.

Place Masséna at night.

Sushi Shop sushi

Foie gras sushi with a vanilla cookie crumble--heaven on rice! But it still doesn't beat fresh uni.

At the top of Eze, overlooking into their famous hotel's gardens.

Chapelle de la Sainte Croix, oldest building in Eze and where they once cared for plague victims.

Yet another arm with a crucifix coming out of nowhere.

View from the top of Eze.

Apple cider and calvados crepes. Good combo Sweeto!

Banana Nutella for me, please!

You can see why Walt Disney spent a lot of time in this little village.

People here drink water from the mouths of cherubs

Charm overload!

A little time at the beach before the clouds move in again.

Croque Monsieur and more apple cider while people watching on the main drag.

Monaco

A sassy little tourist Mario spotted.

Where the locals hand each other Grey Poupon from yacht to yacht.

The perfectly manicured alleyways in Monaco.

Do these alleyways make me look fat?

The oceanographic museum. The sea life facade detailing of the architecture is insane!

Inside the Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco

Grace Kelly, everybody's beloved

Cutest "Not allowed" sign I've ever seen.

Monaco's courthouse

The Casino Monte Carlo

Last night in Nice found us in a little English pub that my favorite band of all time also visited.

Ventimiglia, the quaint little layover town everybody going along the coast by train needs to stop in on the way from France to Italy. Best caprese paninis we've ever had!

Tiling in the Milan Cathedral, aka the Duomo.

The tour de force himself, Paola's dad, giving us a tour of the Duomo.

This infamous sculpture of Saint Bartolomeo in the Duomo is even more impressive in person. The details of his skin draped over his shoulder are pretty crazy.

The patron saint of tanners, Saint Bartholomew was skinned alive and beheaded. Does that mean he's also the patron saint of purses and shoes?

The poor bull in the Galleria has had his manhood stepped on repeatedly. Tourists and locals alike stop and do a spin on his balls for luck before going on their way.

Mario having a go.

Sumptuous feast prepared by Paola's mama. Veal, spinach pie, spaghetti and rolls.

For dessert, a massive panettone being sawed apart by Signor Pandolfi.

Paola's mom in her element.

Mario's birthday found us visiting the famous San Siro Stadium.

Mario fulfilling his dream of being a spectator. One day Baby!

Mario in Gattuso's chair.

Paola giving the lucky AC Milan team logo a little loving.

Crazy money from Berlusconi means each AC Milan player gets his own locker/cubby with leather racing car chair as well as television mounted above playing footage of only that particular player. Bunga bunga indeed!

Mario enjoying a traditional Naples style pizza.

Me enjoying something a little more exotic--hello, if there's lobster on the menu...

Walking off our meal on the way to the city center.

A myriad of tempting confections beckon from a store window.

Little marzipan fruits glistening like jewels, too pretty to eat.

Statue in front of the cathedral.

The Milan Cathedral from the outside.

Still walking off our lunch.

Parco Sempione. Check out the procession of bikers with balloons riding by.

Having a refresher at the Campari sponsored Triennale di Milano art museum.

The Asian space-agey decor in the gardens.

Castello Sforzesco

Finally ready for dessert, we experience the popular Grom gelateria and find out why the lines are always so long.

Although everything was phenomenal, it was the best pistachio gelato I have ever tasted. The flavor was all natural, intense and there were little bits of pistachio throughout.

The historic La Scala Theater.

Boxed seats near the front for Mario's surprise b-day gift! I wonder why the other two people who were supposed to sit in front of us in the boxed seats never showed up...

...oh that's why. Although the stage set of the opera is pretty outstanding, the opera consisted of just these two people in this set the entire time singing in depressing tones while the orchestra played noises.

Don't do it Esther! There are better ways to remedy a bad opera! For example heading out to a traditional Milanese meal of osso buco and wine to end your Milan weekend. And that's exactly what we did.

German Chocolate Cake

2011-04-06T18:27:00.008+02:00

Building a new life in a new country is a little like preparing a layer cake. We all fancy the end result of falling in love with the country and all its trimmings and settling down, much like the way a finished layer cake will look fantastic in all its frosted glory in a bakery window, but few are willing to go through the trouble of actually toiling away for hours in the kitchen to make this behemoth. Mario and I are ready for this challenge and have started work on the foundations to this new tasty treat we like to call our European life, one layer at a time.

Layer 1: Mario and I found ourselves at the onset of the new year in a dilemma: Because of Mario's dual citizenship I had to be on 'tourist status' until he found a new job and proved he could support me. Tourist status means that I can only do touristy things like spend money in the country but nothing else. In addition, if Mario did not find a job within six months we would have to head home to the stars and stripes--or at least I would have to, or else I could file for an extension after the six months are up. So Mario had to get his portfolio in gear right after the last shower of New Years confetti fell. As luck would have it, though, Mario nailed his very first and only job interview two weeks into January and he was hired by his current employer, ISR, as a production and marketing associate in their Braunschweig branch! Yeah! He now commutes forty minutes by train to his new job. Even though we wish he didn't have to commute as much since it gives us less time on weeknights together, we still have the weekends and a foothold on my progress towards gaining my integration papers here so I can start working within the country. Plus, acquiring health insurance isn't so horrible either.

Layer 2: Finding a place to live in Hannover so we weren't bumming it at Mario's mom's home was not so easy. Mario had already started work so that meant that any weekday viewings before 7:30pm had to be done by Esther accompanied by (insert-somebody-who-speaks-German-here). As we learned, rental properties come 'cold' here, and they really mean it! It is not uncommon to find an apartment with no closets or kitchen appliances, no washer and dryer, and the heat is an additional monthly charge that is an estimated amount of what you would use, but the renter gets the full heating bill at the end of the year and charges you the dividend of whatever amount you used over the estimated amount. It is also more common here to have an apartment showing "housewarming style" for the duration of a day where the renter hires a real estate agent to open the doors and you show up among a bunch of other people and whoever likes the place submits an application. There are no guarantees to this procedure, they don't go by credit checks here, so two of our attempts were dismissed in this way since you have no idea what they are looking for in a renter. Then there were a few places we looked at that were just instant deal breakers because either it was too dark, located in "no-man's" land, or had kitchens and bathrooms that were too 'Jimmy' for long-term contentment.

We finally filed our third application attempt one month after starting our search in an area that perfectly suits our lifestyle. It is within walking distance to most of our frequent haunts in Hannover including the Maschsee--the most popular lake here in Hannover--downtown, the main train station, the stadium, and the city hall. As a matter of fact, our new living and dining room windows on the fourth floor (no elevator) offer us a great little view of the historic Rathaus, as the city hall is called in German. We put in an offer immediately upon viewing this apartment and got approval the next day. By the second weekend of March we moved in after we had picked out some kitchen appliances at a local refurb shop with a good reputation. The weeks following our move-in date were filled with trips to IKEA, a Home Depot-like store called Max Bahr, as well as some new and second-hand furniture shops downtown. We wanted to make this place rock in order to give Hannover its best chance at winning us over and so far we are extremely happy with the slow but steady results. With the help of some amazing friends who helped us bang out a kitchen in one Sunday afternoon and the support of patient family members of Mario's, we have finally started on a place we can call home here in Hannover and we want them to know they are truly loved and appreciated for all the help--particularly the funky VW bus use--they have contributed toward our happiness. We can't wait until we have our pull-out sofa in another week or two so we can do a housewarming for you all!!

Layer 3: German language school started for me on the 15th of March in the midst of all the moving-in madness. I now go to school Tuesdays to Friday for four hours each day with Mondays off to do my own thing or paint some walls. A typical weekday consists of getting up at 7:30am and getting ready for school, grabbing the bus at 8:45am to get to my 9-1pm class about 15 minutes away, coming home around 1:30pm, walking Truffles to the store to grab a round of groceries or go to the bank to withdraw 300 Euros and throw away $130, then working for a few hours before starting on my homework. Mario corrects my homework when he gets home around 7:10pm and then we throw something together for dinner, eating at about 7:45pm and then I either work some more or do some sort of home-improvement activity like putting together chairs--I joke that some of our furniture pieces are assembled by somebody who came from China--before we head to bed to watch an X-file, Colbert Report or SNL episode before sleeping around 11:30pm or midnight.

I have really been enjoying the people in my class which consists of ten people from a handful of countries including Palestine, the Czeck Republic, South Korea, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, and Cameroon. We all hurl our horrible German at each other and somehow get away with it and have a mutual understanding. As of now we have only two more weeks of class and have almost all registered for the next class in the series of classes before taking a language test for integration. The hardest part about learning German is definitely the memorization of the articles that accompany each noun. If you don't remember the article you screw up the entire conjugation of the sentence which we all know only makes you look like a walking "Nice Try Buddy" flag to the locals. So that is the part I am currently having difficulties with but it's nothing a few flash cards couldn't help with... good-bye rain forest!

Icing: The best part about living in Europe is...well, that you're living in Europe!! A bevy of honeymoon and dream vacation destinations all concentrated in an area that is, for somebody like me who is from Los Angeles, usually within a three hour flight or less away. We already have a trip to Nice, France planned for the end of April to visit Christina before she moves out of her place, with a hop-over weekend in Milan to see our good friend, Paola. The next month of May finds us visiting Berlin once again to explore the city a little more in depth with Christina and her brother Tim, who is studying at the moment in two hour-away Amsterdam. Then in July we are due for the Lau annual family vacation in Denmark. Although many of Mario's American siblings have already enjoyed this great yearly tradition, this will be my first time and I am really looking forward to it, mostly because of the reputed fresh fish available locally. Oh and of course all the quality family time! But who are we kidding here, my stomach makes the rules. And we have just started planning for a weekend in Munich for Oktoberfest. All of this traveling, no doubt the height of many bucket lists including mine, will make for plenty of quality food blogging I'm sure so keep your appetite open for details to come. Until then, this cake is still in the process of getting richer and sweeter with each oncoming month; but remember, as my favorite quote from Vanilla Sky paraphrases, "the sweet is never as sweet without the sour." Good thing we Chinese are so good at balancing both flavors in our cuisine!

Facades in Braunschweig.

A city square.

Gildehaus (Guild House), home of the Craftsman's Association in Braunschweig this is just one of the intricate hand-carved doors.

The rest of the building facade.

The sun dial adorning the outside of the Brunswick Cathedral, or St. Blasius.

Pedestrian walkway in the city center. While Mario went to his job interview, I did a little shopping.

The lion is Braunschweig's mascot, basically, and you really can't appreciate the fact that these lions supporting benches outside of the Brunswick cathedral are each made to be unique. Each has a different expression and demeanor. They've also included one special bench not pictured in which two cubs are wrestling off to one side while their mother looks on, I love it!

Inside the Blasius or Brunswick Cathedral. Like the lions outside, each pillar inside the castle is unique. Built between 1173 and 1195, this cathedral was a pleasant surprise to me with its timeless design, in my opinion.

We were here the second week of January and so of course the cathedral is still decked out in holiday trimmings.

The catacombs under Blasius where Henry the Lion, founder of Braunschweig is buried.

This is not Henry the Lion's tomb but it could be Dracula's! Henry's is not shown here but it is modest and made of stone. Not as exciting.

"Boohoo! We didn't have enough money to fashion me out of pure gold!"

This tomb was downright Bacchanalian with its two residents luxuriating atop like they probably did while still alive.

Our new apartment starts with these nameplates!!

Mama Jenne peeks out into our new hallway as seen from entering through the front door.

Immediately to your right is our future dining room.

One door down from the dining room and connected via an opening in the middle wall is the living room.

Immediately to your left upon entering is the kitchen, mercilessly empty as you can see.

Bathroom.

Our new bedroom.

View from the dining room windows.

I love this one taken from a little nighttime stroll through the neighborhood.

IKEA is our new best friend since we've been crashing here every other weekend. The one in Hannover is HUGE and so is their cafeteria. I noticed the new and less-improved mud-meatball recipe was also adopted here. How I miss the old meatballs and red potatoes! They make up for it by a well stocked dessert and cold items aisle.

I got their veggie cous cous with salmon and it was like eating at the IKEA in Mission Valley all over again! Only of course they have beer here and they sell these delicious organic spritzers.

Our best friends here, Georg and Vincent, sacrificing one of their quiet Sundays to help us put together our first kitchen made from scratch.

"I'm only happy when I clean."

One of our favorite pics from the day.

Making myself useful.

Truffles, also making herself useful.

Mario's brother and girlfriend show up to help and boy did they ever!

Dining room in stages of non-completion.

Finished hallway for now.

The kitchen as it stands now. We still have a few shelves to put in.

We have a balcony from the kitchen that is perfect for storing beers in winter.

Our Doublemint Fresh bathroom. My favorite part is the outdoor lantern we chose for the lighting.

The living room, still sans-couch to date. But it's coming next week, or at least we hope so!

The only closets in the apartment so far. We still need to get more of these.

Our bedroom without bed in this pic, but we have since gotten one with pull out drawers underneath for storage. See the next stage of completion soon!

My Turkish classmate in German language school works as a cook until 2am and he still found time to make us an amazing cake and fry up some herb 'n' cheese egg rolls for our coffee break in class the next morning. Best break eva!

Our first really decent meal cooked at home, finally! Steak made Italian style sliced atop arugula and then topped with a drizzle of lemon juice and parmesan shavings. The sides are roasted carrots with parsley and potato salad. So rewarding after a day of putting together furniture!

My first quiet Sunday in Deutschland with only my Sweeto. The perfect rainy day accompaniment is your loved one and one big helping of orange creme dipped raisin Challah French toast made in a cast iron skillet with real maple syrup and a fruit salad.

Germany Wild and Wonderful Chapter 1

2011-03-01T17:27:00.003+01:00

There are some things that just don't fly in the U.S. but do fly in whirligig leaps and bounds in Germany. Most people know about the notoriously pervasive examples not limited to but including swearing on public radio and television, Speedos worn in public, legal prostitution, and the coddling of one David Hasselhof as if he were the misplaced tabloid lovechild of America and the Fatherland. Although popular, these oddities are merely the black and white of the cultural rift an ex-pat in Germany will sometimes experience. There are countless shades of gray tucked away in between that can be infinitely more baffling and comedic to a foreigner than a George Clooney Nespresso ad. At precisely the right cultural combination, however, the result can be strikingly refreshing and I hope the pictures can help to illustrate this perceived juxtaposition.

One outstanding item you can't grasp through the pictures, however, is the prolific honor system the Germans utilize, here in Hannover anyway--unfortunately for now there is no way for me to tell for sure having spent the majority of my time in one city. For example the city buses never check if you have a ticket during the day, only when you travel in the evening. The metro that runs above as well as underground here is different though and you are subject to random checks at all hours. There are plenty of restaurants and bars that also do not keep track of your order while you are there, other than to serve you the goods. Afterward, because they never shoo you out of an establishment, you are welcome to sit as long as you like then simply walk up to a waitress or the cashier when you are ready to leave and tell him/her what you ordered, no questions asked! I mentioned this scenario in hushed tones of amazement to different people who all agreed that this would not fly in the U.S., but more notably countries like Italy and France where passively waiting your turn for anything is a moot affair and incidences of petty theft are markedly higher. Of course there are the occasional young-uns and derelicts who take advantage of the system, but for the most part Germans know how to keep themselves and others in check when it comes to upholding this wonderful arrangement.

I always knew San Diegans were best represented by shrooms in a cheesy cream sauce.

X-mas sexy Santa window display at a local tanning salon.

I wonder why this was in the sale section??

Jagermeister drinking and teddy bear making don't mix.

Odd and weirdly awesome wig display at a craft store.

Playing with the electric trains arcade at the Braunschweig main train station.

A man came up and said cheerfully to me in German, "These trains are for small kids but I can see that you are a big kid (at heart)."

Little plastic people forever missing their ride.


Did I mention I was having a beer while playing with these trains?

Supergeek-out to the soundtrack via live orchestra while watching the movie. I'm sure all German Matrix fans have the same smug smile Neo is sporting in this poster. I wonder how they'll reproduce the Rage Against the Machine tracks...

At first I looked at the soda prices at the theater concessions and was like, "Nothing too different here." But then...

Behold! The beer is cheaper than the soda! At the movies!

And there's a mind numbing selection of reasonably priced frozen goodies and candy! Plus Ben & Jerry's is everywhere here. :)

Some theaters here offer assigned seating when you purchase tickets. We caught Black Swan in the original version--OV, and meaning English speaking for this particular film. The local Edwards type theater has a different OV film each Tuesday but usually only plays it once so you have to keep on your toes with their schedule. We missed the Tron boat unfortunately. :(

Just pretty lights. Rather than those horribly produced local real estate ads and celebrity trivia games.

Mario enjoying his concession beverage of choice.

A Becks tap encased in a layer of shaped ice. Not that this wouldn't fly but it's pretty cool.

Watching Bremen, the hometown of Becks beer, play Hannover. The little red key crest is their city's symbol and you see it all
over town.

Mimosa and coffee station at a local trendy jeans store. Who said your champagne brunch had to stop when you head out to shop?

The Quest Continues

2011-01-23T21:27:00.008+01:00

Miss Saigon, Vietnamese owned restaurant serving Asian type noodle and stir fry dishes. Not bad although not one Vietnamese item on their menu.

Sezchuan beef stir fry came with too much salty gravy and a small wonton soup.

Can't tell what's what at this point, both dishes look alike.

Sushi Gin, good atmosphere but über slow service and sushi that was on par with a more casual sushi restaurant in San Diego, but the prices were far steeper.

The haystack uni to the left was dry, never thought I'd ever eat dry uni but I was desperate! The rest was good, in particular the salmon, butterfish and the scallop sushi.

Mikado, an Asian buffet restaurant that is far too nice for an Asian buffet restaurant. I mean, people go on dates here and order wine with their meal!

Mario raiding the salad buffet first, a decidedly very non-Asian thing to do.

Sushi part of the buffet, the salmon was smoked but that made it safer to eat in my opinion.

Stir fried lamb. Delish!

Stir fried shrimp in garlic sauce.

Stir fried chicken.

Veggie stir fry with tofu.

More chicken stir fry.

The fried food section had some great fried duck in it! Also had that one sweet and sour pork dish that us kids love to order at Chinese food restaurants in the States, the kind with the really red sauce--mmmmmm!

My first plate.

Yes, we ordered two bottles of wine with our fancy buffet dinner and they came in a chilled bucket.

Mario raiding the amazing seafood selection of the fresh wokked kiosk at the buffet.

Notice the generous helping Mario took of the scallops and shrimp, I'm so proud! *tear*

The non-seafood protein section had some pretty exotic fare, including kangaroo meat in the lower left corner.

Ostrich meat to the lower right. The rest is beef, pork, chicken, and turkey.

The veggie section of the fresh wokked kiosk. After helping yourself to both meat and veggies you hand your plate over to the chef and tell him which sauce you'd like him to wok everything with.

Mario chose wisely for his seafood fresh wokked experience and picked a ginger garlic sauce that went nicely with everything.

I went a little bolder/stranger with a spicy Mongolian bbq sauce to go with my kangaroo and mushroom feast. Ended up being not as tasty as Mario's but the kangaroo was surprisingly good! Tasted like a cross between beef and venison. I'd had ostrich before so didn't have any at this time.

The Phat Thai, or Pad Thai, from Noosou in the main train station of Hannover. Great presentation, tasted good but was not Pad Thai, even after I squeezed a lime over everything. Ran about 9.90 in Euros.

Mario's highly disappointing Pho, good for a beef and rice noodle soup but again was not actually Pho. About 8 Euros.

Lychees whaaaaaaat?

Comes out to about 4.90 Euros for two pounds of lychees.

The Thai dinner from last night, bad Pad Thai, good Panang curry.

After our Noosou meal at the train station, Mario and I capped off the lunch with gelatos in the veritably tropical 50 degree F weather outside. Seriously, everybody was out and about and happy! :)

Upon our frequent trips to the grocery stores in Hannover, I have actually been pleasantly surprised by the abundance of relatively exotic ingredients that are not local, albeit they are slightly more expensive but not by Whole Foods' standards: lemongrass, lychees, persimmon, ginger, even bamboo shoots! Mario and I have since been directed to an Asian specialty foods market with a not-so-specialty name of I-Shop. They have a wish granting selection of ingredients and foods there but of course as with any magical source, be it benevolent genie or entrepreneurial Asian refugee, there is a limit to what you can wish for. Unfortunately I did not take pictures inside this store as I was just so blown away by what they had that I acted like a kid in a candy shop for the rest of my visit, skipping through aisles and regaling over their sauce selection. But I can tell you to start that the store is separated by country and you can browse the availability of products based on what you are trying to make. There is also a frozen food section--where they have frozen steamed red bean buns and stuff like that, oh joy!!--and a fresh produce section in which you can find Asian greens like baby bok choy and lemon leaves. I ended up purchasing just a few of the basic building blocks of Chinese cooking, that being oyster sauce, a gigantic-by-German-standards 500 ml bottle of soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, Sriracha hot sauce, and a bag of star anise. After acquiring a bag of jasmine rice at the local grocery store some days later, I proceeded to make my first batch of fried rice with peas, green onions, egg, and carrots accompanied by a salad dressed with sweetened white vinegar, salt, white pepper and sesame oil. Home sweet home in a flash of a pan!

The following week Mario and I ventured out to try our first sushi in Hannover. Mario did his research and Qyped (just think European Yelped) the restaurants in the area and found two with 'best of Hannover' type glowing reviews (mind you the average number of reviews for each restaurant was around 20). Of the two, Sushi Gin which was the first sushi date here for us, was the lesser favorite just because they had higher prices, slower than slow service, and sold us uni that was...not fresh. The local winner is Sushi-Do, which is reminiscent of San Diego's Sushi Fix of old in the Little Italy area since they had the same quality sushi that we received from Sushi Gin but with less flair and a friendlier out of pocket price and it was served in a cozy little setup that is better for to-go and lunch orders. They also didn't bother trying to sell anything too far fetched for local eaters so everything was fresh.

What we have learned about the sushi in Hannover from visiting these two establishments is that:
1. The Germans love their salmon so if you want the freshest turnaround possible this one is always a winner! 2. Do not order more exotic selections (see number one) 3. Tempura is also a safe choice because fried food is popular here although the fried sweet potato variation, my fave, is as of yet not to be seen as that particular tuber is not consumed very often in the German diet. 4. Don't expect the same crazy roll availability as in the States--Monkey Stick or Lobster Sunrise anyone?--because since it has occurred only relatively recently to people in Germany that it is okay to eat raw fish, they are still not kinky enough to do a menage a trois with fish in rolls anytime soon, but I'm guessing it will happen sooner than I think!

And so we go onward to the--thank you Vincent Von Kries--Mikado, an Asian buffet restaurant. This pleasant surprise in Hannover is in almost every aspect like the ever popular Asian buffet restaurants found a dime a dozen in Southern California but with one noteworthy specialty and that is that they have an in-house chef fresh wok the protein and vegetables of your choice, as much as you want, with any of a number of pre-made sauces. Plus they had plenty of a la carte items that I actually recognize on top of the buffet option, such as Peking Duck, and there are pictures to accompany each dish so there is no mistake in what you are going to get, something I am beginning to realize is very important to the locals here when ordering anything foreign. In fact, I've now come to rely on pictures just as much in the search for the food my taste buds so sorely miss since the first thing it has to do is at least look like the dish. The ingredients at the Mikado ended up being top notch and the food made me smile all evening, appreciative of the familiarity in looks as well as flavors. Confidentially, I don't think the fresh wokked portion of the restaurant would work in America because German restraint doesn't translate well in a country where the ketchup flows like wine. It took a large amount of surreptitious self-discipline to prevent me from emptying the entire plate of scallops from the meat selection onto my own plate--go America, you can do it!

Since then Mario and I have continued with our quest and tried a noodle chain called Noosou that is in the Hannover train station. They advertise all sorts of noodle dishes made to order and we spotted a picture in the ubiquitous menu photo collage outside with a caption that said 'Pho' so that peaked our interest. We immediately ordered that along with a 'Phat Thai' and seated ourselves in anticipation. What arrived in about twenty minutes time were shadows of their actual greatness, the Pho being of course the worse for wear since real beef broth used in Pho takes one day to cook to perfection and no self respecting chain selling a hundred different noodle dishes could ever want to attempt that. The Phat Thai from Noosou, at the time mildly disappointing because the presentation was spot-on but the taste was a little off, ended up being the better of two attempts at ordering Pad Thai here in Hannover since we just went to our first Thai restaurant yesterday and their version was even further from the true dish, although the Thai restaurant's Panang curry was quite good. It took me this last trip to the restaurant to realize that the main fault with the Pad Thai here, along with the fact that neither of the restaurants served the noodle dish with lime, is the perceptible omission of fish sauce to cater to the German palate.

On a side note, I want to remind my readers that this is simply a scavenger hunt for food although I can't deny that I do miss what I like to eat and it shows. I am not trying to change the house the Germans live in, but rather like all the other immigrants in this beautiful country I am only trying to bring something new to the potluck and share with my readers what I have found to be true here in Germany also--people are pioneers and continue to seek out adventure. It will be fun to see where this culinary exploration in Germany will lead us next!

Bombs Away!

2011-01-07T00:47:00.000+01:00

The table is set and ready for us at Georg and Vincent's place! How cool are they??

The raclette spread.

Georg making his rounds.

Almost everybody has one of these weather stations in the house but this one is extra cool cuz the little guy dresses appropriately for the weather outside and on hot days he wears nothing but a pair of swim trunks!

'Raclette' is originally a French word meaning 'to scrape' and that is exactly what you do with these little hot plates once the food is cooked.

Happy New Year Hannover!

In front of the Hannover Hauptbahnhof.

Mario fortifying.

Helping out the cause.

Rafaela making a wish?

I've never played with colored sparklers before so this was pretty exciting for me.

After stumbling home we sweeten the deal with some more champagne and some Berliners--the Germans swear they're not but they taste just like jelly filled donuts. Vincent bought me a German pastry that looks like a little Chinese guy with a straw hat!

The next morning we resume our daily ritual of an everyday German breakfast: toast or bread, coffee, juice, soft boiled eggs and an assortment of jams and spreads.

Despite the warnings of our elders and even naysayers our own age, Mario and I planned our New Years around heading downtown here in Hannover to scope out the public fireworks scene on the 31st since setting off fireworks is legal here on new years eve. For the two days leading up to our proclaimed program, people joked as well as pantomimed scenarios for us simulating body parts getting blown up, shield wielding to avoid falling debris, and war zone evading Call of Duty style.

My mom always has this saying in Chinese that "You're unafraid of death because you haven't seen your own casket yet," and I suppose it's true to some extent for me. I haven't yet broken any bones in my body, haven't yet had any sort of major surgery or trauma either--knock on wood! The only thing I think that could possibly come close would be when my surfboard's nose hit me on the side of my head in 2004 and I had to get seven stitches next to my ear. That and I had my wisdom teeth pulled when I was fifteen, but that's about it I think. So yeah, I can understand the concern but I have to do it anyway, especially if it's the first time.

With the help of some willing and super cooperative friends of ours, we started off New Years Eve with an amazing meal that helped fortify us for setting off our own sparks later. Like the yearly resuscitation of "It's a Wonderful Life" on television and fruitcake gifting during Christmas for the Americans, the Germans have their own New Year's Eve rituals that are characteristic and much anticipated. The first of these is the breaking out of the raclette oven. This is essentially a tableside broiler that is used communally like a Korean BBQ hotplate by the entire table, usually accommodating up to six people but sometimes eight per oven--I imagine my family gatherings alone would probably start a small electrical fire with the amount of ovens we would need to operate at the same time! A spread of boiled potatoes, assorted veggies, meats, butter, raw eggs, sauces and the appropriately named raclette cheese--a lot like a softer gouda--used for melting over everything is laid out. Then it's a free for all and everybody musters their best creative efforts in making the perfect raclette dish of the evening for themselves. Beers are poured, bread is passed, and shots of some stronger stuff are taken by the more stoic ones in need of a little bit more loosening up in between bouts of broiling food. You usually only stop when you realize your pants are getting extremely uncomfortable.

The second of these yearly traditions is the watching of "Dinner for One." If you have no idea what this is, just look it up on Wikipedia. It is at this very moment the Guinness record holder for most repeated TV program ever and you can start this very German, Swedish, as well as Danish tradition yourself by accessing the video via YouTube. I can still remember coming over for my first German new years in 2007 with my brother, Brian, and we gathered around the Lau's family television with a roomful of people to see this eighteen minute comedy production about an elder woman and her butler serving her a meal that takes place each year at the same time. Needless to say we were pretty impressed with what we saw. With its perfect comic timing, dry British humor and vintage appeal, I can't see why this isn't just as well loved as Monty Python is in the U.S.

Afterward, champagne and fireworks in tow, we bundle up for a fifteen minute walk from our friend's apartment to the main train station in Hannover to stake our claim on the new year's celebrations. We enter in on an enthusiastic display of sounds and sparks in front of the station and after finding a clear area to stand around we proceed to burn a few sticks of lightning ourselves from a six Euro bag of tricks we bought at the local grocery store that included seven small rockets, a bunch of assorted firecrackers, sparklers and little fire devils that spun around on the ground like the Tasmanian animal. It's an awesome feeling to be out and about with the locals taking part in what is essentially a consensual evening of possible danger but with great rewards if survived. We witnessed a larger firework accidentally launched from afar toward a small group of guys gathered around a phone booth not more than ten yards away from us, large green and gold confetti flew around and lit their bewildered faces but none were hurt. Lucky for us the night remained mercifully lighthearted, dismemberment-free, and full of good memories made with friends old and new. We saw everything while wearing our childish hearts on our sleeves and were not denied the unfettered pleasure of pure wonderment, something I am always grateful for.

Thank you to everyone here who have read thus far, we thought of each of you on our escapade into a new land to celebrate an event as old as time itself and wish you all a happy and healthy new year!