Cascais

Yesterday we took the train west – at the rock-bottom price of €1.15 – to the town of Cascais. Here we found a small beach town with an active marina. My tour book describes the town as a fishing village, and though we missed the morning fish market – a wholesale auction – there were enough boats and fisherman organizing their traps on the docks to affirm this impression.

In front of the marina was a small downtown area with shops and restaurants. The weather was warm and the sun was out, so we were able to have lunch outside in one of the squares filled with café tables.

The only disappointment I had was that there is a New York Times travel article about the thriving art scene here. When we stopped at the tourist information office to pick up a town map to find the Ellipse Foundation Contemporary Art Center we were told that it’s not actually in Cascais, but north in a town called Alcoitao. Though I don’t think it was very far out of town, we decided to skip it and head back to Lisbon instead. The pastries that we picked up to eat on the train made up for any disappointment I might have had.

Lisbon Without a Plan

Kevin and I had a perfect day in Lisbon: We wandered around, had lunch, got ourselves good and lost, sat on the steps of a statue and people watched, found the ruins of the church we were looking for, and drank coffee at a sidewalk café. For dinner I had a traditional dish of bread boiled in olive oil with shrimp and a raw egg mixed in. It was like the Portuguese version of shrimp and grits.

The city has quirky shops and interesting alleys to explore. The people have great style and seemed happy to be trying out their new spring looks. What really struck me a great about the day was that I didn’t feel any pressure to see everything. I don’t know if that is a result of Lisbon’s low-key attitude, its short list of must-see attractions, or the fact that I didn’t imposing a the same set of expectations I’ve had for other European trips.

Last spring I spent two weeks in Italy. I had an amazing time, but I also came home exhausted. I couldn’t relax because every time we slowed down I felt like we were missing something important. There was so much to see and only two weeks to see it in. In Lisbon though, I was happy to sit, people watch, and soak up the flavor.

Traveling to Lisbon

I’m at the Bonn-Köln airport this morning, waiting for my flight to Portugal. The airport is very quite and orderly . . . and it's even under construction. Amazing!

Perfect Dinner

People keep telling me that a great way to improve my German is by watching T.V. The problem is, German T.V. is generally pretty terrible. I can't stand watching English-language programming that has been dubbed over in German and original German programming seems like low-budget soap operas. Recently I found one German program that I not only can sit through, but that I actually enjoy.

Das Perfekete Dinner (The Perfect Dinner) is a reality cooking show. In it five contestants have to host a dinner party, with each person cooking on a different day. The contestants then get to rate each dinner – from the taste of the food, to the decor, to how long they had to wait for dessert.

Even though I only understand a few words, I love to see the people chatting so nicely during the dinner . . . then give their comments in private.

No Country for Watching Oscars

I thought about watching the Oscars last night. Around midnight though, with over two hours to go before they even started, I gave up and when to bed.

My heart wasn't really in it because I haven't seen a single Oscar nominated film this year. Instead, I've been watching German films (sometimes with, sometimes without English subtitles). One of the most interesting films that I've seen was "Der Untergang" (shown in the U.S. as "Downfall," which was nominated for Best Foreign Film in 2005).

This film, which I watched in German without subtitles, is about Hitler's last days. Even though I didn't understand any of the dialog I came away from the movie wondering how to feel about a film that portrayed Hitler as a human. Later I learned that when it was in theaters there was a lot of controversy about the film for that very reason. For me, this was an important German – that sometimes emotions are more powerful then the actual words.

Wurst of the Week – 2/25

I think this is some type of blood sausage. It must be at least four feet long. I didn't have enough nerve to try it.

The World Is Small ... But Not the Same

With Skype, CNN international, streaming radio through iTunes, the New York Times online, e-mail, and IM it's easy to stay connected to what's going on back in the states. So easy, in fact, that some days I can almost forget that I'm in another country.

Here's a list a short list of reminders that I'm living in a different culture:
• No speed limits
• Beer is cheaper than water
• The yogurt section in the grocery store takes an entire aisle – or two
• The sheer variety of sausage
• No closets
• The ability to get to another country in a couple of hours
• Retail Saturdays, followed by quite Sunday

Mini Fridge Maintenance Mean Biscuit Bakin'

Is that a dishwasher under my counter? Why no, that's my refrigerator! I know...the fridge in your dorm room was bigger, right?

And here's the real kicker: You'd think it would be easy to keep such a small fridge in order, but the opposite is true. It's hard to see anything in there. Small packages (all that will fit) get lost in the back of the tiny shelves.

Yesterday, while taking inventory I discovered a cup of buttermilk. It had to be used immediately or throw out. This was the best excuse I was going to get to make another batch of the biscuits that I blogged about at the beginning of the month.

This time I brushed the tops with olive oil (we were running low on butter) to achieved the glossy effect missing from the first batch. However, I overworked the dough and the final product was a bit tougher than I would have liked. I guess this means my biscuit quest is not yet over.

A Crepe Mistake

You guessed it, last night I whisked up my first batch of "Dutch" pancakes. (I have inserted quotation marks here because the result was not what I had envisioned – and not Dutch at all.)

Yesterday I poked around the Internet looking for a pannekoek recipe. There was a vast array of options but nothing jumped out at me as the definitive recipe. So, I winged it. The resulting batter was too close to a crepe batter. Don't get me wrong, it was a yummy crepe batter (recipe below), but it was only thick enough to really cook in the bacon* and sautéed apples because I added an extra ladle full of batter.

The real star of the meal though, was the salad. Mache, beets, walnuts, goat cheese, and blood orange vinaigrette (recipe below)!

* I loved the bacon's packaging. I thought it was "so German" until I read the label and saw that it comes from Austria. Anyway, I just had to share it!

Crepes

1 cup flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
A pinch of salt
A pinch of nutmeg
A drop of vanilla extract

Whisk all of the ingredients together. Let batter rest for at least half and hour. In a hot medium skillet* add a few drop of oil. Pour in one ladle full of batter. Twirl the pan around so that the batter extends to the edges of the pan. Cook until the top is almost dry. Flip. Cook for another minute.

The crepes can be filled with just about anything – fruit, meat, cheese – or better yet, smeared with Nutella.

* Most people suggest using a nonstick pan for making crepes. I don't have a nonstick skillet the right size, so I just used a regular frying pan.

Blood Orange Vinaigrette*

Juice of 1 blood orange
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Whisk everything together and pour over salad.

* Since the oranges are sweeter than lemons, limes, or vinegar – the usual acids in vinaigrettes you don't need to follow the traditional ratio of one part acid to three parts oil.

Pancake, Pancake

Since traveling to Amsterdam last fall I've been in love with Dutch pancakes.* Thicker then a crepe and thinner than an American pancake they are the perfect – substantial enough to feel like a meal without being a complete carbo-overload.

A vehicle for all things sweet or savory, I've found a decent pfannkucken (that's the German word; it's pannekoek in Dutch) prepackaged at Kaisers, a chain of German grocery stores that is somehow associated with A&P. Last night I filled our pancakes with sautéed mushrooms, shredded chicken, and goat cheese. To make it a meal I also made salad of mache (a.k.a. lamb’s lettuce, which is very popular here), beets (also precooked and available from the grocery store), and walnut oil.

Dinner was delicious and done in less than ten minutes, but it left the cook in me a little unsatisfied. I spent the entire deep relaxation at the end of my yoga class thinking about making my own pancake. It can't be the hard...so stay tuned.

* We ate at Pancake!, which was recommented in the New York Time's "36 Hours in Amsterdam" article.

Gummies Galor

Bonn is home to the Haribo candy company. Haribo is actually an acronym for the founder's name and city – Hans Riegel, Bonn. Haribo is best known as the manufacturer of Goldbären, a.k.a. Gold-Bears, a.k.a Gummi Bears.

Even though they don't have factory tours, which I think is too bad, the factory store not too far from my house. Yesterday I stopped and got the fixin's for a serious sugar rush. Here you can purchase gummy candies in every imaginable shape, including racecars, rats, cherries, French fries (which is weird to me), butterflies, and Smurfs. They also sell tons of flavors such as wine and cola (my new favorite).

Wurst of the Week – 2/18

Mini Salami Bites: Brilliant or repulsive, you decide. It kind of reminds me of salami flavored popcorn.

Trier Road Trip

We got our new car this weekend – an automatic. Kevin, sick and tired of being my chauffer, suggested that we take a road trip so that I could spend some time behind the wheel. We decided to go to Trier on Saturday.

Trier, located near the boarders of France and Luxemburg, is German’s oldest city. It was Rome’s capital for the area encompassing modern German, France, Spain, and England, so a plethora of ancient Roman buildings constitute the top tourist attractions. We visited:
• The Porta Negra, a sandstone gate that has turned black over time; it makes an imposing back drop for the town’s main square, which hosts the local market
• The Imperial Throne Room, which is a Lutheran Church today; it’s huge – the ceiling tiles are 10 by 10 feet squares of mahogany, and very impressive
• The Imperial Baths, a series of tunnels and the ruins of an amphitheater, which are dark, damp, and a little bit creepy

We also visited the Dom (Cathedral), which is Germany’s oldest Catholic Church.

I drove on the way home. I am happy to report that driving on the speed-limitless Autobahn was great…and the fact that the car only has kilometers on the odometer means that I have no idea how fast I was really going.

Packin’ Heat

Seriously. If you visit Germany and like spicy food you’d better bring your own bottle of hot sauce. Even restaurants where you’d expect to find some heat – Indian and Thai* – there’s not a lot of kick.

I’ve found some spicy peppers in the local Middle Eastern bodegas, called Marco Shops. Also, there is an Asian store where I can re-sock my supply of Flying Goose hot sauce, which is like Huy Fong Foods rooster hot sauce sold in the states. But, regular German supermarkets leave a lot to be desired in this department.

Yesterday, using the leftover chicken and spinach from the soup from the night before, I made Quesadillas. The salsa that I picked up tasted like cocktail sauce. Fortunately, I was able to pull together a kiwi salsa (recipe below) that included some of the Rooster sauce.

* There is one very good Thai restaurant – thankfully down the street from us. The food is lecker (delicious in German) and the hot dishes are truely hot.

Kiwi Salsa

This salsa literally took me less then five minutes to assemble. (The Quesadillas were in the oven when I discovered that the jar of salsa I bought tasted like cocktail sauce.)

2 Kiwis
1/2 red or orange pepper
1/2 small red onion
1 teaspoon Asian-style hot sauce
Salt and pepper

Peel kiwi and cut into small dices. Finely chop pepper and onion. Add hot sauce. Toss together. Season with salt and pepper.

Not Mama's Chicken Noodle Soup

Yesterday Kevin was traveling and would be home late. With no time in his schedule for dinner, I knew he'd be hungry. I decided to make soup for dinner. It could be made ahead and simply heated it up when he got home.

But, it was Valentine's Day and let's face it, chicken noodle soup – though healthy and soul nourishing – is, well, boring. For a twist I made a Sherry-laced chicken broth to pour over shredded chicken, cheese tortellini, spinach, and caramelized leeks. (Recipe in the post below.)

The trick to this soup is to have the broth, chicken, spinach, pasta, and leeks separate then compose each bowl just before serving. That way all of the ingredients are cooked perfectly* and re-warmed with the piping hot both.

* I generally avoid using spinach in soup because it turns an ugly green and kind of slimy. Here I use raw spinach and it perfectly wilts under the hot broth.

Sherry-laced chicken and cheese tortellini soup with spinach and caramelized onions*

2 onions
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
4 teaspoons olive oil
2 chicken breasts
10 whole peppercorns
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup Sherry
2 cups fresh spinach
1 half-pound package of cheese tortellini
Salt and pepper

Rough cut half of one onion, one carrot, and one stalk of celery. In a medium-size pot sauté the onion in one teaspoon of olive oil for about a minute. Add the carrots and celery and sauté for another minute. Add the chicken breasts and cover the contents of the pot by two inches with water. Add peppercorns. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Poach the chicken for twenty minutes skimming any film off the top of poaching liquid.

Caramelize one of the onions in a small frying pan. Cut the onion in half from root to tip, remove the skin, and slice into long thin slices from the root to tip. Cook in 2 teaspoons of olive oil over low heat until dark brown, tossing occasionally to avoid burning. (You will have leftovers, which is a good thing. Toss then in a salad or put them on a sandwich.)

While the chicken is poaching and the onion caramelizing, finely chop the remaining half of the onion, carrot, and celery and mince the garlic. When the chicken is opaque all the way through, remove it from the liquid and set aside to cool. Strain the poaching liquid and discard the vegetables. Set the liquid aside.

Cook tortellini according to package instructions.

Put the pot back on the stove. Add 1 teaspoon of oil and sauté the onion and garlic for about a minute. Add the carrots and celery and sauté for another two minutes. Add the Sherry to deglaze the pan and allow the liquid to evaporate. Add the poaching liquid and season with salt and pepper.

Shred the chicken. Chop spinach. Assemble ingredients in a bowl and pour over hot broth. Garnish with a slice of Parmesan sliced with a vegetable peeler.

* In the post above I used leeks, but in the past I've made this soup with caramelized onions, which are better. Onions have a more intense flavor and get a more beautiful brown color.

Two Hearts Together as One

Don't worry. This is not a cheesy love-metaphor post. It's about the heart-shaped Linzer tart cookies that I made yesterday.

My sandwich cookies, based on Martha's Pecan Linzer Tart recipe, was made with ground walnuts. I used less sugar than Martha since I knew that the raspberry jam I had for the filling was rather sweet. The dough was drier than I expected, but after letting it rest in the fridge it rolled out very nicely.

I had to make a heart template out of cardboard since I couldn't find a heart-shaped cookie cutter in my collection. (What kind of person has cookie cutters in the shape of North Carolina, a t-shirt, and the Cathedral in Cologne, but doesn’t have a heart?)

Kevin called half way through the assembly process and said he was on his way home, which was much earlier than I expected. That meant that I didn't have time to cook and strain the jam. Instead I just spread it on straight from the jar. Also, I didn’t have any confectioner sugar so I ground up the white heart-shaped Valentine candies with love messages on them and sprinkled the resulting powder on instead.

Next time I make these cookies I think it would be yummy to use peanuts instead of walnuts – creating twist on a classic PB and J.

Cheesy German

My German Tuesday-night routine includes attending the only yoga class taught in English in the Bonn/Cologne area. (I am working up the courage to go to class in German, but I'm not there yet.) I am super lucky because the class is relatively close to my house. The only problem is that it starts at 8:30 P.M.

This means that I have to make an early dinner that's not too heavy. Yesterday afternoon I was in Bonn's downtown shopping district (known as Zentrum in German), so I decided to gather up the fixin's for a salad at the market. (As if I really need an excuse to shop at the farmer's market.) The highlight of this shopping excursion was at the cheese wagon (pictured here). Although the Rochford cheese that I bought was good, my real moment of joy came when I managed to ask, and understand the answer to, what was the difference between the three types of blue cheese sold – in German.

At home my purchases – Rochford, butter lettuce, and Asian pairs – were tossed with caramelized onions and croutons that I made the night before, carrots, and cucumbers. Delicious!

Greening Up My Pepper White

The decision to move to Germany meant that I had to sell my Mini Cooper. I was sad for a while, but now that I’ve replaced it with a new vehicle – the City 200 – I’m happy as a clam.

Here’s a list of similarities. Both:
• Are pepper white
• Have very small trunks
• Are more fun in good weather
• Fit into tight parking spots
• Are built with superior German engineering
• Allow me to feel the wind in my hair
• Are great in the city, but get a little uncomfortable after a long ride

And while the Mini got great gas mileage, I do like knowing that I have done one more thing to reduce my carbon footprint.

Am I a German Cook Now?

This weekend I cooked a meal that was – in my opinion – so German that it forced me to stop and think about how my cooking has changed in the last four months. The meal was a roasted pork loin with sauted apples with ginger, new potatoes, and cabbage. (And my new favorit beer, a dark wheat beer.)

Ask me on a day-by-day basis if my cooking has changed since I moved to German and I'd say no. I still make many of the same things that I cooked at home in New York and in North Carolina. But, when I really reflect on what we've been eating I can't deny that the local ingredients have had an effect on me.

For one thing, we're eating more meat then we ever did in the U.S. What is it about Europe and pork? For another thing the veggies are different. There is a smaller variety, but something that are staples here would be consiered exotic (or at least unusual) at home such as celery root and kolorabi.

2/11: Wurst of the Week

Here’s what I found out about the Mystery Meat from Irene, who I inherited it from: [I got it] from our Germany neighbors...it came from the local butcher in our village [near Kaiserslautern]. I believe it's like a pâté...a spread for crackers, bread, etc. At least that's what Dave thinks...I never touched the stuff myself. Enjoy!

Trashing My Trash

We've started composting -- finally.

The Germans a very responsible about their garbage and have four different bins: paper, packaging, bio, and general trash. From day one in Germany we have been separating out our paper and packaging, but we weren't composing. Now, after one week of keeping all of our vegetable scaps, fruit peelings, egg shells, and coffee grinds I am amazed at how much less trash we create. And it's so easy. We have a small waste basket (with a tight fitting lid) that all organic material gets placed in. Then the city picks up the green bio bins once a week.

Viva Colonia!

What Oktoberfest is to Munich, Carnival is to Cologne.

Viva Colonia! I made it through my first Carnival season – a little tired and with very sore feet and a slight headache from all the chocolate (or was it the Kolsh?). Carnival "officially" started on November 11 at 11:11 (known in German as elf die elf) but events really start kicking off the week before Ash Wednesday.

This year I went to a concert at the Cologne area featuring umpa cheerleaders, mini kegs, old ladies with Kolsh koozies (knitted necklaces to hold their beer glasses), and everyone -- I mean everyone -- in costume. Being in costume is an essential part of Carnival. Even Grandmas on the bus were decked out in their clown costumes with full face make-up. On Thursday was Weiberfastnachte, otherwise know as the woman's carnival. We started drinking well before noon -- all things carnival seem to start at 11:11. For hours on end we danced to Carnival music and most people sang.

Parades and drinking (in costume) went on all weekend. Even our little town of Bad Godesburg has a parade. On Monday, know as Rosenmontag, there was a big parade in Cologne. And, where the people in New Orleans throw beads from the floats, the people here throw chocolate and flowers. This was great, but also a little scare because sometimes the boxes of chocoate were pretty big and looked like they could really hurt someone. People in the windows of the buildings used umbrellas to catch the chocolate from their windows.

My Carnival Costumes

I'm not sure how it happened, but in both of my Carnival costumes I appear to be dressed in drag – once as a man dressing as a woman and once as a woman dressing as a man.

P.S. Women dressed like men don't get a lot of flowered at the parade.

Super Bowl...Monday

Kevin (more so than I) was excited to be invited to a Super Bowl party. Who knew that the Super Bowl would be broadcast on German television? The only problem was that it is broadcast live, which meant that the game didn't start until 12:30 AM. Does that make it Superbowl Monday?

But still, I thought it was my duty to make a "traditional" American Super Bowl dish – Seven Layer Dip. The only problem was that serving traditional American food doesn't mean that I made something that I love. Instead of preparing something wonderful and delicious I ended up with a dish that could have come from Ladies Home Journal, circa 1986. My seven layers included: refried beans gussied up with garlic and shallots, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, black olives, cheddar cheese, and hot peppers.

Discovering My "Almost" Southern Roots

Greens, corn bread, fried chicken, barbequed ribs, mac 'n cheese – these are all wonderful foods that I associate with America's South.

Thanks in part to the January issue of Gourmet magazine – which could have inspired anyone to speak with a drawl and long for a poach swing and pitcher of sweet tea – I now think that I didn't spend enough time in Raleigh to full explore Southern cooking. Maybe that's a good thing though...I wonder if real Southerners would accept me as a Southern cook. You have to admit though, it's a bit ironic that while living in German I've decided that I really want to master the art of making good biscuits.

Saturday represented my first attempt. They weren't perfect, but they weren't a totally belly bomb either. I used what I assume is the German version of all purpose flour, didn't sift the ingredients, replaced the lard for butter, and left off the final brushing of melted butter. Next time I'll definitely add the melted butter because this batch didn't have glossy tops, but otherwise I think I'm on the right track.

Stay posted for round two.