Kassel, Germany

So after a drive through the Dolomites, my mom and I ended up in Kassel, Germany for the night.  Lynn, my mom and I ended up having so much stuff that Lynn had to rent a car and then fly from Milan to Stockholm after our stopover at Lake Como.  There, I said it.

By the time we got to Kassel, we were exhausted.  We got checked in and asked about a restaurant nearby.  After the woman at the front desk suggested Italian and we nixed that, she suggested a Spanish restaurant called El Erni.  We took the metro over there and had a quick walk.  I didn't know what to expect.  I was very happy with what we got.

We were shown into a room where all the tables had candles and white table clothes.  And the menu was blessedly lacking in Italian food.  Look, I love Italian food.  It's comforting.  But after six weeks, you just need some hardy German food (or in this case, Spanish).

We started with some Manchengo cheese.  They also brought out some warm bread with the cheese so that the it kind of melted on to the bread.

For my main, I got the turkey cutlet with cheese and a gravy sauce.  Now, I know it's not Spanish food.  But it was so darn good.  So good.  The turkey was moist, which can be hard to achieve with a cutlet.  The cheese was thick and melted and browned perfectly and the sauce was just plain good.  It was lick your plate good.  Sadly, we didn't do dessert, but we did have some glasses of house wine- two different Spanish wines.  Both were good, and no, I don't remember their names.  But, I find it difficult to go wrong with Spanish whites.  But, I assume that it can be done.  I'll let you know if that ever happens to me.

We caught the train back and got back to our room.  We were greeted with a little bag of gummi bears instead of chocolate on our pillows.  How nice and different.

I know that I haven't spoken much about breakfast here in Europe.  When we stay at hotels, for the most part, breakfast is included.  It's not a lavish affair by any means.  Fresh fruit, breads, cereal, yogurt, deli style meat and cheese, juices, coffee, tea and Nutella.  Lots of Nutella.  Maybe if you are lucky, you may stay at a place that has eggs and some bacon.  But the breakfast at the Ramada in Kassel was fit for a king.  They did charge us extra, but if you were starving, it is worth it.  Eggs, sausages, bacon, potatoes, cereals, yogurt, juices, coffee, tea, breads, cheeses, meats, veggies, fruit and more.  It was insane.

I wish I had more than 18 hours in Kassel.  It was a charming town that had a lot to do.  It is supposed to be the start of the German fairy tale road.

Italia!

I am going to do several days in one since I need to get all caught up with being here and travelling, and of course eating and drinking.

We drove from Lindau, Germany to Preci, Italy on April 21.  We made it in 8 hours.  I drove for part of the way there.  Go me!  The Mercedes is probably the most expensive car that I will ever drive.  Although, never say never.  The Villino was nice enough to pack us some sandwiches and fruit.  We pulled over to get the car filled up and ate in the parking lot.  We drove through some beautiful scenery on our way to central Umbria, where Preci is located.  We were met by Veronica, who showed us the way to our home away from home for the next six weeks.  We hauled all of our baggage up the hills to our house, and only had enough left in us to go to the local alimentare and buy some necessities for the next day or two.

All I can say is, there is nothing better than fresh baked bread from the local baker.  So good!  I wasn't feeling so well when we got in, so I didn't eat anything for dinner.  There were a few kinks that had to be worked out at the house though.  The owners forgot the password for the internet, which meant going into town the next day and up to Il Collaccio.  This was alright by us for the most part, except before we left, we decided to do a few loads of laundry.  Now, if you have never traveled abroad and tried to do laundry over here in someone's house, a word of caution.  First off, the washers are a lot smaller.  In the U.S., you can fit 10 towels in the washer and dryer.  Here, you are lucky if you can get 5 in and ever luckier if there is a dryer.  Which brings me to my second point- there are no dryers unless you are in a hotel and are paying them.  Or, like we later found out, willing to pay someone or in our case, Il Collaccio to use their washers AND dryer.  Although, the ones at Il Collaccio are like the ones we used in college dorms- large and very nice.

Back to Il Collaccio and the 22nd.  We came up here to use the internet and decided that since there wasn't that much to eat back home, that we would eat here.  The restaurant is called Il Porcello Felice (The Happy Pig) and now I know why.  The food was very good.  I decided to have pizza and a farro salad.  Farro is a traditional type of grain in Italy.  Think of it as rice.  My salad was cold, but it was drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was mixed with tomatoes and arugula.  The pizza was stone fired and amazing!  The crust was so thin and flavorful, the sauce was homemade and not from a jar and the mozzarella, wow.  Buttery and just so darn good.

Monday, the 23rd, we were up and out to explore what the region had to offer.  We decided to go to Torgiano.  It was a short trip, however it was made longer by the fact that we stopped off in Visso to get Chiavettas.  Chiavettas are thumb drives with SIM cards in them.  They plug into your computer and you can get WiFi through the cell phone signals.  It makes everything better while traveling.  After Visso, we drove to Torgiano and ate lunch at Il Spiro.  I decided on trying to be Italian and ate pasta carbonara with guanciale (pig cheek bacon) and the grilled chicken.  The carbonara was good, but what made the dish was the guanciale.  It was so fatty, but never chewy.

The grilled chicken was placed on top of a lot of arugula and was topped with Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.  The chicken was chicken- it wasn't dry, which was a blessing.  However, I have to say this.  Arugula- not that big of a fan.  The arugula here is SUPER peppery.  It overwhelms everything that you put it with.  And it is in EVERY salad.  Ugh.  With the meal, we tried a bit of the wine grown and produced locally by the Lungarotti family.  It was very nice- it was a white and was crisp and refreshing.

After lunch, we headed over to the Olive Oil Museum and the Wine Museum.  It walked you through the history of production and the many different uses that olive oil and wine have had through history- medical, religious, trade, etc.  I wanted to buy a book about the two, but they weren't in English.  Sad day.

On the 25th, we took another drive, this time to Norcia.  We decided to eat lunch at Ristorante Granaro del Monte.  Norcia, food-wise, is famous for their truffles.  Lots and lots of truffles dominate their dishes.  You can buy honey with truffles in it, pasta with truffles mixed in, risotto with truffles, etc.  And that is just in the shops.  Forget about the number of dishes with truffles in them at the restaurants.

I opted for the sausages stuffed with truffles and cheese.  The verdict- way to much salt.  The truffles were in paste form.  The cheese was salty and so was the sausage.  I also imagine that the truffle paste had salt in it as well.  However, the restaurant itself was lovely.  The picture above is their grill.  I was sitting next to said grill.  Almost all of the meats that were cooked in that restaurant were grilled.  The cook running the grill was skilled in knowing when to add more wood, where and how often.

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture from our balcony in Preci.  Sorry for all the text and the lack of pictures.  I was bad at taking pictures of all the food and wine.  But the next post...well, let's just say that if it were my last meal, I could die happy.

Maybe one of the best meals...ever.

First off, let me just say that I obviously love food.  I enjoy spending money on food more than I do on clothes, shoes, etc.  I also love a nice glass of wine every now and then.  Before I let you all in, I want to fill you in on what we did on our last day in Germany before heading to our house in Italy (see, I am slowly catching up).

The day started out with a trip to Friedrechshafen, Germany.  This is about a 20 minute drive from Lindau.  We spent part of the day at the Zeppelin Museum.  That was very impressive to see.  They have a replica of what one of the blimps looked like on the inside.  It took 12 days to get from Germany to Rio de Janiero.  They were called floating luxury ships, and you weren't crowded on board with 1,200 of your closest friends like you are with a regular cruise ship.  However, the Hindenburg disaster and World War II brought an end to their use.  They have recently started producing them again as use for tourist trips around a set area...think a ride over a national park, etc.

After our trip the museum, we went out for a quick bite at Brot and Kaffee.  I had a crepe with cheese, prosciutto and sour cream.  Sounds odd, but it was so good.  We didn't want to eat a whole lot since we were going to eat dinner at 6 pm.

We headed back to the hotel and packed.  Then, all we had to do was to traipse down the stairs to the restaurant.  The meal began with a tuna bite and bacon-flavored dashi.  I know, I know-it sounds odd.  But let me tell you, it was so good.  I don't like the flavor of dashi by itself.  This could be because fish is not one of my favorite foods.  This though, this was a grown up lollipop.  The tuna was so fresh and the dashi tasted like liquefied bacon.  How can you say no?

This was followed by what I can only call the wine that Jesus would have turned water into.  Sorry John and Frs. L, Thu and Jude.  It's just a true shame that I can never find this anywhere but in Germany.  Maybe if I promise to pay Spec's tons of money, they may import it.  I can only hope.  Just as a side note, we told ourselves before dinner that we were going to each have a glass of wine with dinner and then take the rest of the bottle with us to Italy.  That didn't happen.

I decided not to get an appetizer, but my aunt did.  She got the scallops.  They were wrapped in a potato crust and sauteed.  They looked amazing.

Maybe my presentation is what got me a C in Art Culinare.  Since I KNOW my plating never, ever looked like this.  It also could have been the fact that I lacked patience to sous vide anything and never grasped why I needed to make tomato water for one dish.  Ok, back to the food.  I ordered the duck with curry jus.  My aunt got the perch with sauteed treviso.

My duck was served with a "special kind of potato" that was mashed and potato dumplings that were filled. And what were they filled with?  Why, more duck.  It gave new meaning to meat and potatoes.  Seeing these pictures again makes me want the duck.  I am not to sure what the special kind of potato was that was mashed, all I know is that they were the most drool-inducing mashed potatoes that I have ever eaten.

The meal was finished with a selection of mini-deserts from the kitchen.  How can I say no to little French Macaroons and white chocolate and vanilla truffles?

It's obvious that I can't say no to mini-deserts and so I didn't.  Thankfully, after the meal, we didn't have that far to go to get back to our room and lapse into food-induced comas.

Next:  Welcome to Italy.

Lindau, Germany

Left Salzburg early enough in the morning and headed to our final stop in Germany before we headed to Italy.  We stayed at the Hotel Villino.  The Villino is actually located outside of Lindau, as Lindau is actually an island on the shores of Lake Constance.  Lake Constance is bordered by Germany, Austria and Switzerland and as such you can take a boat all around the lake and go to the various countries.  If you are so inclined, you can also take the time to visit Lichtenstein.  That is only if you feel the need to set up a tax-free corporation, which I wasn't so inclined to do on this trip.  Maybe next time.

We arrived in time for lunch.  We decided to drive from our hotel to Lindau Insel, about 15 minutes away via car.  We ate at Da Corti, an Italian restaurant in the city center.  I choose the Veal Saltimbocca.  It was served with fries on the side.  It was just ok, but the sauce was fantastic.  The veal had way to much sage on it.  I do like sage, but this tasted like eating grass.  We followed up our meal with large chocolate ice cream sundaes- topped with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and chocolate sauce.  I think they did ice cream better than the veal saltimbocca.  Now that was fantastic.

After lunch, we walked down to the harbor area and decided to have some tea since it had gotten chilly.

Look at me, trying to get all artsy.  The harbor area of Lindau was fantastic.  Actually, the whole island is fantastic.  It's just peaceful.  On the way back, we walked back past the old town hall and a fountain all decked out for Easter.  I really like the tradition of decorating things with painted eggs for Easter...and not garishly painted with glitter glue and crayons.

Next up:  One of the best meals and wines that I have ever had.

Baden Baden and Salzburg, Austria

I know I am really behind on blog posts.  Wi-fi has been an issue, but we finally have it sorted out.  I am currently in Italy right now, but I need (and want) to finish talking about our trip through Austria and Germany.

On April 17, we walked around Baden Baden.  We ended up eating lunch at Leo's.  It wasn't much.  They had a lunch special for 10 euros that got you a main course and a cup of coffee/cappuccino/tea afterwards.  Not a bad deal in a town that is pretty pricey.  I got the cordon bleu.  It wasn't the best thing that I have ever eaten.  You know the meals I mean...the ones that after you have eaten them, you think to yourself, "Well, at least now I won't be starving later."  It was one of those.  The chicken wasn't dry, which is always a blessing.  It was difficult to find the cheese in it though.  It did need more salt.  The fries that it was served with were good though and of course they were from frozen.  Can't have it all for 10 euros can you?

The drive to Salzburg took us about 4 hours.  We stayed at the Hotel Schloss Monchstein and got in just in time to have drinks and dinner.  There weren't a lot of people staying in the hotel and as such, we were the only ones there for dinner that night.  The dinning room is small and has a great view of the mountains as well as part of the city.  It was so peaceful and quite there.  To start with, we had what amounts to Tuna Canneloni with asparagus cream.

Delicious is the only way to describe what came out of the kitchen.  The tuna was topped with more asparagus cream.  This was courtesy of the kitchen.  We followed this up with an asparagus salad.  Lynn and I split it.  Let me just say that I have eaten more asparagus this trip then I have in the past month.  And I haven't even been in Europe for a week.  I guess we can thank the fact it is asparagus season here for that.  Let me just say that I have never tasted asparagus that is this good in so many different preparations.

It was an asparagus salad with white asparagus served with Parmesan and soured milk (the circle things with purple on top).  As you can see, the presentation was fantastic.  I don't know what the purple stuff was.  However, the soured milk was salty and not all that good in combination with the salad.  The asparagus puree underneath was just another layer of flavor.  My main course was Pike Perch with Parmesan sauce and balsamic vinegar (and more asparagus).

Again, a beautiful presentation.  The fish was nice and moist.  The sauce didn't overpower the fish as can sometimes happen.  The sauce was so delicate.  And the balsamic vinegar just added to everything that it touched.  Finely, we ended with chocolates from the kitchen.

The chocolates were presented on a bed of ground cocoa nibs.  Let me just say that there are very few things that I want with my chocolate.  Booze, nuts and fruit are really not high on the list.  There were only two chocolates that fit that bill on the plate.  Thankfully, Lynn and I found them, but only after eating some filled with booze, nuts and fruit.

After this delicious meal, it was time to head back to our room and try to get some sleep.  Stay tuned to find out about my meal at the oldest restaurant in the world!

  

Baden Baden- Brenner's Park Hotel

Well, we made it on our first drive from Sindelfingen to Baden Baden.  The car handles like a dream.  The engine is so quite and it so spacious on the inside.  I have never spent more than two days in Germany and that was only on a trip from the Czech Republic.  Anyway, the drive through the Black Forest was fantastic.  We spent the night at Brenner's Park Hotel.  The hotel makes you feel like you are on some grand tour of Europe in the 1800s, and in fact that is when it was started.  Although, I am pretty sure I dragged the average age down in the place.  Since we had such a late lunch in Sindelfingen, I wasn't that hungry.  I opted for the Wild Garlic Risotto with tomatoes, pine nuts and whole meal crostini.

The risotto was very good, although I couldn't find the pine nuts in it.  The garlic flavor that might be supposed wasn't really there.  Instead, I found it to be more of an onion taste.  There were actually diced and peeled and mixed in as well.  The crostini were fantastic.

To drink, we had a German sparkling wine called Furst von Metternich.  It had a very nice flavor and was crisp. 

To finish off the meal, we had a little plate of confections, courtesy of the kitchens.  As you can see, there were little macaroons, cookies and chocolate.  All very tasty and very much appreciated.  We looked like some cartoon when we ate all but the three chocolates in the middle and wrapped those in the doily that was provided.  I am sure that the waitstaff thought we were strange.

Finally, I will leave you with a picture from Brenner's Park Hotel on our stroll by the river.

Car Pick-Up Day Lunch- Sindelfingen, Germany

Today was the day that we picked up the car.  For those of you who have just stumbled upon my blog, my Aunt and I, through a convergence of forces both found ourselves with time off at the same time.  She has just retired from a long career and I have just finished culinary school.  One of her dreams was to buy a car for European delivery and then drive around Europe for a period of time.  Our trip is going to last about 8 months.

Back to the food, which is what I am going to write about here, unless you all want something more.  Mercedes-Benz is very efficient and very pleasant when it comes to flying 9 hours to pick up a car to drive around only to have to then drop it off and wait 6 weeks before it comes to its home in America.

The factory is located in Sindelfingen, on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Germany.  We started off with a factory tour, which I only mention because it was so cool.  Normally I don't find cars all that interesting, but the way they run things there.  Wow!  The business side of me was very impressed.  Oh yeah, and I guess seeing a car made from start to finish.  That was neat too.

After the tour, we had lunch.  One might think that the food at a factory is going to be blah, but it was the first well seasoned meal that I had in Germany since arriving two days early (and might I mention, properly cooked meal).  That's a big thing for me...properly seasoned food.

I had the veal ravioli, but it wasn't a traditional ravioli like one usually thinks off- you know, square with crimped edges.  It was covered with a thin layer of pesto, asparagus, mozzarella cheese and surrounded by "asparagus broth" which was more like cream of asparagus soup.  It was topped by a homemade cracker that had little dried flowers in it.  Let me tell you, it was tasty.  So very tasty.  The pasta was tender, but not soggy.  The filling was moist and flavorful and the soup was so good that I would have liked my bowl were I not in a restaurant.

My Aunt had the lamb two ways.  She told me that it was very good and well seasoned as well.  I didn't taste it since I was too involved with my own.