Man Purses - Part 2

Herr J is beginning to understand female logic.  

Herr J:   I can’t figure out what man purse goes with suits at work and also with jeans/shorts on the weekend

Me:       Well, of course not. That’s why no one has just one purse!

Herr J:   Wow, I understand now!.....umm, I’m afraid.

It was a very proud moment. I didn’t want to scare him, so I kept to myself that the minimum really is 3 bags…both brown and black to match his shoes and belt at work, plus a casual bag.  

German Beer Wars - Round 1

It turns out that choosing the beers was the easy part…pairing beer and food takes a bit more thought.  Not as easy as wine and food…

For our first round, we went with pairs of Schwarzbier and Dunkelbier.  Both are dark and much more malty than hoppy, and my first thought was cheese.  A dark beer need some cream and fat to stand up to it and bring out the flavors.

So, inspired by The German Beer Institute and the discovery of the beautiful cheese selection at my local Manufactum (English / German), I went with a Schwarzbier Cheese Fondue, garlic shrimp tapas, brie, and prosciutto.  For dipping, we used toasted french bread and ham-wrapped toast.

  

And the surprising winner was Paulaner Original Münchener Dunkel.  Surprising, because we expected one of the smaller breweries to have a superior beer.  But Paulaner pulled through to the Sweet Sixteen with a very balanced and tasty Dunkelbier. The Flensburger was nice, but had a strong, single flavor. The Paulaner had a much more complex, but perfectly balanced, blend of various flavors.  It's extremely drinkable!

Both Schwarzbiers were good, with the Mönchshof having a slightly more aggressive taste.  Schwarzbier overall was a good discovery - I plan on cooking with it in the future and enjoying the extra! 

        

Recipes:

Schwarzbier Fondue Recipe:

12 oz. / 355 mL Schwarzbier

12 oz. (4 cups) / 450g mix of shredded cheese (recommend Gruyere and Emmenthaler)

2 Tbsp / 12-15g flour (substitute cornstarch for gluten free)

A pinch each of ground nutmeg, black pepper, and cloves

1 Tbsp Kirsch or Vodka (optional)

Heat beer in pot. Coat shredded cheese in flour (using a large Ziploc bag is easiest). Gradually add floured cheese to the beer, stirring constantly until cheese just melts. (Don’t let it get too hot, or the cheese will ball up.) Stir in spices and (optional) Kirsch. Transfer to fondue pot for warming and serving. 

Make sure not to let the mixture cool too much before serving or the cheese may become stringy.

Serve with toasted bread cubes, crackers, breadsticks, or Ham-Wrapped Toast. 

Ham-Wrapped Toast: (Herr J’s invention)

Good quality bread (french, seven grain, and ciabatta work well)

Dry-cured ham, such as proscuitto or serrano

Manchego cheese (optional)

Cut bread into bite-sized rectangles and lightly toast in oven (top with thin slices of manchego before toasting, if using).  Take out and wrap each toast piece across the middle with a strip of ham. Return to oven and toast until ham is warmed and bread edges are crisp.

Gummi Bears

After beer and cars, gummi bears are one of Germany’s biggest contributions to the world.  Einstein and Martin Luther were pretty influential too, but everyone loves Hans Riegel and his little Gold Bears!

They’re everywhere – bears instead of mints at restaurants, blue peppermint gummi bears on my pillow in a hotel, and reportedly free in the German parliament’s cafeteria (legend has it Konrad Adenauer was never without them). 

You can find Trolli and HARIBO (founded by Hans Riegel from Bonn, Germany) brands in most food stores, but there are many dedicated gummi bear stores.  They come in every shape and flavor, even wine gummis, prosecco gummis, vegetarian and halal, sugar-free, and vitamin-packed gummis for the kiddos. Something for everyone...

I live above Bears and Friends. They specialize in gummis made in Bavaria from select ingredients, with real fruit juice and no artificial dyes. Both the “made in Bavaria” and the natural ingredients aspects go a long way here, but those are topics for another day...   

Animal, vegetable, mineral – they have it all. Even some NSFW gummis, two words I didn’t expect to hear together. For now I’ll leave you with the Sea Creature Gummis. The sharks were really tasty!

Meerestiere ("Sea Creatures")

Kitchen Calculus

Well, I haven’t gone so far as to calculate rates of change and to-the-millisecond time to cook eggs at different altitudes (there’s a best-selling German iPhone app for that, plus I hate hate HATE eggs), but I’m shocked how much math I use in the kitchen!

Herr J laughs at my cooking using calculator, scale, charts, and tape measure.  The tape measure doesn’t get too much use, but the calculator gets a real workout.  Even simple cooking is a bit of an adventure….the recipes are usually in American, the ingredients sold in metric, and the oven in Celsius. Or the recipes are really large and I want to make a smaller amount.  For even more fun, most European recipes measure by weight; American by volume.  For pastry and such things requiring precise ratios or relying on chemical reactions, this is a must. But beyond those, it seems one more example of the need to be as exact as possible (link to article on precision). Whatever the reason, I’m a convert. My trusty kitchen scale shows grams and ounces, and I love it! 

My first macaron attempt nearly ended upon reading the first ingredient....“900g of egg whites, how the $%@# do I know how many eggs that is??!”. But the dream of tasty macaron-y goodness won me over, and instead I bought a dozen eggs and a scale. And after cracking about 10 of them and not being even close to 900g, out came the calculator to reduce the recipe.  Problem solved, and shockingly tasty and pretty salted caramel macarons.

I finally resorted to just taping a chart to the backsplash behind the stove. I still need the calculator, but at least I don’t have to run to the computer to look up how many mL to an ounce to a cup and F° to C°. The Smart Baker is selling useful aprons or towels with common kitchen conversions.  Great idea, but there are no metric conversions.

I’m off to buy an apron and a Sharpie…..

Man Purses (or Why Gucci and Prada Should Thank Steve Jobs)

My boyfriend wants a man purse. Let me start by clarifying that he’s a meat-eating, college football-playing, stands-up-to-pee, redblooded American male…nothing girly about him, not even metrosexual.  And he’s decided he needs a purse.  

Despite my initial giggle, his logic makes sense.  Men like gadgets but always carrying a computer bag or a briefcase is a pain.  And their pockets get pretty heavy after adding a wallet, at least one phone, and a camera. Not to mention books, umbrella, ipod, etc…  

Enter the iPad:  This is the game changer.  It may replace your Kindle, your phone, and potentially your camera. But it won’t fit in your pocket. And the smart guys out there will realize they can use an iPad bag to carry the other items normally weighting down their pockets.  Of course since it’s designed to house the latest technological innovation, it’s still manly.

So far, I’m mostly seeing iPad sleeves or mini-computer bags. But the man purses are coming…cleverly disguised as iPad bags!

The German Beer Wars

This blog is about food, travel, and fun – with a healthy dose of Germany thrown in. What better way to start off than with beer? 

Most restaurants and beer gardens here serve only one brand of beer, so the choice usually is limited “what type of beer do I want tonight?” That being said, it’s really hard to get a bad beer in Germany!

But we were curious and wanted to investigate the controversial question of Best German Beer.

Our completely non-scientific study began with many trips to my two closest grocery stores (I have to carry it home on my back, hence the “closest” and the “many trips”). After buying one of every German beer, excluding light, alcohol free, diabetic, and Beck’s Lime*, I ended up with the magical total of 64 beers. Just the right number to fit on an NCAA bracket. Though there were a few outliers, the Selection Committee decided upon 4 “regions” of Helles, Pils, Weissbier, and various Dunkel Bier.  

Let the games begin!

* While Beck’s Lime is incredibly tasty, it has an extra ingredient and does not conform to the Reinheitsgebot. Plus, it would have put us at 65 beers…)