Monday, July 28, 2008

1 Schnitzel = 2 Beers



Summertime is Biergarten time! Now, if you had asked me a year ago I wouldn't have agreed with that statement since I just recently started actually liking beer. I know, it's shocking! Back when I lived in the US people would have a cow when I told them I didn't drink beer because I didn't like it: "But you're German! You have to like beer!" Nyah nyah nyah. Well, things have changed now. I've developed an appreciation for the bitter liquid. But I don't drink just any beer. I still prefer dark beers to light ones because they are more smooth and have more intense flavors.

Keeping this in mind I have really started liking Biergartens (Bier=beer, Garten=garden). They are basically outdoor restaurants that serve beer (and other drinks) and food. This summer is the first time I went to the Kopernikus Biergarten in Nürnberg and it is by far my favorite one. It belongs to the Kopernikus Restaurant and is located right on the ancient city wall of Nürnberg. The food is a combination of Polish and Franconian specialties since the restaurant is located in the Krakauer Haus, which belongs to the city of Krakow, Poland (German spelling: Krakau).

The last time I went to Kopernikus Biergarten was when my visitors from California were here. I told them they couldn't leave Nürnberg without trying the Schnitzel at Kopernikus! At this restaurant the Schnitzel (breaded pork fried in a pan) is huge (see photo above)! There's a common German saying that one Schnitzel is the same as two beers (in Germany beer is its own food group). Well, in this case 1 Schnitzel= at least 3 beers! Not only is the Schnitzel huge, it is served with a large portion of fries (German: Pommes Frites, stolen from the French language) or potato salad (German: Kartoffelsalat). We tried both combinations and both were really tasty. I was a little disappointed, though, that they didn't have Heinz ketchup to go with the fries. Instead they had this other nasty German ketchup that tasted too much like vinegar. 

After we ate and had some beers we decided to go downstairs and have cocktails at Bar Europa, which is also located in the Krakauer Haus. That bar is amazing! They have the most comprehensive drinks menu I have ever seen. The night we were there I had a Flying Kangaroo and a Golden Cadillac. Both were outstanding! Needless to say that bar is now my favorite cocktail bar in Nürnberg. One piece of advice, though, if you ever go there: Beware of the complimentary peanuts--they are totally addicting and you get free refills...




Saturday, July 19, 2008

Café Neuer in Nürnberg



Finally I have found a place that sells excellent cakes in Nürnberg! I was already giving up hope when one day not too long ago I went to Café t9 and they were serving these cakes from Café Neuer. I had never heard of the café before. I tried their cakes at t9 a couple of times and one day while my mom and I were downtown we decided we needed a sweet fix so we thought, why not check out Café Neuer? When we got there I was thrilled to see they had a large selection of cakes (and other sweets). They had cakes with chocolate, with fruit, and with other fillings. They also had a large selection of small individual mousse cakes either with fruit or chocolate. The only negative thing about the café is that the interior is quite hideous and definitely not a place I would like to sit down and enjoy a nice piece of cake. I find this quite disappointing since I like finding cafés to frequent. In this case, I would recommend getting the cakes to go. 

Last week I had friends from California visiting me and I thought it would be great to treat them to some German cakes. So I headed over to Café Neuer and selected some cakes. It was really hard to decide, but I finally chose the following cakes (see photo above):
  • Poppyseed cheesecake with streusel topping (this is a common cake found in Germany)
  • Chocolate hazelnut mousse with hazelnut filling (in the photo the glaze is a little damaged from transportation)
  • Raspberry mousse with fresh raspberries on top 
  • Spanish vanilla cake: a spongy layer cake with chocolate bits and filled with cream, topped with a layer of marzipan (I LOVE marzipan in cakes)
All the cakes were delicious, but I would say that the chocolate hazelnut mousse and the Spanish vanilla cake were my favorites. So far, though, all the cakes I have tried have been good and they are all really fresh. This cannot be said for many cake shops, especially when they have a large selection. None of the cakes from Café Neuer have had the dreaded "fridge taste". Do you know that taste? It's when the cream filling in cakes or other pastries (which because of the perishability of the cream are stored in the fridge) has some off-flavors. The off-flavors come from lipid (fat) oxidation in the cream. And the longer the cake sits in the fridge the more the lipids oxidize. Therefore, fresh cake=no oxidation of lipids=no disgusting fridge taste!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Calzones and Cookies

I had invited a friend over for dinner for Wednesday evening. After plowing through many recipes I finally decided I would make calzones for dinner and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. 

As I wrote in my last post I haven't always had good experience with yeast. Although my latest experience with yeast was really good I decided to start the calzone dough early in the day just in case my last success had been a fluke. For the dough I used the recipe for Calzones with Cheese, Sausage, and Roasted Red Pepper on epicurious.com. I had no problems. In fact I couldn't keep the dough from rising! I punched it down many times and even put it in the fridge hoping to slow it down and it still went berserk. Very good recipe, is all I can say! For the filling of the calzone I used the recipe Double-Cheese and Prosciutto Calzone. I was thrilled when I found the recipe because it reminded me of a calzone that Cafe Bernardo in Davis used to serve. The calzones turned out really well! However, they didn't really turn brown. That may have to do with the type of oven we have. But the taste was still fabulous! 

For the ice cream sandwiches I used Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream (just about the only brand of ice cream I eat in Germany since most other brands use vanillin, which is articial vanilla, and I can't stand it!) and triple chocolate fudge cookies from Cannelle et Vanille (a food blog with beautiful photos that always make my mouth water). This is the first time I used a recipe found on a food blog and my experience was really good. The ice cream sandwiches were heavenly. Must I mention that the cookies are great for breakfast the next day? 



Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Weekend of Baking

This past weekend I caught the baking bug. I decided I wanted to try a new recipe, so I went to the Gourmet magazine's website and looked around. There I found a recipe on khachapuri, Georgian cheese bread, that looked scrumptious. Now, I'm not a big fan of working with yeast because I haven't had much experience with it and the experience I have had wasn't positive. Despite classes in food chemistry I have managed to kill yeast with water that was too hot. I should have known better! Well, I do now...

So I ended up making the Georgian cheese bread and it turned out quite well (see photo below). I didn't kill the yeast, so that was good. The only thing that I didn't like so much is that the cheese filling turned out to be a little salty. The recipe calls for a Georgian cheese, sulguni, but says you can substitute with havarti and salted mozzarella. I've never heard of salted mozzarella, so I just bought the regular mozzarella you get here in Germany and salted it a little. Apparently that wasn't necessary.



Because of the saltiness factor I decided to make a sandwich with the cheese bread. I thought if I added some unsalty ingredients it would cut the salitness. And it did! I made a sandwich by slicing a cheese bread wedge in the middle and stuffing it with tomatoes and basil (see photo below). What a delicious lunch!



The baking frenzy didn't stop at the cheese bread, though. It continued with carrot-coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, a recipe from the November 2003 issue of Bon Appétit. I love how epicurious provides us with so many recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appétit magazines. It's my favorite website for looking up recipes! Anyways, I had made these cupcakes before and knew they were fabulous. Not too long ago I made a carrot cake and I didn't like the recipe very much. Ever since then I was craving to have these cupcakes again. So I finally made them and they turned out wonderfully! They were really moist and aromatic. Although, I think they would have been even better if only I had had the sweetened flaked coconut they have in the US. They only sell unsweetened coconut here. If anyone knows where to get that kind of coconut in Germany, let me know!