Adriana's Alimentary Anecdotes

Amsterdam: The city of Appeltaart and Slagroom

2012-01-28T19:11:00.001+01:00

This time I decided not to research restaurants too much before heading to Amsterdam. I thought for once I'd wing it. Turns out that wasn't such a good idea. I didn't see Mark Bittman's recent article on good Dutch restaurants in Amsterdam till after my stay but he does make a point in that it's hard to find actual Dutch food there. Guess it's back to thorough research for whatever my next trip

Chocolate-Buttermilk Sheet Cake

2012-01-04T21:08:00.000+01:00

Sheet cake sure doesn't sound fancy but it can taste fancy! When I was looking for a dessert to take to a friend's house for dinner I looked for recipes containing buttermilk and pecans as I had them on stock and came across this yummy recipe on epicurious.com. The chocolate chips in the cake part are a nice sweet surprise to bite into. The cake part could probably use a little less sugar as

Espresso Whip

2011-11-22T20:55:00.000+01:00

Life is short so you may as well eat and drink what you love, right? Well, that's at least the justification I had this morning when I thought about what kind of coffee beverage I was going to drink-one made with my espresso stove top machine or one bought at Starbucks, both of which I was getting tired of. So then I thought, hm, maybe I just need to make something I don't usually make (at

South Tyrol Part IV: Sissi in Meran

2011-10-25T21:58:00.001+02:00

My favorite restaurant during our trip to South Tyrol was "Sissi" in Meran and I'm glad we saved it for last. I had the tastiest meat of my life there. No joke! We were started off with homemade twisted bread rolls. Very good! Then we received an amuse bouche, which was a "liquid pizza". It consisted of a miniature glass filled with tomato water at the bottom, followed by croutons swimming

South Tyrol Part III: Castel Fragsburg

2011-10-05T21:28:00.001+02:00

Let me tell you about the time when we were served 11 courses...While in Scena I bought the special edition on South Tyrol by the German magazine Der Feinschmecker since I was curious to find out more about the regional specialities and to find restaurants in the vicinity of Scena. One restaurant that was recommended was the one at the hotel Castel Fragsburg as it not only had good food but also

South Tyrol Part II: Vögele and Avalon in Bolzano, Stafellalm

2011-08-29T21:22:00.000+02:00

Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol, has a charming old city center. My favorite part are the medieval arcades found all along the Laubengasse and throughout other parts of the city center. It's a fun town to go shopping in. Worth visiting is Seibstock Delicatessen, which sells fresh goods, such as pasta and hams, as well as shelf-stable goods, such as coffee and liquors. When we visited we by

South Tyrol Part I: Thurnerhof in Scena

2011-08-16T21:06:00.002+02:00

Just spent my first vacation in South Tyrol (Italian: Alto Adige, German: Südtirol), Northern Italy, a region where Italian and German are the two main languages. This provides for a very interesting dialect that at times sounds like a mix of Austrian and Swiss German with a sprinkling of Italian. We booked last minute so several hotels we called had no more vacancies. We finally came across

Markthalle Restaurant in Zurich and Sihlhalde in Gattikon

2011-07-10T22:10:00.002+02:00

This weekend I finally made it to Im Viadukt in Zurich, a new strip of shops and restaurants built into a viaduct in Zurich's district 5. The shops were already closed by the time we got there but the restaurants and bars were still open. After walking down the entire strip we decided to get a bite to eat at the restaurant belonging to the Markthalle (market hall) which houses a market 6 days a

Brownies with chocolate chunks and nuts

2011-06-05T21:36:00.000+02:00

I've tried so many brownie recipes already but it doesn't keep me from trying new ones. This weekend I tried a recipe off the BBC food website (follow this link). I used the base recipe and then added what I wanted. That's the cool thing about brownies. You can add whatever you want just not too much so the brownies don't fall apart from the weight of things like chocolate chips and nuts. I

The Dogs Restaurants in Edinburgh

2011-06-02T19:14:00.000+02:00

Ever since I started reading Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club series, which takes place in Edinburgh, I've been wanting to visit the Scottish capital. I finally had the chance to do just that. Scotland really is a beautiful place and is beautiful thanks to the frequent showers that like to surprise innocent tourists such as myself. One minute the sun will be shining, the next

Eiskaffee at Teufelhof Café in Basel

2011-05-19T20:49:00.001+02:00

Currently I'm addicted to "Eiskaffee" at Teufelhof Café. There's always some sweet thing I'm addicted to - cheesecake at Tibits, Schoggiweggli (a sweet bun dotted with chocolate chunks) at Bachmann and on and on... Mostly known in German-speaking countries, Eiskaffee is a type of ice cream sundae that usually consists of two scoops of vanilla ice cream, espresso in the best case or regular

Buttermilk Pancakes

2011-04-24T18:37:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite things about holidays and having guests over is that I get to eat things for breakfast I normally wouldn't eat because I don't usually take the time to make something elaborate. On Good Friday I decided to make buttermilk pancakes from Denis Cotter's brilliant new cookbook "for the love of food." They didn't quite turn out as aesthetically pleasing as the ones we had at his

Apple Berry Crumble

2011-04-19T22:04:00.000+02:00

What better way to spend a Sunday than making a crumble? I had some apples and frozen berries that I wanted to use up so I tried my first recipe from Cooking with Apples and Pears by Laura Washburn. I made a slightly different version as I had some slivered almonds I wanted to use up and instead of the fresh blackberries I used frozen mixed berries. It turned out really well and due to the

Delicious Delights in Paris

2011-04-07T22:07:00.000+02:00

Now I know where you can get the best hot chocolate in Paris (and that's after only trying one hot chocolate in Paris so you know I'm an expert!). It can be found at Angelina. I'd read about the café in several guide books before my last trip to Paris but we had so many other chocolate shops and patisseries on our list last time that we couldn't possibly cover them all. So when my friend and I

Di Simo and Würzhaus in Nürnberg

2011-03-13T19:55:00.000+01:00

I finally made it back to Nürnberg, one of my three hometowns, at the end of February. As usual, my mom's question when I arrived was where I wanted to go out for dinner. I convinced her to try Würzhaus, as we'd thought about going there many times before but somehow never made it. The name of the restaurant literally translated as "house of seasoning" is a play on words as it sounds similar to

Butterscotch Pudding

2011-02-20T21:56:00.000+01:00

I've gots me a new favorite recipe: Butterscotch Pudding from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook that I got for Valentine's Day from my aunt and uncle (thanks again!!). It's truly heaven. The texture is so smooth and the flavor a perfect balance of vanilla bean, dark brown sugar and half-and-half. It melts in your mouth and makes you forget you had to make two batches to get it right. I screwed up

Oil and Grease in Madrid

2011-02-13T22:04:00.000+01:00

I'd heard before that food in Spain wasn't particularly good, which was always hard to imagine considering the good climate and all the fruits and vegetables that grow there. When I had the chance to finally visit Spain (Madrid) while on a business trip, I decided to arrive a few days in advance to be able to explore Madrid and also see whether the food really was as greasy as people had told me.

Slow Food in Torino

2011-02-06T22:19:00.001+01:00

Last October my mom and I went to Torino to visit the Salone del Gusto (the "Salon of Taste"), the major biennial Italian event where producers of food and consumers come together. I'd already visited the event twice before during my studies and was interested in going again, this time as a consumer and not as a student. Having seen many of the same producers before I was particularly focused on

World's Best Carrot Cake and Apple-Almond Wreath

2010-12-29T00:06:00.000+01:00

I'm probably the worst blogger in the world--it's been almost 2 months since my last post. But I do have some stories saved up, so I'll deliver them one by one even if they are now ancient in internet terms of time. For our housewarming party in October I decided to try some new recipes from Leila Lindholm's cookbook A Piece of Cake. My sister first found the book about a year ago and was

Good Food in Sorrento and Napoli

2010-11-01T22:36:00.000+01:00

I should have written this post ages ago. Now Napoli and Sorrento seem so far away. But it's really only been a few weeks since we visited Southern Italy. We flew to Napoli and then headed straight down the coast to Sorrento. We spent four nights in a wonderful villa in the neighboring village of Sant' Agnello, a good choice since Sorrento is quite full of tourists. The last night of our trip we

Patty Pan with Cherry Tomatoes and Macaroni

2010-08-25T22:23:00.001+02:00

Simple food is really the best! I've recently gotten into the good habit of going to the market on the Basel Marktplatz to buy my fruits and veggies. They are much fresher and taste much better than those from the supermarket (of course!). The other benefit is that I come across produce you wouldn't necessarily find in the supermarket, such as the patty pan. I knew patty pans from California,

Best Places to Eat in Ireland

2010-08-16T23:00:00.000+02:00

It's time to finally write about the other culinary gems we found in Ireland. Although, we didn't actually find them. I had read about all but one of them. Doing my research really paid off! Blackberry Cafe in ThomastownThis was a really cute place that served light lunches and pastries. We had brown bread with goat cheese and onion jam served with mixed salad. For dessert I had a scone with

Café Paradiso in Cork

2010-07-25T10:09:00.004+02:00

Ireland is not known to be a culinary highlight, but if you spend time researching you can find some gems. Of all the places we ate at the two weeks we were there I would have to say that Café Paradiso in Cork was my favorite. I knew about the café well before ever planning the trip as I had bought one of Denis Cotter's, the owner's, cookbooks called "Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me...". So it

Paris for Sweet Teeth

2010-05-30T11:30:00.012+02:00

Finally I have made it back to Paris after 18 years! Wow, that just made me feel old...Anyways, let's get back to the subject here. My sister and I got to spend three nights in Paris with our beloved aunt. In anticipation of the trip I went nearly crazy ploughing through books and guides and blogs trying to figure out which patisseries and chocolate shops we would have to

Zuccotto

2010-05-05T21:12:00.003+02:00

Finally I made one of the desserts my mom used to make when I was a kid: zuccotto. The reason it took me so long to make was that I was horrified of the shape it has and how I would make it do that shape! Turns out it's not so hard after all as sponge cake is pliable and will retain its form when pressed into a bowl and kept that way for a few hours. This is definitely on my favorite recipes list

Sant' Ambroeus Milan

2010-04-07T21:49:00.004+02:00

Last week I spent three days with my mom in Milan. I hadn't been to Milan since I was really young and we were visiting some family friends. In anticipation of the trip I read up on some restaurants in Milan, but most of them were quite expensive. We finally decided on Trattoria Milanese the first night. It was listed in our guidebook and wasn't far from our hotel. We didn't have a reservation

Crème Caramel

2010-02-28T21:20:00.003+01:00

I never thought I would actually get around to making crème caramel some day. I love crème caramel, but just the thought of having to bake it in a water bath made me go "nah, too much work". That's how lazy I am. But yesterday I found myself in the situation of planning dinner for guests the same night and needing a dessert that wasn't cakey or chocolatey. Dinner was going to be roast chicken

Pasta with Sweet Tomato Sauce and Baked Ricotta

2010-01-19T20:25:00.003+01:00

Okay, I've got a new favorite pasta dish: Jamie Oliver's Pasta with Sweet Tomato Sauce and Baked Ricotta. YUM! The recipe is from his cookbook "Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook". It's a breeze to make and it tastes absolutely divine! Serves 4450 g ricottaolive oilsalt and freshly ground black pepper1 teasp. dried oregano1/2 a dried chili, crumbled1 onion, minced2 cloves of garlic,

Christmas Cookies

2009-12-18T19:58:00.002+01:00

For the first time in my life I made more than one or two different kinds of Christmas cookies. It may be the last time as I'm so sick of them already. Fortunately I didn't have to eat them all myself, but was able to pile them onto my coworkers. I may, however, have a lawsuit pending for causing weight gain in the workplace. I went through several recipes before deciding on which ones to make. I

Wild Mushroom Pierogies

2009-12-02T22:10:00.006+01:00

Sheesh, I've really been neglecting my blog lately. It doesn't help that Christmas is around the corner, meaning free time is crammed with buying gifts and making cookies! (Not that those are bad things, especially the cookie baking...)About two weeks ago I made a Polish dish for the first time. I had bought mushrooms and was searching for mushroom recipes on epicurious using the iPhone

Cranberry Lemon Choc Chip Scones

2009-11-02T22:17:00.003+01:00

For some reason I always thought scones were really hard to make and I was determined to some day make a batch of them. Last week I saw fresh US cranberries at the supermarket and grabbed a bag right away as I was worried I may not find them again. Turns out several stores do carry them.Anyways, here I had this bag of cranberries and didn't know what to make. After going through recipes online I

California Eats Part 2: Passionfish, Peppers, Sprouts

2009-10-28T23:35:00.003+01:00

Wow, I can't believe how long it's taken me to start writing this post. Summer vacation was loooong ago, but I still want to share the rest of my CA food stories.For the first time in I don't know how many years I tried a new restaurant in Pacific Grove, called Passionfish. I had read about it and wanted to try it because they serve sustainable seafood. It was quite difficult to choose from their

California Eats Part 1: Ella's in SF and Hot Italian in Sac

2009-09-30T20:42:00.004+02:00

I was so excited about the prospect to be able to eat California food again after having had to go without it for a year. Many of the places we went to on our two week trip were places I had heard or read about. The first one was Ella's in San Francisco. We went there the morning after arriving at the SFO airport the night before. It was pretty packed but we were able to get a spot at the bar,

La Fonda Cocina Mexicana in Basel

2009-08-26T22:26:00.004+02:00

Mexican food in Europe -- it doesn't really work. I've tried it a few times, but it never got close to the Mexican food I'm used to from California, which, obviously, isn't the real Mexican food, but it's what I know and love.My prayers for finding good Mexican food here in Switzerland were finally heard when my coworker and I went to lunch at La Fonda about two weeks ago. I ordered a vegetable

Eating Our Way Through Vienna

2009-08-09T19:18:00.001+02:00

I had been wanting to visit Vienna ever since I read a newspaper article about it 2 or 3 years ago. I had already been to Vienna when I was a little kid, but who honestly remembers anything from those trips your parents took you on when you were little?So last month we finally headed off to Vienna for a couple of days. In preparation for the trip I read up on restaurants and, most importantly,

Tagine of Lamb and Bell Pepper Purée

2009-06-29T21:29:00.003+02:00

Lately I've been in the mood to try new recipes. During the week I usually don't take the time, but on the weekends I like to cook something more elaborate. Last weekend I was in the mood for lamb. So I got out my cookbook "Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon" by Claudia Roden and looked at different lamb recipes. I finally decided on tagine of lamb with dates and almonds (although I

The Best Sour Cream Coffee Cake

2009-06-18T22:00:00.004+02:00

My sister came to Basel two weeks ago to see the van Gogh exhibition (which was great, by the way). Right away we decided we would have to bake something together while she was here. After going through several possible recipes we finally settled on Sherry Yard's "Campton Place Coffee Cake" from her book "Desserts by the Yard". I had been wanting to make the recipe ever since I saw it in the

Best Eats in London

2009-05-24T19:17:00.012+02:00

London is fabulous. It really is. The shopping is great and, even more importantly, so is the food. In the four days we just spent there it was impossible to try all the places I had heard and read about since my last trip to London in 2007, but we did find five places that definitely deserve to be mentioned:1. Spaccanapoli2. The Grocer on Elgin3. Ottolenghi4. Princi5. Coco Momo1. SpaccanapoliWe

Crazy for Rhubarb

2009-05-03T21:27:00.004+02:00

This year I've gone crazy for rhubarb. Until recently I couldn't have cared less for the bitter stalks. But now I'm addicted to their taste and texture once cooked with a bit of sugar and paired with strawberries or raspberries or even better: both. The first idea I had when I was picking out my rhubarb at the store was to make a rhubarb compote with just rhubarb, sugar and water. Then I decided

Lily's Stomach Supply

2009-04-20T21:34:00.003+02:00

Ever since the weather got warmer and therefore more reminiscent of California, I have been missing all the places I used to eat at in California. I miss all the ethnic foods, Mexican and Thai especially, and I miss the abundance of fresh produce. Last but not least I miss getting good food for a good price! Here, when I'm hungry but too lazy to cook I don't really have many choices for grabbing

Swiss Sweet Tooth Satisfiers

2009-02-26T20:55:00.006+01:00

I thought moving to Switzerland would be similar to moving to France, meaning I would be surrounded by sweets left and right. But, unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately), that was not the case. I'm not exactly sure how I got the impression that Switzerland would be a sort of candyland. Maybe because Switzerland is a country known for its abundance of chocolate. And there is lots of chocolate.

Tibits in Basel and Hiltl in Zürich

2009-01-31T20:29:00.013+01:00

Finally I get around to writing a new post! I have just recently moved to Switzerland to start my first job post-university. The funny thing is that towards the end of my master's program I started wondering: "Hm, should I look for work in the US or in Germany? US or Germany? US or Germany?" And now, as fate would have it, I am in Switzerland! That pretty much took care of the tough decision of

Homemade Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

2008-12-28T20:48:00.008+01:00

If there's one recipe involving yeast dough that is really worth your time it's cinnamon rolls! Oh my, I had no idea homemade cinnamon rolls tasted so much better than any purchased cinnamon rolls (at least any I have ever had). A while back I was searching the Saveur website and found a recipe for Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls. I showed it to my sister and we immediately decided we would have to

Würzburg and Gasthof Bären in Randersacker

2008-12-15T20:14:00.016+01:00

Last weekend my mom and I went to Würzburg to do some Christmas shopping and to see the Christmas market in nearby Sommerhausen. Würzburg has lots of nice little shops, for example Sinus Shopping and Eckhaus Wohnaccessoires. We also stopped at Café Michel and bought a piece of poppyseed strudel (Mohnstrudel), a piece of cherry strudel (Kirschstrudel) and a piece of poppyseed cake (Mohnkuchen) to

Winter-Spiced Molten Chocolate Cakes

2008-11-24T23:40:00.005+01:00

I just had to have something chocolatey and dense today. What else is new, right? I was getting kind of sick of making hot chocolate. It just didn't taste the same anymore. So I decided to search for lava or molten chocolate cakes on epicurious and found a recipe I had made a few years ago: Winter-Spiced Molten Chocolate Cakes with Rum-Ginger Ice Cream. The title itself is enough to make your

Spiced Hot Chocolate

2008-11-05T18:57:00.006+01:00

For a while now I have been craving a really good hot chocolate. And what I mean by a "really good hot chocolate" is a thick, smooth, velvety, chocolatey drink that leaves you intensely satisfied and happy. The last time I had a really good hot chocolate was this summer at Ginger Elizabeth's in Sacramento (see previous blog post). You must be thinking "Who is crazy enough to drink a hot chocolate

Chocolate Almond Torte (Torta Caprese)

2008-10-29T15:24:00.005+01:00

I have a lot of blogging catching up to do. Hopefully once my thesis is turned in there will be more time for blogging. For now I am going to share a wonderful chocolate almond torte recipe from the Bon Appétit May 2002 issue that I made for my mom's birthday two weeks ago. The recipe is simple and the cake is wonderfully moist. There is no flour in the recipe so the cake is dense, but not as

Klara in Nürnberg

2008-10-11T22:48:00.004+02:00

I have been pleasantly surprised by a fairly new restaurant in Nürnberg called Klara. It opened in October 2006 after previous restaurants at its location (next to the "Neues Museum", the museum of art and design) had failed. Since its opening I had been to Klara a few times, but I was never thrilled until my last visit a few days ago. I think I know why. As of May of this year the restaurant has

Best Brownie Recipe

2008-09-25T20:30:00.002+02:00

Sherry Yard's "Out-of-This-World Brownies" are the best brownies I have ever made! They are dense and smooth almost like a truffle. The recipe is from her book "Desserts by the Yard" and is the first recipe I have tried from this newly acquired treasure.Here's the recipe. I have condensed the words to a bare minimum and have left out the salt since I never put salt in my desserts unless I am

Fig Salad To Die For!

2008-09-22T18:39:00.003+02:00

I never liked fresh figs until this year. I used to think their leathery skin and their slimy insides were pretty gross, but now I'm their biggest fan. When I saw Jamie Oliver's recipe for a fig salad the picture looked so tasty I had to make it. Here's my version of the recipe for two people:2 ripe figs1/2 mozzarella2 slices Parma hamDressing:3 tblsp olive oil1 1/2 tblsp lemon juice1 tblsp

Ella in Sacramento

2008-09-13T04:06:00.006+02:00

I now have a favorite restaurant in Sacramento: Ella Dining Room and Bar. The food is outstanding and the interior design is very nice as well. What's fun about the food at Ella is that the portions are small (or should I say normal) so you can choose a couple of different plates to share as we did. All dishes were delicious, fresh, and cooked to perfection, but probably the BEST one was the

Back in the USA

2008-08-27T06:54:00.004+02:00

I set foot in America for the first time in over two years last Wednesday. After having already flown on two flights for 9.5 hours before landing in Philadelphia and with a 5 hour layover and an additional 6 hour flight to California ahead of me I knew I was going to need some caffeine. First stop: Saxbys Coffee, a coffee chain I had never seen before. I ordered a low-fat iced mocha and got

Master's Thesis Diet

2008-08-13T21:15:00.006+02:00

Writing a master's thesis has done all sorts of weird things to my diet. First it made me addicted to coffee (for me that's one to two coffee drinks a day--if I drank more I'd be bouncing off the walls). Then it made me start craving sweets even more than usual. And I don't mean just any sweets. I'll have a particular craving. For example, today it was chocolate. What I really wanted was some

Crazy For Crumble

2008-08-10T13:27:00.006+02:00

I have always loved crumbles. There is something fabulous about having the sweet gooey caramelized fruit on the bottom and the crunchy crumble on top. I also have always been a huge fan of berries. So when I saw Aran's new post on her blog "Cannelle et Vanille" with the title "Saturn Nectarines, Red Currants and Raspberries" I was immediately swept away and had to try the recipe ASAP. Until I saw

1 Schnitzel = 2 Beers

2008-07-28T18:43:00.007+02:00

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

Café Neuer in Nürnberg

2008-07-19T22:45:00.010+02:00

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

Calzones and Cookies

2008-07-10T10:17:00.007+02:00

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

Weekend of Baking

2008-07-01T23:19:00.019+02:00

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

Greek Delights

2008-06-22T21:46:00.026+02:00

I just went on a 10-day trip to Greece with some Greek friends of mine. The last time I had been to Greece was in high school when our class went there on a more or less educational trip. This trip was quite a while ago so Greece felt almost entirely new to me. We started off in Athens and from there did a round trip of the Peloponnese peninsula. There are many amazing places to discover in

Summer Salad

2008-06-05T02:02:00.012+02:00

For my birthday this year a friend of mine gave me a big pot filled with fresh herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, lemon grass, sage, and pineapple sage). These herbs have become great flavor enhancers in my cooking both in raw and cooked form. Today I am sharing with you a recipe for my favorite salad I've been making recently. I don't give amounts because the amounts depend on how big a salad you

Delicious German Food at Gasthof Gentner

2008-05-24T22:46:00.026+02:00

Let me tell you about the best German restaurant I have been to this year and possibly in my whole life: Gasthof Gentner (Gasthof means "hotel" in German) in Spielberg (about a 30 minute car drive southwest of Nürnberg). The food was amazing. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. But before I continue on my near-death experience let me give you the background on how I even heard about the

Traditional Diets and Slow Food (edited)

2008-05-19T22:39:00.014+02:00

I just read an interview of Daphne Miller on her book called The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World—Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home. I really enjoyed the interview not only because I liked Dr. Miller's personality that came through in the interview, but because she also brought up some very important aspects, for example the fact that "good food,

Starbucks and Other Coffee Places Part 2

2008-05-18T22:51:00.010+02:00

I just finished another couple of pages in the book "Starbucked" and while I was reading I began to wonder why I had developed this pull towards Starbucks in the past few days. Okay, maaaaybe the past month...ahem...I didn't just say that. Believe me, it's against my will...but I have found myself going there on a regular basis to work on my thesis. I guess it started when I got bored with going

Starbucks and Other Coffee Places

2008-05-13T20:45:00.012+02:00

I just started reading a book called "Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture" by Taylor Clark. I have always wanted to read the dirt on Starbucks! Even though I'm only a few pages into the book, I have to share a passage. The author mentions that the most common complaint about Starbucks is the chain's ubiquity (I TOTALLY agree on that one. I thought I was going crazy

Frozen Yogurt in Nürnberg!

2008-05-12T22:38:00.022+02:00

I was soooo excited to see that a frozen yogurt shop had opened up in downtown Nürnberg! I had never seen frozen yogurt outside the United States and due to the decline of the quality of the ice cream offered in the numerous ice cream shops downtown I was glad that there seemed to be at least some hope to find a yummy cool and creamy refreshment. The new shop is called Yogär (a play on the word "

Chocolate Shop in Munich

2008-05-11T14:10:00.014+02:00

Last Friday I went on a day trip to Munich (one of my favorite cities in Germany) and stumbled upon a lovely chocolate shop: Stolberg Schokoladen, located in the heart of downtown. I have never seen such a wide selection of chocolates from different national and international companies. The shop felt very cozy despite the slighty cool air (to keep the chocolate from developing the undesirable