Back in the USA

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 exactly what I had expected and wanted! Yay! Then I bought an old-fashioned donut to eat with my mocha at a very well-known donut chain and was totally disappointed. The only sensations I had were sweet and oily with a bit of fluff. Nothing special at all. This chain has recently set up shop all over Berlin, Germany, and I had tried a donut there on one of my recent visits, but hadn't liked it. So when I saw the chain here in the US I thought: 'Let's give it one more try. The donuts may be better here.' No chance, though. The donuts at Safeway, a supermarket chain we have in California, even taste better!

I thought my bad food experiences were done for the day (I had already been exposed to bad airplane food earlier in the day--big surprise...) when I found out as I was boarding the plane that there were no free drinks or food to be had on my six hour flight across the United States! WHAT?!?! As if that weren't bad enough the food and drinks had to be paid for in cash and I didn't have any more cash after having spent it on my "healthy" welcome-back-to-America snack. Fortunately, or, rather, unfortunately, my neighbor on the flight was kind enough to give me 9 dollars so I could purchase a tiny, non-exciting "chef's salad" and a bottle of water. What a waste of money! 

The next day, Thursday, I gave in to a craving I had been having lately: root beer float! My dad and I were shopping at one of my favorite supermarkets in town, Nugget Market, and I decided to pick up some root beer and some Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream for the float. Nugget Market had a wide selection of root beers, but almost all of them had flavorings in them and I was looking for something as natural as possible. I finally settled on Virgil's Root Beer. It was the only root beer I could find that didn't have any flavorings in it. Just herbs and spices. So after lunch I made a root beer float for my dad and myself. For those of you unfamiliar with root beer floats: all you do is put vanilla ice cream in a glass and fill the glass with root beer. Yum yum! I really like Virgil's and would buy it again. 

On Friday I fell in love...with Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates. The Gateau Maison (photo: right), described as a "Classic European Chocolate Cake", was delicious, but the Gianduja Cake (photo: left) was just outstanding!! The Gianduja Cake is described as "72% Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Biscuit with a Crunchy Hazelnut Bottom". The combination of textures and flavors are a celebration in the mouth. Both cakes were very fresh. After sampling both cakes my friend and I decided to eat the Gateau Maison first because its flavors were less intense than the flavors of the Gianduja Cake. We also shared a Oaxacan Spicy Hot Chocolate with whipped cream which was also very, very, very tasty. I wish I had the recipes!

More stories to come after I get back from Slow Food Nation taking place this week in San Francisco!

Master's Thesis Diet

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 kind of  chocolate cake. Like a molten chocolate cake or a cake with ganache. Something really dense and smooth and rich. But there was nothing of that sort to be found in the vicinity of the library, thank goodness. So I had to settle for something else instead. I ended up getting a scoop of chocolate coconut ice cream at Australian, my new favorite ice cream shop in town (see photo above: macadamia nut and chocolate coconut ice cream). Ever since Campo Eis left downtown (it can now be found in Schniegling) there was no place for me to get a decent ice cream cone since I don't like any of the ice cream the other ice cream shops offer downtown. They all taste fake to me and I wouldn't be surprised if they were indeed made from mixes. That's why I was thrilled to learn that Australian does not use any preservatives, artificial colors or flavors in their ice cream. Which is also why one scoop of ice cream in a cone costs €1,90 and two scoops cost €2,90. But I'll pay almost any price to avoid chemicals in my food!

The thesis has, however, also brought some good changes to my diet! Since I started making myself go to the library every day to work I noticed that I was eating less. When I was working at home I would convince myself that I was hungry and needed to go to the kitchen when in reality I was just bored and was grateful for any kind of distraction (weird enough the I'd-rather-clean-the-bathroom-than-work syndrome has not gotten a hold of me this time). But the thing about working at the library is that you do have to eat when you're there for several hours. After just a few days I got tired of trying to find decent and cheap things to eat in the vicinity of the library. It's just not possible! So I decided I would cook meals at home to take with me to the library. I also decided those meals would include seasonal vegetables. 

I had recently started seeing Hokkaido pumpkins at the store and decided they would be my first victim since I love their color and knew from past experience that they were quite tasty. So I bought a baby pumpkin at the organic market near my house and went through possible recipes in my head on my way home. I decided I would cook the pumpkin on the stove and spice it up with garam masala, an Indian spice mixture. The mix I like is by the company Lebensbaum and is organic.  The ingredients of this particular mix are cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Different companies put different spices in their garam masala mix. I left the skin on the pumpkin because it becomes very soft during the cooking process and it is high in fiber. We all know the benefits of fiber... 

Hokkaido Pumpkin with Garam Masala

1 lb Hokkaido pumpkin in small chunks

Water

1 tsp. Garam Masala 

Salt 

Pepper

Sour Cream

Cilantro

Place pumpkin chunks in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Add garam masala and salt and pepper. Let simmer until pumpkin is soft, about 15 minutes. Top with sour cream and garnish with cilantro. 

Crazy For Crumble

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 the recipe I didn't realize that Saturn (or donut) nectarines existed. I had only ever heard of Saturn (or donut) peaches (German: Weinbergpfirsich). Since I have never seen Saturn nectarines here I just went ahead and bought Saturn peaches. 

The crumble and the mace mascarpone cream turned out just perfect!!! It was so good that my friend and I ate the whole crumble in one sitting...and I made a larger recipe to be able to use up all the crumble (excuses, excuses...). I plan to make the crumble again soon. However, next time I may substitute almonds for the pistachios since pistachios are really expensive. I also will go lighter on the mace in the mascarpone cream. And next time I will make sure I only make enough crumble as there are mouths to feed. Any volunteers???

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...

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!