Frankfurt Part 2

I ate other stuff besides meat in Frankfurt.  Like pretzels, lots and lots of them.  I averaged about 1.5 pretzels a day while there, here are 3 of them.

As always, I had very little clue what I'm ordering when I ordered the following pretzel.  Heck, I didn't even know I was ordering a pretzel in tube form.  I was beckoned by this one because it was stuffed with white creamy stuff and topped with chives.  And yes, the salt studding the sides would have been a dead giveaway that this was a pretzel for anyone.  Anyone but me, apparently.

pretzel stuffed with white creamy stuff

The white creamy stuff turned out to be cream cheese.  I've never thought of eating pretzels with cream cheese, but now I will.  Maybe all the time.  Because cream cheese rocks.  The pretzel has a deep malty flavor that leaves a sweet fragrant flavor in your mouth long after the stick has been devoured.  

I also had pretzel in a semi-circle shape.  This time, I knew I was getting a pretzel.  The salt gave it away.  Yes.  This particular one was slathered with butter.  Pretzel with bovine fat is so awesome.  That same malty flavor seemed to be magnified by the butter.

pretzel w/butter

The last one was another stick one.  I actually didn't realize that I was eating a pretzel until almost half way done because there was so much stuff on it - crusty cheese, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.  The seeds gave the stick a nutty crunch and crusty cheese just makes everything better.

pretzel with seeds

Everyday for lunch, we would go to a supermarket called Rewe near the office.  The supermarket has a salad bar, prepared foods, and is connected to the bakery where I assuaged my pretzel addiction.  I usually get a salad with these yummy meatballs that look like falafels and whatever egg salad they have that day (along with a pretzel of course).

the meatballs are in the back

Then I wash the meal down with different flavors of Bionade, a sparkling fruit juice thing with flavors that I still can't tell you. I just know that my favorite one is the red flavor.  .  

red is tasty

My first night in Frankfurt, I ate at the hotel after a day of sightseeing.  It was actually really delicious.  I didn't have too much faith in hotel food, but really liked this meal.  They sent out an amuse bouche of some sort of cherry gelee with pineapples or something.  I liked it.  Free nibbles are always welcome.

fruity

I wanted to eat something light so thought that soup and salad was the way to go.  It is, unless you screw up and order a cream soup and a salad that consisted of mayo-y slaw.  I probably would have been better off getting a steak.  But can't complain, I liked both.  The salad was some cured duck, almost prosciutto like, atop of some crunchy slaw with mandarin slices.  The duck was really tasty, tender, light, and flavorful.  The slaw was fine but a bit too runny for my taste.  

duck salad

The celery soup was silky and smooth.  The super fried croutons contrasted nicely to give it a good old crunch.  There were a few polenta-ish lumps in the soup that gave it more heft.  I was plenty full after my "light" meal.

 creamy soup

I was given a bread basket at the start of the meal with these super cute butter tubes.  The bread was tasty.  There was a blueberry bread that I really liked.  

lots of bread

Frankfurt was a tasty city.  I was sad that I didn't get a chance to try a sandwich made with pretzels.  I wonder if I can make one with that cured duck....

Thanks so much to Claudia, Isabel, and Ivo for being such great hosts and showing me a great time!

Frankfurt Part 1

Yikes, it's been over a month since my last post.  but you know, the usual excuses - holidays, blahblablah.  Anywhoo, ChubberBlub is now on the road!  ChubberBlub will be eating through Europe in the next month, starting with Frankfurt.


I'm going to start with the various pig products I consumed and throw in a beef product for good measures.  My lovely co-workers took me to a traditional German pub called zum Feuerrädchen for some traditional pub fare and apfelwein/Äppel woi.  After making my fellow eaters translate the entire menu for me, I settled on the roasted pork shoulder, bone-in of course.  

heaven on the bone

Look at the glistening awesomeness. Luscious, tender, fatty meat, wrapped in a crispy flavorful crackly skin.  The kraut cuts through the fattiness.  I wanted to eat the whole thing, and almost succeeded.  Almost.


The whole thing was washed down with copious of delicious apple wine.  Too delicious that you forget it's alcohol.  Take it from me kids, don't forget that it's alcohol.  Not a good idea.

delicious and lethal apfelwein

Going backwards, I consumed pork the night prior too at Chalet Multilounge.  That time, in the form of that most famous of German food, the thinly pounded and deeply fried wienerschnitzel. How do you make wienerschnitzel even better tasting/heart unfriendly? Why, just throw some more fat on it, like cream of mushroom. Or you can be a lame tourist like me and try to drink the cream of mushroom like a soup as a starter. Your choice. I recommend the smothering method over the divide and conquer one.

fried

While we're at it, why not accompany it with some spatzel. This was tasty as well. The spatzel is different from what I've had in NYC. None of that dumpling like oblong round pieces for the Germans. These are more egg noodle like. Less chewy more noodly.

I washed down this piece of pork with some hefeweizen with banana.  Yep, banana flavored beer.  It's not bad.  It's just fruity with a hint of banana.  But I think I'll stick with hefeweizen sans fruit moving forward.

Going even further back in time.  On Sunday, I wondered into Zum gemaltan Haus while roaming around the museum row by myself.

After my epic translation app usage fail, I frantically pointed to a random dish on the menu.  Side note, when translating German, make sure you split up the phrase into separate words.  For example "rindersolber" is really "rinder" and "solber" added together to get a beef thing.  So you will need to translate the two words separately.  I still dunno what solber means.  But hey, after order a rinder thing, I know it's beef!

So yes, I picked a beef dish by chance because I recognized that it came "mit kraut and brot".  No idea what brot is but hey!  I like kraut!  I ended up with 2 pieces of corned beef like pieces, a mountain of kraut, two slices of brot (hard rye bread), and some nasal-clearing horseradish.

rinder mit kraut

It was strangely addicting.  Very tender and flavorful.  It basically melts with pressure.  

And so yes, I had very meat filled meals in Frankfurt.  But the next post, you will see that I did not just consume meat, but copious amount of delicious delicious German pretzels too.  OMIGOD I WANT ONE NOW.