The first two nights' dinners were not good. So on the third night, when we were in Hamburg and given the opportunity to find our own meals, I was elated! We walked around, perusing our options, before deciding on a Spanish and Portuguese restaurant called Acqui.
Settling down to a table outside, we soon realized that the menus were all in German. This meant that I quickly became "Laurnie the Translator," decoding the mysterious words for the rest of my table. Since Hamburg is a harbor city, I was in the mood for seafood. (Plus, the menu was overflowing with seafood options, so I figured it had to be a good choice.)
When the waiter returned to take our orders, I asked him what he recommended from the seafood section, and just went with that. I had absolutely no idea what I'd ordered for myself, but I found the anticipation rather exciting!
I realize that taking the recommendation from our random German waiter could have gotten me in trouble (or at least left with an inedible meal). But I was willing to take the risk. What did I have to lose?
As we waited for our meal to arrive, the waiter brought out bread and olives to tide us over.
The olives had pits, so I avoided them. But the spread for the bread was delicious! It was definitely not butter, so I had to ask what it was. The answer: aioli. Wikipedia explains that aioli is a sauce made from garlic, olive oil, and egg. (Which makes sense, because the consistency is a little mayonnaise-y.) Regardless, I could have made a meal off of that!
It's a good thing I had some restraint, however, because I needed a lot of stomach space for what came next.
To be completely honest, I'm still not quite sure what I ate. Looking at them, they look like little squids. This would make sense to me because they had a sautéed calamari-esque taste. Overall, I really enjoyed them. So my mystery meal worked out!
On our first evening in Berlin, we went with the group to a place called Ziko's Grill Dinner. It was an evening of singing, dancing (not on my part, but on the part of others), and, of course, eating. Although I was skeptical because of the fact that group food is generally not as good as food you find yourself, the evening turned out to be really fun!
The first course was a tomato and rice soup. It was, admittedly, somewhat Campbell's soup-esque.
The next course for me (we had the option of a few dishes), was a garlic fish.
This would have been great if it hadn't been just an eensy bit too garlicy and oily. I literally scraped chopped garlic bits off of the top of my fish before I could eat it. The chef must have been feeling a little exuberant in the kitchen that night. ;)
It's safe to say that Ziko's had great atmosphere, but rather mediocre food. I was glad to have gone, though, especially when some of my group mates began to conga line around the room. (Which provided for minutes of entertainment as they couldn't really do a full loop due to the size of the room, and the length of their line.) But I digress...
The second night in Berlin, however, was excellent. After a day of sightseeing, we walked along the Kurfürstendamm, or Ku'damm, (the major shopping street) gazing at the designer shops, and basically being part of the crowd. I have to pause here to mention that Berlin gives off a Paris-y feeling. (At least it did for me.) What with the wide streets, the green city-scape, and the popularity of eating outside for the sole purpose of watching the poor fools who walk by, I had a sort of dejavu moment as we enjoyed the nice weather in the capital of Germany.
Picking a place where we could sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, while not mercilessly staring at passersby, we seated ourselves and were given menus. This was a cute place, not unlike many of the other restaurants we'd passed along the way. It was huge, with most of the customers seated outside, and a few waiters sprinkled in between the red and white checked table cloths.
After placing our orders, we were given bread and butter. Really, they need to make that a dinner option because I would totally order it. I am extremely weak-willed when it comes to bread and butter. Set it on the table, and I'm all over it in a matter of seconds. A flaw, yes, but I'm working on it.....
 |
| How can you resist? |
 |
| So cute!! |
But the real show-stopper was my actual dinner. To be honest, I'm still not completely sure of what I ordered. Again, it was kind of a throw-caution-to-the-wind-and-fingers-crossed-it-works sort of thing. Though I'm pretty sure it was a mushroom ravioli in a cream soup.
This. Was. Divine. I am not even joking when I say that I've never tasted anything like it before...in my life. It was absolutely the sweetest thing because one waiter brought out the bowl with the two ravioli in it, and then the other poured the cream soup part out of a precious little porcelain cup. So adorable!!! I wish I'd taken a video or something.
I also wish I knew what was actually inside of the raviolis. I would imagine it was some kind of mushroom or truffle- wait that was it!!! The mystery taste inside was definitely truffle-y. It was very light and a little sweet and almost flowery. Does that sound truffle-y to anyone? I think that must have been it. Let me know if you have any other ideas. It was awesome. I wish I could eat it again...
A few days later, we were in Nuremberg, exploring the old city center in search of dinner. We chose an Italian restaurant in the town square and settled in, glad to be out of the rain.
I was feeling a little under the weather this evening, and just wanted something warm to fill me up. After securing a mug of my beloved hot chocolate, I glanced through the menu. As I write this, I'm beginning to notice a theme on German menus: they're endless. This menu in particular required me to flip through multiple pages to get to the end, which I eventually found after the four or so pages of alcoholic beverages.
Although there were a lot of interesting and unusual menu items, I went for the gnocchi with mozzarella and tomato sauce.
I've always enjoyed gnocchi. It's just so light and tasty. When paired with the fresh tomato sauce, I was content. The portion was much too large for me to finish, so I made sure to eat everything with cheese first. :)
Near the end of the trip, we visited Munich. The hotel in Munich was by far the worst, and everyone was somewhat disgusted that we would be spending not one, but two nights in this hotel with strange wall art, and without air conditioning. The first night, after checking in and getting our suitcases to our rooms, we took the subway to the Marienplaz and the city center. This was our safest option for food because there were only two restaurants near the hotel.
After walking past a number of high-end shops and jostling along through the bustling crowds, we stepped into a quiet courtyard. To our delight, there was a little restaurant in the courtyard, with two women eating outside. The menu, though tiny (shocking, I know!), looked appealing, so we sat down and waited for our waiter.
This restaurant turned out to be a one-man show. Our waiter was the waiter, the chef, and the busboy. He was a happy man, who gladly accommodated us. Although I originally wanted the Thai Chicken Curry with Rice, I was informed, ever so nicely, that he was all out. So I went with a gorgonzola penne. (I am still somewhat disappointed about the curry, though, because the restaurant still smelt like it, and it smelt so good.)
Despite my lingering disappointment, the gorgonzola penne was delicious. It was sharp in taste, but the sauce itself was smooth and creamy. I had absolutely no problem finishing the whole plate this time.
The thought of Thai food, which is apparently very good in Munich, remained in my mind as we finished our dinner. I felt very certain that I needed to try some Thai food before we left Munich, but I wasn't sure how to make that happen.
The next night was an included dinner night, so everyone ate together at the restaurant in the hotel next door to ours. (For whatever reason, we weren't able to eat in our hotel...) Originally, Miki told us we would be having chicken, so I had prepared myself for that. After the soup had been delivered, however, she came to my table to tell me that they had made a last minute change to pork instead, and since she knew I didn't eat pork, they were going to give me something else.
I was fine with that. I mean, I didn't have much of a choice, nor did I have much idea of what I would be getting. But I said, "no problem." I just hoped it was good because the carrot soup was not.
Thai food! I was so excited! I quickly dug in and found out that not only was it Thai, but it was also delicious!! This was the best hotel meal I had of the entire trip. I lapped up almost every last bite, feeling somewhat greedy and very fortunate all at the same time. I tell you, never before has my pork aversion come in so handy.
Days later, on our last night in Germany, we found ourselves in Frankfurt, or rather in a hotel in Frankfurt. It was a thirty minute walk to the city center, and after a long day, we didn't really feel like a trek downtown.
Deciding to take a chance with the restaurant in our hotel, we sat down and perused the menu. It was basically a steak and burger place, but I was able to find a turkey burger, if you could call it that. It was more like a turkey breast on a bun. And boy, was it HUGE.
This thing was almost as big as my head! Okay, maybe not that big, but it was still an impossible amount of food for one person. It was good, too. Under the bun, the turkey was topped with pesto, tomato, and mozzarella. I would have eaten the whole thing if I'd had a big enough stomach. But, alas, I did not. It turned out to be a very yummy way to end our time in Germany.
Next up: desserts!
Near the end of the trip, we visited Munich. The hotel in Munich was by far the worst, and everyone was somewhat disgusted that we would be spending not one, but two nights in this hotel with strange wall art, and without air conditioning. The first night, after checking in and getting our suitcases to our rooms, we took the subway to the Marienplaz and the city center. This was our safest option for food because there were only two restaurants near the hotel.
After walking past a number of high-end shops and jostling along through the bustling crowds, we stepped into a quiet courtyard. To our delight, there was a little restaurant in the courtyard, with two women eating outside. The menu, though tiny (shocking, I know!), looked appealing, so we sat down and waited for our waiter.
This restaurant turned out to be a one-man show. Our waiter was the waiter, the chef, and the busboy. He was a happy man, who gladly accommodated us. Although I originally wanted the Thai Chicken Curry with Rice, I was informed, ever so nicely, that he was all out. So I went with a gorgonzola penne. (I am still somewhat disappointed about the curry, though, because the restaurant still smelt like it, and it smelt so good.)
Despite my lingering disappointment, the gorgonzola penne was delicious. It was sharp in taste, but the sauce itself was smooth and creamy. I had absolutely no problem finishing the whole plate this time.
The thought of Thai food, which is apparently very good in Munich, remained in my mind as we finished our dinner. I felt very certain that I needed to try some Thai food before we left Munich, but I wasn't sure how to make that happen.
The next night was an included dinner night, so everyone ate together at the restaurant in the hotel next door to ours. (For whatever reason, we weren't able to eat in our hotel...) Originally, Miki told us we would be having chicken, so I had prepared myself for that. After the soup had been delivered, however, she came to my table to tell me that they had made a last minute change to pork instead, and since she knew I didn't eat pork, they were going to give me something else.
I was fine with that. I mean, I didn't have much of a choice, nor did I have much idea of what I would be getting. But I said, "no problem." I just hoped it was good because the carrot soup was not.
I was not a fan of this, nor was anyone around me. I think it's safe to say that it was just a bad, tasteless soup. But, I suppose you're bound to encounter that kind of thing sometimes.
When my food was brought to my table, I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of some fried pork chop, I had a Thai Chicken Stir Fry!
Days later, on our last night in Germany, we found ourselves in Frankfurt, or rather in a hotel in Frankfurt. It was a thirty minute walk to the city center, and after a long day, we didn't really feel like a trek downtown.
Deciding to take a chance with the restaurant in our hotel, we sat down and perused the menu. It was basically a steak and burger place, but I was able to find a turkey burger, if you could call it that. It was more like a turkey breast on a bun. And boy, was it HUGE.
This thing was almost as big as my head! Okay, maybe not that big, but it was still an impossible amount of food for one person. It was good, too. Under the bun, the turkey was topped with pesto, tomato, and mozzarella. I would have eaten the whole thing if I'd had a big enough stomach. But, alas, I did not. It turned out to be a very yummy way to end our time in Germany.
Next up: desserts!
No comments:
Post a Comment