Culinary extravaganza

Our week felt as if were going by fairly quickly by the time Wednesday dawned, though I'm fairly certain the Earth's orbit around the sun hadn't changed in the slightest. But our trip down to town was rather rushed, as was breakfast... but that's ok compared to the morning following it. We sat in the lecture hall and had an official information session about Fulbright and German education. It lasted over 3 hours! It was some decent information, but just way too much to take in at once.

Lunch was once again provided by Fulbright, and it was tasty once more! We had salad, pretzel bread (different, but very good), Cornmeal chowder and open faced sandwiches. It was a light meal, but was relaxing. Of course after food came more information for us....I feel as if they like to rotate food and info. Stuff us with both and then let us digest mentally and physically. The later information was regarding our health insurance during our stay here.... which is SUPER important, but was fairly standard things for most insurance companies.

After all that information we had some free time, but not much as we were all meeting for an early dinner (yes more food from Fulbright). We wound our way through the OberStadt (upper city/old city). The town sits near the bottom of the hill that the Schloss (castle) sits atop, and the streets are picturesque.... but quite hilly.  We began our walk up towards the Schloss, as dinner was right at the base of it. The stairs were steep and our legs were hurting, but the view was amazing once we reached the Schloss. 

The restaurant was, to put it simply, AMAZING! And I fully plan on telling you quite a bit about the experience. Raphael did a great job picking this place for us. We walked through a small outdoor seating area into the indoor section and it looked fancy! We had a long table to sit at, which makes perfect sense for 34 people to eat at, but felt very reminiscence of the tables kings would eat at.  We all had the option of red/white wine or beer. Mariko and I both went with the white wine, but sadly can't remember what type it was. It was a tapas style meal, and we had a lot of food to eat. Here is what the menu looked like:
   First Course 
     Plate 1                                         Plate 2
        *Sun-dried Tomatoes                  *Beets
        *Caper Berries
        *Roasted Bellpeppers
     Plate 3                                         Plate 4
        *Fennel                                        *Red Cabbage
     Plate 5                                         Plate 6
        *Deep Fried Greenbeans             *Curry Mustard w/ Pumpkin seeds
        *Deep Fried Baby Corn              *Lemon Chive cream
        *Deep Fried Carrots                    *Tartar sauce
    Plate 7                                         
        *Pumpkin seed bread                  
        *Sun-dried tomato bread
    Plate 8
       *Salmon on Fried grated potato topped w/ pesto
    Plate 9
       *Mozzarella whipped w/ cream and topped with balsamic vinegar

  Second Course    
    Plate 1                                        Plate 2
       *Steamed Broccoli                     *Peppered Braised Beef
       *Steamed Carrots      
       *Steamed Baby Corn
       *Steamed Peas
    Plate 3                                        Plate 4
      *Wienerschnitzel                         *Potatoes Au Gratin
    Plate 5
      *Baked Fish

   Dessert  
      *Hand-made Vanilla Ice cream topped w/ Raspberry sauce

The food was amazing and the restaurant looked classy.  Our dinner lasted between 3-4 hours and we never felt like it was dragging at all. Mariko and I both plan to go back there before we leave Marburg, as it was definitely a winner! The only down side was that after that amazing meal we had to walk all the way home to the dorms.... the buses don't always run on a good schedule during the late evening-early morning.