Czech it off!

Prague by night

Our next destination was Prague, capital of the Czech Republic and home to some extraordinary sites. From Berlin we took a short 4 1/2 hr train ride to Prague, and was incidentally the only time while traveling in Europe that I've needed to show our passports crossing the border. You can tell that the train staff that headed this direction didn't use English as often as some of the other routes through Germany. One noticeable (which happens to still make us laugh) is when the conductor announce a long string of German over the intercom and then when switching to English was much shorter and only gave basic information.... the best part being "And the dining car is no."

Cooking, baking and stuff

I'm not sure if it's out of a desire to make good food for Mariko, learning to enjoy making new foods, or just sheer boredom, but recently I have been experimenting and cooking/baking a much larger selection of foods than previously. Honestly I'm sure it comes from a combination of all 3 reasons and then some... why do something for one simple reason when you can do it for a many convoluted reasons!

Tiny German Kitchen- Ep. 2 Potato Croquette

The Second episode of my little cooking show:

As you can see near the end, my recipe didn't turn out as well this time as a previous attempt. Should have gone with no butter and hotter oil

Pizza, Movies and Visitors.. oh my!

The day was Sunday October 9th, 2011. The time was approximately 4:15pm. The place... Braunschweig, Germany. The event... Mariko and I had our first visitor to our German apartment!! Our friend Rachel lives in Göttingen, which is 40ish minutes SW of us by ICE (high-speed train), decided that she wanted to visit us poor lonely folk in good ol' BS. And of course we were quite ecstatic to have her over.

We picked her up from the train station, and even though it was the coldest day that we have been here (not Colorado cold, just windy cold) it was a pleasant walk back home. Luckily we had an idea that she might be visiting, so we had plenty of food for the 3 of us. We made Flat-bread pizza, which actually turned out rather well! Mariko and Rachel did the cutting of all our toppings: Pineapple, Mushrooms, Garlic, Green Peppers, Onions and of course Pepperoni!

Dining out

So Mariko and I have decided that every Friday night will go out to eat. We want to be able to try new restaurants and experience more of what Braunschweig has to offer. I won't talk too much about our first attempt, suffice to say though it was expensive for soggy onion rings and bland schnitzel strips... not fun.

However our second attempt was MUCH better. Our original goal was to try one of the Mexican restaurants here in town, and it was rather simple to find (as I've been scoping the city out). However we looked at the menu and saw two problems... First was the price. It was a little more expensive than we would have liked to spend, each meal costing between 10-14 Euro per plate. Secondly, and most important, it wasn't safe for Mariko as they had molé!

So with that option removed, we had decided on walking back home and choosing something along the way. And as luck would have it we spotted an Italian restaurant almost immediately... it was about 3 building over from the Mexican place. We checked out the menu: It was safe and prices looked decent! Our restaurant had been decided!

Real German Cooking!

So it has been much longer than I would have liked since my last post..... but lack of internet will do that. Hmmm where did we last leave off..... ah yes I had made my post about restaurants and food! Wonderful topic, which is why this post will be about food... but this time about making it.

Mariko and I attended a cooking class that Raphael, our coordinator in Marburg, so graciously setup for us. Only about half the Fulbrighters were in our class, as the other half attended a prior class. We arrived at the place at about 4pm and met our instructor, who incidently did not speak English (which worked out fine for everyone). She was going to teach us to make some classic German food!! Of course minus whatever allergies and food preferences (Vegetarian, Vegan, etc) we had. Brigitte, our cooking instructor, had done quite a bit of work before we even arrived. First off she had decorated the dining room with table clothes, flowers and grapes (both flowers and grapes came from her personal garden)! She had also prepared an appetizer for us all to try before we started working, with some white wine of course... it was a dinner meal after all. Brigitte also made copies of all the recipes that we'd be cooking for every person in the class (which I hope to translate and put for everyone). And lastily she even set up little work stations for us too work at, with all the things we would need and the recipe that we would be making.

Food and walking

Food! Yes food is good and truly an amazing thing! And not just for sustenance, but for the flavors, textures, and experiences. Food feeds the soul as well as the body. If you can't tell I love food, and have refrained slightly from posting too many pictures about food (Mariko said something crazy about not everyone enjoys pictures of food).

But this entire blog post is about food! So I am sorry, but if you read on it will contain pictures of scrumptious food and locations in which we ate said food. Those who can not handle pictures of such tastiness turn back now! You have been warned!

Beer and Bacon

Life has normalized for Mariko and I now that our language classes have started. Classes started for us on Thursday August 11th, Mariko began in Class 2 and I began in Class 1. I knew that I had forgotten a lot of German over the last 12 years, so I opted for the lowest class. I was hoping that it would help me build my basics back up and restate what I had learned back in high school. Well it didn't work like that, I was bored for the two days that I was in class... pretty much already knew everything that was being taught. Since I did want to make sure that I knew how to speak/read/write German fairly competently I decided to go up to Class 2. It has been tough for me, but I think I need that challenge to learn much more than I needed some of the basics. Mariko also jumped up one level, to class 3, but she was just put into the wrong class and is learning more in Class 3.

Other than that we have been doing a lot of grocery shopping, as we only shop for a single day or two every time we go. It's been mostly pasta style dished for us, as it is simple to cook and there are a variety of ways to cook it. We only have one pan at this point in time, we don't want to buy too much and then have to move it with us when we go to Braunschweig..... so we have had to be creative with our cooking, but it hasn't been to difficult.

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.