Swine Kopf

I’ve been in-processing the last couple of days. This includes things like getting a new ID card, a driver’s license, checking in at the mailroom, and meeting with various people I won’t see for another 3-5 years. It has been interesting though. I got to ride around with a guy who is from here and he pointed out some interesting things. He took me to the train station (where I got my bus ticket, …go figure…). He also showed me the buses to take to get me to and from work. A seemingly simple task, until you throw in the language barrier thing, and the seemingly odd (but in reality, sensible) way of naming the bus stops. I actually made my way to work and home today on my own. Not bad for a 44 year old guy (you can applaud anytime you feel like it)!

I went out for Italian food tonight. That’s correct; I’m in Germany, eating at an Italian restaurant, and being served by a Russian waitress. I had lamb chops on the bone, pasta, and a very nice glass of red wine. Everything was very good. The lamb was cooked to a medium doneness and had a peppery coating that was a little spicy. The spaghetti had a simple sauce of olive oil and garlic. I should have told the waitress that I wanted the meat medium-rare, but that's my fault. I won’t tell you what I paid for it, but I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Lauri, because she and my Uncle Sam paid for it.

While I’m on the topic of food (and really, when do I ever get off the topic?), I went into a small shopping center a couple of days ago. It was actually an indoor mall without any walls dividing most of the stores. It was like an indoor sidewalk sale, only everything was new, and the stinky woman in the wool coat wasn’t there. Oh come on, every time you go to a sidewalk sale or a yard sale there is some old woman with a long odd smelling woolen coat there. Isn’t there? She hasn’t been just following me… has she? Anyway, she wasn’t there, at least not at this time.

Within this twisted little menagerie of shops there is a food court of sorts. But unlike the food court at your local mall, most things looked good here. Most of the shops had beer too (always a plus). I had a decent sandwich and a beer at a place (when in Rome…), and when I was leaving I spotted a little deli stand. This was about the third or fourth place like this I have seen here. This one specialized in Italian meats, and I was drawn to one called Soppresatta de tete (or something like that, I didn’t write it down). It was a thing of beauty, all different hues of reds, browns, brownish reds, and reddish browns. You know, meat colors. It was wrapped in burlap, and was about the size of a county ham. I asked the guy what it was. He didn’t speak English very well, but explained that is was “Swine Kopf” and cupped his hands around his cheeks. I knew then what it was, and I considered just running away. However, I thought better of it and I told him, “In America we call that Head Cheese”. He sliced off a piece and insisted that I try some. I really didn't want to, but with a slight trepidation I reached out my sweating and shaky hand for it. I lifted it to my mouth, placed it on my tongue, and winced a little as I bit down. Surprisingly, it was very good (he likes it, hey Mikey!). It was sliced very thin, so I didn’t get the full texture of the bits of tongue, cheek meat and god knows what else that was in it. Nevertheless, it was very good. After he let me taste a few other things, I ended up buying some Culatello (sp?) and a little bit of Lardo (cured fatback) from him. I ate them with a couple of Doritos back at the hotel. Oh and I had another beer too. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the beer here is wonderful, but that’s another story for another day.

This weekend I’ll try to take and post some pictures of the area.

It’s great to see that Coach Pitino finally has the Cards playing like a team!