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Where in the hell have I been?
Y’know, I sometimes ask myself that very same question. There are several blogs that I frequent, and most of them seem to be able to scrap together posts on an almost daily basis. So what’s up with the Haven? Why isn’t this one updating on an at least a semi-regular basis?
I guess it all comes down to not really being entranced by this whole writing thing. It’s fun sometimes, but at other times it seems too much like work. When I haven’t updated in a while it’s doubly tough to get myself to sit down and write about: 1 – a lot more stuff, and 2 - stuff that is not really fresh in my mind. I inevitably end up forgetting about stuff that I should have written down.
And I’m a bit lazy…
Anyhoo… I’ll try to get you all up to speed with as few words as I can possibly muster.
Late last month I got a hankerin’ to do some confit. I purchased the pork fat and went about rendering the fat that would be needed…
I had decided to make some tongue confit, and had purchased 4 pork tongues. They came four to a package, or I probably would have only cooked one or two. Here are the tongues after they had been seasoned and cured a bit overnight...
Here they are in the pork fat with a little garlic getting ready for the long simmer…
Once cooked I peeled the skin from the tongues and placed them back into the fat.
The whole container was then placed in the refrigerator where the fat solidified. They have been there ever since. Just ripening up a bit. I plan to pull one out soon to try it.
July 4th I had a party at my place. A bunch of people were out of town for the holiday weekend, but we still had a decent turnout. Only one of my beer glasses was broken (…thanks Andy!), and I actually had some leftover meat to freeze.
I smoked two briskets, a pork shoulder, and two chickens.
Every time I’d check the meat, or add a log I sprayed the meat with an apple juice and water mixture.
It turned out OK, but I could not taste any apple. The fresh spray each time may have et the meat capture a little bit more smokiness, but I’m not sure of that either. I’ll have to run a test while smoking two pieces of meat. I’ll just spray one each time and see if there is any difference.
It certainly did not make it any easier to pull, but two forks, a little muscle, and several beers later yielded a 5 quart Dutch oven overflowing with porky goodness…
The day after the party, I had to go to Stuttgart for a week. The following week I was in Bernkastel-Kues for a training class. The class was very good, and the surroundings were a bit better.
Bernkastel-Kues straddles the Mosel River, which is a big wine area. Both towns are pretty small, but are very picturesque. They are both very tourist oriented, so there are a fair share of restaurants around. There are also plenty of neat old half-timbered houses…
I returned to Wiesbaden on Friday, only to fly out again on Sunday. This time the destination was Estonia.
Where?
Estonia. It’s north of Latvia, which is north of Lithuania, which is north of Belarus and northeast of Poland. Just west of Russia, about 150 clicks from St. Petersburg. We touched down in Tallinn, and immediately drove across the county to the city of Narva. Now the country is only about three hours wide, but Narva is the easternmost city in the European Union, and is directly across the river from Russia.
There are castles on either side of the river. The bigger one is, of course, in Russia.
After a meeting and site visit, we drove south to Värska. Värska is damn near the southeastern most point in the country. Not a lot going on there. We had to drive about 25km to get find a restaurant besides the cafeteria style one at the hotel. After another meeting and site visit we drove back to Tallinn. In three days we managed to drive to 3 corners of the country. It is a pretty country. Very rural, lots of trees, but very flat.
Tallinn is a pretty big city, it’s right on the Baltic Sea, just across the Gulf from Finland. Nice place, but I’ll have to tell you about that next time. I’ve got a couple of things going right now that need my attention…
As always, more pics on my flickr page HERE
I realize that’s no excuse, but it’s all I’ve got.
A couple of weeks after the Prague trip, a couple of us drove to Italy for work. We spent about a week there. On the last day, we were off a bit early, so we went to a few wineries. I already picked up some Sopressa and Asiago cheese, so I knew that if I could get some good wine, all would be right with the world.
The first place we went to was Piovene Porto Godi Alessandro, in the village of Toara just outside of Vicenza. A portion of the building dates from the 15th century.
We had a tour of the place
Met a new friend
And purchased some wine.
The next day we started the long drive back. Along the way, we stopped for lunch in Verona.
We also spent a night in Innsbruck Austria.
Then driving back into Germany we saw a couple examples of life in the Alps.
I know this is long on pictures, and short on explanations, but it’ll have to hold you over. I need to head out of town this afternoon for a class in Bernkastel-Kues. So have a little pity on me.
I’ll be without my laptop all next week, so no updates for a while.
(plenty more pics HERE)
On Sunday, May 17th I took a train into Leipzig. I was on the way to Prague, and thought I would stop along the way to have some Gose. I had never tried it before, but I knew that it was an odd German beer that did not meet the requirements of the Reinheitsgebot (the so-called Beer Purity Law). So I was game to try it, and what better chance would I ever get? I had researched it on the net and had a list of pubs in Leipzig that sold it.
Leipzig is in the former East Germany and the Gose beer style was practically wiped out during the Soviet years. He style has since been revived by a couple of daring breweries. I made it to three of the six pubs on the list, and tried two different brands of Gose. I enjoyed them both, although the Ritterguts brand was a bit sour for my taste.
I met a German coupe at the last pub I went to. They wanted to speak English, and were very nice. I bought a round of drinks, and we chatted for a while. It was raining so when we left I took a taxi back to my hotel.
This was my first time in the former East Germany. It’s been twenty years since the wall came down but the area suffered from 45 years of neglect before then. Leipzig was the second largest city in East Germany, so I’m sure it faired better than most. It actually has a pretty downtown area, and seems to be coming around relatively nicely.
I did see some “exposed” water pipe…
I thought it might be just a temporary line during repairs, but I saw another that had obviously been there for a while…
Leipzig is the birth place of J.S. Bach
and Felix Mendelssohn
It is actually a pretty nice city, although I don’t see myself driving too far for a Gose in the future.
The next day I took a train to Prague. And as I stated (rather eloquently I might add) in the last post … “holy shit”. I was really dumbfounded by how incredible Prague is. It’s a bit touristy (or tourist-full) but I can’t really complain seeing as I’m one of them. It’s got a really nice subway and tram system, so once I figured out where I was going and exchanged some money it was pretty easy. A lot of the people spoke English, which was good.
I found my way to the hostel where I had reservations, dropped my rucksack, and headed out into the town. I arrived about 1600 in the afternoon, and spent the remaining daylight hours strolling around and taking pictures. I had a dinner of pork neck and potatoes along with a few Pilsner Urquells.
I slept well that night, but in the morning it was raining. So I decided to head out to Kutna Hora that day because I knew that most of what I wanted to see there would be inside. It’s about one hour on the train to get there. The weather was actually not too bad when I got there, and it ended up being a nice day.
I went into the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, which was formerly a Cistercian Monastery.
And then into the Kostnice Ossuary. The Ossuary (Bone House or Bone Church as it is sometimes called) is this old building where the bones of up to 40,000 people were placed after the cemetery was full.
Most of the people in here died before or during the plague. As is common in Europe: once the cemetery is full, you dig up the old bodies, place the bones into an ossuary, and start filling the cemetery back up with new ones. Only at this particular place, the owners gave someone the task of (or freedom to) doing a little decorating with the bones.
I asked if I could be put on display here when I die, but they are apparently not taking any more applications...
It is a pretty wild place, and definitely worth the one hour train ride to see it.
This town was on top of a silver mine and was one of the richest towns in the Czech lands during the middle ages. Once the mines were exhausted, many people just left the town. So now you have this small town, with an incredible cathedral and one of the best preserved medieval town areas in Europe.
I also got to see the Cathedral of Saint Barbara in Kutna Hora, which is also incredible…
I’ll post some more about the trip when I can, but I’m leaving for Italy in the morning and still need to pack. We will be there (working) for a week, but may stop in Austria for a couple of days on the way back (or maybe Munich for some more viscera and beer).
As always there are plenty more pics on the flickr site. You can either click on any picture or click HERE.
So I’m planning my trip to the Czech Republic. I decide that I will stay a couple of days in Prague and a couple of days in Plzen. Plzen can also be written Pilsen, and is the birthplace of Pilsner Beer. And yes I do plan to tour the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. I am also going to send a day in Leipzig, Germany before heading to Prague. Leipzig is home to Gose. Gose is a not very well known style of beer, a wheat beer, somewhat sour. It’s difficult to find, I’ve never tried it and don’t know if I’ll like it, but since it’s on the way…
I’ll be out of the office for the next four weeks. This month will be book-ended by trips to Czech and to Italy. The middle will be two weeks in Nuremberg. I will be working for three of those four weeks. Although I may try to steal some vacation time in Italy.
So I’ve got my train tickets booked, hotels reserved, everything is ready to go. Then I read Thursday’s Stars & Stripes online. Thursday has a travel section with stories about different destinations in Europe. Ta the end of the travel section is a small column that lists festivals and events being held around Europe. I glance down at the Czech Republic listing, under the “Prague” subheading is where I see it. It says Prague Beer Fest and it lasts a full week. I’m only booked at the hotel for three days, but that should be good enough.
Shouldn’t it?
I don’t need to be there from beginning to end, do I?
I am rechecking the dates when I begin to question the existence of God.
How could this happen?
Me and the Lord, I thought we had an understanding…
As you’ve probably already guessed, I will not be in Prague for the beer fest. I will be in Plzen the day the Prague Beer Fest starts. I will be back at work during the week of the Prague Beer Fest.
… shit.
In other news, I picked up this neat, hand painted, piece of Polish Pottery.
What is it? A cookie jar?
Not with that water seal trough around the lid…
What’s in there?
Why, it’s home made sauerkraut!
And here it is in an old pretzel container in the fridge with my second batch of Kimchi.
It’s a little salty, but I think if I rinse it off really well, it’ll be OK.
I showed it to my landlord, and the next day she gave me this other pickling crock…
Now I’ll have to figure out something to make in it.
Anyone up for some pickled pigs feet? Maybe some pickled tongue?
I arrived in Amberg at approximately 15:45 on a Thursday. It had been lightly raining for a while. A couple of other guys and me had driven to Hohenfels early in the morning for a meeting. When we were finished there we ate lunch and drove to Amberg where I was going to spend the night. The others dropped me off at the hotel and headed back to Wiesbaden. I was supposed to meet Eric there that afternoon. We had a meeting scheduled for Friday morning and then we would both head back to Wiesbaden.
The need for this meeting had just come up two days prior. I didn’t think I’d be able to go because the trip to Hohenfels was supposed to stretch into Friday. It turned out that one of the people we were supposed to meet was not able to make it on Friday, so that meeting was rescheduled.
I asked the girl at the check in about Eric, but he had not arrived yet. I was running a little later than I expected, and I thought that he would arrive before me.
I went up to my room and put my things away. I tried to call him but he did not answer.
I had never seen Amberg during the day, so I decided to take a walk around the city. The hotel was a couple hundred meters outside of the walled part of the city. I grabbed my umbrella and headed out of the hotel to the left, toward the town center.
The streets inside of the walled part of town are very narrow, and the sidewalks are narrow as well. There is automobile traffic in the town, but thankfully not too much. When walking along these roads, you are constantly stopping or ducking into little alcoves to let cars pass. The town also has a small stream that flows through the middle, effectively bisecting the city.
The rain picked up a little bit. I stopped at a few store windows to see if there was anything interesting inside, and for the most part there wasn’t. There are quite a few bookstores in this little town, but I was not in the mood for that. I knew that there were a few breweries in this town because I had been to three of them over the past couple of trips I’ve made here. I was trying to orient myself to where they were and to see if any of them had interesting items on their posted menus. Every restaurant in Germany has the menu posted outside, complete with prices.
I must have been on the wrong side of town because I couldn’t seem to find the brewery that I was really looking for (the Brauerei Bruckmüller). The rain was coming down in a steady drizzle. Nothing too strong, but it was steady, and constant. I was thinking about walking to the other side of the town and looking for the Bruckmüller, but was getting a little wet and was feeling a little tired as a result of rising at 04:00 that morning. So I turned down a street and was proceeding back toward the hotel.
When I came out of a side street into the center square of the town I saw a couple of booths with farmers that were selling produce. A lot of towns in Europe have these types of markets downtown. Usually near the town hall and the main church, which are pretty much nalways collocated. There was also quite a few empty beer cases of various colors stacked by a mobile drink stand. The beer cases formed a sort of temporary wall about 3 or 4 cases high. The wall was about 15-20 meters long but did not enclosing anything. The different colored cases were from different breweries (6 in all). The wall had a few small wooden or plastic barrels, with no markings, sitting on top of it.
I walked over to the booth and saw a couple of people with some very dark beers. I ordered one for myself, and paid the man 2 Euros for it. As I was drinking it I noticed a couple of tables that were set up behind the booth. The tables had (very wet) brochures, coasters, and bottles on display. There was a display for each of the 6 breweries, some with several very nice and old bottles; however, it didn’t seem like anything of these were for sale.
There were not too many people around, and I guessed that it must just be part of the farmer’s market that they setup here on Fridays. It is not at all uncommon to see beer or wine booths at a farmers’ market. I began to hear what sounded like a fife and drum band from somewhere around the corner.
Then, sure enough, a bunch of folks dressed in strange looking band uniforms began to come into view from around the side of the building. There were women playing the fifes, and behind them were men playing the drums. The band was followed by a few women in medieval garb, and men with helmets and long pikes. The whole crew marched out into the city square and turned to face us from the other side of the wall of beer cases.
There was a photographer and a reporter there also. When the band was finished playing some gentleman stood out front with a microphone, and made some type of proclamation. I imagine he was the mayor or some sort of dignitary. Being that this was all in German, aside from what I am describing to you, I was clueless as to what was going on. When the gentleman was finished with whatever it was that he was proclaiming, they tapped one of the barrels. A few other, official looking, people came over and drew off beers.
I asked someone who was standing near me what was going on. He said it was part of the 975th anniversary of the town of Amberg, which was being celebrated later this year. Then I looked over at the wall again and everyone who was involved in the tapping of the barrel was gone. I saw other people, whom I recognized from being in the crowd with me, tapping beers off of the keg.
Well … I was almost finished my beer … so I inched my way over to the barrel … and tapped myself a beer. The crowd was polite, and there was no pushing or shoving. When that first barrel was empty, someone came out and tapped the next one.
Each colored section of this wall of beer cases was made up of cases from an individual brewery … and on top of each section sat a barrel that from that individual brewery … six in all … and they were going to tap every barrel one at a time … and they were giving this beer away for free … and did I ever tell you how much I like living in Germany?
I called Eric, but he was stuck in traffic (poor bastard).
After I tapped a beer from another barrel, the reporter asked me a question (in German).
“Ich spreche nicht Deutsch”, I replied.
“Oh, then I shall ask you in English” he said, “How do you like the beer?”
“Very much” I replied, “I’m really enjoying this, thank you.”
I don’t know if I made it to air, but I did really enjoy that beer. I believe that it was from the Brauerei Bruckmüller. After another free beer I went back to the hotel, ate at the restaurant there, and went upstairs to bed. Eric called when I was in the restaurant, and I wished him luck, but told him that I was not going back out. He went by the town square, but everything had broken up by that point.
