I was out of town last week, for work. Nothing much to report. I spent my days on post, and at night B (a guy from work) and I wandered around looking for restaurants. This should not have been difficult, but the girl at the hotel kept sending us to ones that were closed. Really. We asked her on two separate occasions to recommend a restaurant, and both times the places she mentioned were closed. She started to cover her face when we sauntered into the hotel lobby after work.
I finally made it back Friday, and naturally my truck wasn’t finished. I had dropped it off so they could fix it while I was out of town. I had told the garage that I was going to do this (at least two weeks prior). Well, it still is not finished. So now I’m driving a Ford Focus loaner. The check engine light is on, and the suspension makes funny noises when someone just walks past it. But I paid to fill the tank with gas, so I’m going to drive it into the ground if that’s what it takes.
Saturday, I went to the library, the commissary, &c. I didn’t really feel like doing too much, so after running some errands I just hung out and read a bit. Around the middle of the afternoon I wandered over to the refrigerator. This was the condiment refrigerator, and it’s full of various mustards, chili sauces ... you know … condiments. Well this refrigerator also has some drinks in it that are not allowed to sully the Belgian Room or the Bier and Wein fridge.
On this particular Saturday one of these drinks sort of called out to me.
The people at the bier store have kind of taken a shining to me. I guess they are mentally checking off another one of their kids’ tuition payments every time they see my truck. Well, one time a couple weeks ago, I was there looking for a bier I hadn’t tried yet (yes Jimmy, I was blowing the dust off the cases in the back). The guy who works there starts telling me about some new drinks they had. He starts handing me samples of these new drinks made by Bitburger.
I am, of course, telling him no. I don’t want any of these odd drinks. I insist. He keeps shoving them into my face. He grabs another strange drink and tries to give it to me. I finally relent and take them with me. He gives me four of these grotesquely colored things. GIVES, as in no charge. I, of course, realize he’s just trying to get me hooked. Much like Joe Camel, he’s s relying on my childlike desire for free stuff to make his entrance. When I get them home I banish them to the condiment fridge. Damn that pusher man! Maybe I can give them to the homeless or something.
However, one of these drinks piqued my interest. It was not as grotesque as the neon colors of the Bitburger drinks. It had my interest for about a month before this weekend. Now I was not interested enough to actually open it, mind you. But I was interested in the flavor combination. Much like Pizza and Beer, Chocolate and Peanut Butter, or Asian Lesbians, it was a combination of things that I am fond of.
This particular combination seemed odd at first, and if it hadn’t have been given to me, I don’t know that I would have ever tried it.
Mixing drinks and such is a pretty big business here in Germany. A couple of them I have found reasonably likeable, and some were actually quite good. The apple juice mixed with carbonated water is one I find particularly good. They also mix carbonated water with wine, coke with bier, sprite with bier, and even lemonade with bier. The lemonade idea, though I haven’t tried it yet, sounded refreshing to me. A good lawnmower drink, if you will.
The particular drink that had my interest piqued for going on the month it had been sitting in my refrigerator was a mixture of hefeweizen and grapefruit juice. Well on Saturday I broke down and tried it. And as embarrassed as I am to admit it, it wasn’t bad.
Now I am not in love with it, so I will not be turning in my penis just yet, but it was not bad. I can’t see myself buying a case of it anytime soon. But if I ever get put on a chain gang a la Cool Hand Luke, I think that I would be happy to have one of these.
It might even taste good after a hard day shopping for new shoes and handbags ...
20 August 2007
09 August 2007
Liberatoribus Americanis Populus Belgicus Memor
This past weekend a friend and I went to Belgium. We started out Saturday at about 0830 and arrived in Houffalize by 1130. There is a little town near there called Achouffe, which is also the name of a brewery there. We didn’t go to the brewery, but a restaurant across the road had their beers. After we ate lunch, and drank a couple of beers, we headed down the road about 15 miles to Bastogne. While in Bastogne we checked out the memorial to the American Troops that liberated Belgium. We also went to a local WWII museum where the main emphasis was the Battle of the Bulge.
Being as I am now the kinder, gentler. Tony, I didn’t even raise a stink when they charged us full admission. And even though it wasn’t the greatest of museums, I didn’t ask for my money back either. After the museum we wandered over to the memorial, which was very nice.
Took a few pictures from on top of it.
Belgium is a beautiful country, and is very rural. You are not very far outside of the cities before you start seeing farms. There are a lot of cows here, and the majority of them seemed to be lying down (lazy bastards!)
We headed north to Namur because a book I have said it was a good place to start exploring Belgian beers. It recommended a certain pub which was closed down. We ended up going to a restaurant in town and met up with a couple of British guys who were in town for the motocross championships (who knew?). We ate and then went next door to meet them for a couple of (or more) beers. They were a good crew.
The one guy was laughing at everything I said. I asked him what was so funny, and he said it was my accent. My accent? I explained to him that, being as how I am from Pennsylvania, I don’t have an accent. He was having none of it though.
Sunday we took the long way around getting back to Wiesbaden, but it was a nice day and we stopped a couple of times. So it was a good trip. We put in over 500 miles this weekend, so I was glad to be able to get back to work and rest.
Or so I thought. I had a bunch of work dumped on me on Monday, and I’m out of town next week. So I’m working overtime this week trying to get everything done. Sorry that I couldn’t go into the excruciating details that I had promised, but this update will have to be good enough for the next week or so.
The good news is I now have a Belgium Room…
... there are still some gaps in there, but it's a start!
And yes Jimmy, they do have other beers. I thought about you when I saw a six pack of Corona!
02 August 2007
My Sunday Project…
My Sunday project actually started on Saturday evening. I unpacked my stuff from the METRO store. Can you guess what was lurking at the bottom of my bag? That’s correct; it was 1.505 Kilos of pork skin-on belly-fat...
“This is going to require some wine” I thought. So I chose a bottle from my landlord’s brother’s Weingut. A nice Spätburgunder should do the trick...
First I cut the fat into strips...
Then I cut the strips into cubes and put them into a brine to soak in overnight in the refrigerator...
In the morning I drained off the brine, rinsed the cubes in a colander, and placed them in a dutch oven with 1½ cups of water...
I set the heat on low, and decided it was time for some brefax. I took two slices of Blutwurst about 1 cm thick...
I dredged them in some flour and tossed them into a dry skllet...
Flipped them a few times, and fried up some eggs in a separate skillet. This is not really a good picture of it, but you can see the Blutwurst has turned almost black (no, it’s not burned). It gets really dark when it is heated. I guess that is why the Brits sometimes refer to blood sausage as black pudding. It has a similar texture to scrapple, which may be off putting to some. I however, love it. And while it does seem to taste a little “bloodier” it is a very nice way to prepare it.
I let this baby simmer for over 12 hours, stirring it only occasionally. During this time it went from this…
to this…
Toward the end I stained it into the only container I could find that would hold it. I used to have a bunch of empty glass jars just for purposes such as this one, but I threw them out before I left the States. So with almost a quart of hot schmaltz on my hands, I improvised. And for those of you who are wondering, I do have another coffee pot. This one is about the third or fourth string pot.
I rinsed and scraped the dutch oven. And if anyone ever asks you how to season a cast iron pot or pan, just tell them to render about 3 lbs of pork fat in it. Fixes it right up!
Monday morning I pulled it out of the fridge and was delighted to find this…
Ain’t she beautiful? I think I’m going to fry up some onion and apple in some of it and make some griebenschmalz with the cracklin’s that are left.
I wanted to make some kimchi at the same time, but couldn’t find all the ingredients on Sunday. Maybe another time I’ll post some kimchi making.
“This is going to require some wine” I thought. So I chose a bottle from my landlord’s brother’s Weingut. A nice Spätburgunder should do the trick...
First I cut the fat into strips...
Then I cut the strips into cubes and put them into a brine to soak in overnight in the refrigerator...
In the morning I drained off the brine, rinsed the cubes in a colander, and placed them in a dutch oven with 1½ cups of water...
I set the heat on low, and decided it was time for some brefax. I took two slices of Blutwurst about 1 cm thick...
I dredged them in some flour and tossed them into a dry skllet...
Flipped them a few times, and fried up some eggs in a separate skillet. This is not really a good picture of it, but you can see the Blutwurst has turned almost black (no, it’s not burned). It gets really dark when it is heated. I guess that is why the Brits sometimes refer to blood sausage as black pudding. It has a similar texture to scrapple, which may be off putting to some. I however, love it. And while it does seem to taste a little “bloodier” it is a very nice way to prepare it.
I let this baby simmer for over 12 hours, stirring it only occasionally. During this time it went from this…
to this…
Toward the end I stained it into the only container I could find that would hold it. I used to have a bunch of empty glass jars just for purposes such as this one, but I threw them out before I left the States. So with almost a quart of hot schmaltz on my hands, I improvised. And for those of you who are wondering, I do have another coffee pot. This one is about the third or fourth string pot.
I rinsed and scraped the dutch oven. And if anyone ever asks you how to season a cast iron pot or pan, just tell them to render about 3 lbs of pork fat in it. Fixes it right up!
Monday morning I pulled it out of the fridge and was delighted to find this…
Ain’t she beautiful? I think I’m going to fry up some onion and apple in some of it and make some griebenschmalz with the cracklin’s that are left.
I wanted to make some kimchi at the same time, but couldn’t find all the ingredients on Sunday. Maybe another time I’ll post some kimchi making.
30 July 2007
Brain Freeze
On Saturday afternoon I was in Wiesbaden, returning some items to the post library. I stopped by this store named METRO. I had never been there before and I was looking for a couple of items, so I decided that I’d check this place out.
It’s very big, like a super Walmart I thought. Nothing really struck my fancy until I got to the “Meat Room”. That’s correct; they have a refrigerated room of meat products. This was not like the walk-in refrigerator at Gib’s during the Kentucky State Fair. This place was larger than my living room, and was full of all types of meat vacuum packed, stacked, and just ready to be thrown into my cart. I was in heaven I tell ya’. They had boxes of marrow bones, oxtails, pigtails, calf knuckles, livers, kidneys … my head was spinning. They even had a cryovaced suckling pig! I picked it up, nuzzled with it for a while, but I didn’t place it in my cart. No, the pig would have to wait for another day.
See, I was also light on cash, and these places only accept EC cards. It’s some kind of European Debit Card or something, and I don’t have one. So I look for the most practical item I can find, and pick up 1.505 kilograms of skin-on pork belly-fat. Oh sure, I could have gone for the eccentric T-Bone or perhaps even gotten a little nutty and picked up some ground beef. But I just wasn’t feeling it that day. I must admit, I was feeling more than a little proud of the practicality of my choice.
I would return this place.
While I continued to view the goods on display, I started to see weird shadows sputter in front of me. At first I thought the lights were flickering. I looked around but no one else seemed to notice it. Then my field of vision started to contract and my head began to hurt. I must be having another aneurism ...
“Damn, I hate it when that happens! “
After almost 30 minutes of walking around in a 36 degree room in a t-shirt and shorts, I reckoned it was time to go. As I walked out of the room, the sound of two young girls chuckling caught the attention of my partially frozen brain. I looked down at my loinal region and cried out to them, “I was in the pool!”
After I calmed down and thawed out some I picked up a few more items and headed for the checkout. German people like to do things at the same time as … well … every other German person it seems. The stores are always so crowded, and everyone seems to be buying enough food to last the summer. I finally get up to the checkout and the girl asks me if I have some kind of card. “Nein”, I reply. I think she is just asking me for a Kroger Card or some savings card. I am waiting for her to start scanning my items, but she gets on the phone and calls for someone who speaks English. Apparently this is some kind of “Members Only” store (like Sam’s Club, not the place Walt buys his jackets), and I’m not one.
The girl who spoke English (very well, I might add) says I can use her card, but explains to me that you need to be a member. “How much is a membership?” I ask. She tells me that you have to be a re-seller (or a merchant of some sort). Visions of that cryovaced suckling pig are suddenly starting to dim. I didn’t believe her, but she was very nice and I was still experiencing some pangs of brain freeze and didn’t want to belabor the point. Anyhow, it was probably just a translation problem. Maybe I’ll check into it later on.
Since it seems that it is going to rain all weekend, I need a project for Sunday. I have just the thing in my cart….
It’s very big, like a super Walmart I thought. Nothing really struck my fancy until I got to the “Meat Room”. That’s correct; they have a refrigerated room of meat products. This was not like the walk-in refrigerator at Gib’s during the Kentucky State Fair. This place was larger than my living room, and was full of all types of meat vacuum packed, stacked, and just ready to be thrown into my cart. I was in heaven I tell ya’. They had boxes of marrow bones, oxtails, pigtails, calf knuckles, livers, kidneys … my head was spinning. They even had a cryovaced suckling pig! I picked it up, nuzzled with it for a while, but I didn’t place it in my cart. No, the pig would have to wait for another day.
See, I was also light on cash, and these places only accept EC cards. It’s some kind of European Debit Card or something, and I don’t have one. So I look for the most practical item I can find, and pick up 1.505 kilograms of skin-on pork belly-fat. Oh sure, I could have gone for the eccentric T-Bone or perhaps even gotten a little nutty and picked up some ground beef. But I just wasn’t feeling it that day. I must admit, I was feeling more than a little proud of the practicality of my choice.
I would return this place.
While I continued to view the goods on display, I started to see weird shadows sputter in front of me. At first I thought the lights were flickering. I looked around but no one else seemed to notice it. Then my field of vision started to contract and my head began to hurt. I must be having another aneurism ...
“Damn, I hate it when that happens! “
After almost 30 minutes of walking around in a 36 degree room in a t-shirt and shorts, I reckoned it was time to go. As I walked out of the room, the sound of two young girls chuckling caught the attention of my partially frozen brain. I looked down at my loinal region and cried out to them, “I was in the pool!”
After I calmed down and thawed out some I picked up a few more items and headed for the checkout. German people like to do things at the same time as … well … every other German person it seems. The stores are always so crowded, and everyone seems to be buying enough food to last the summer. I finally get up to the checkout and the girl asks me if I have some kind of card. “Nein”, I reply. I think she is just asking me for a Kroger Card or some savings card. I am waiting for her to start scanning my items, but she gets on the phone and calls for someone who speaks English. Apparently this is some kind of “Members Only” store (like Sam’s Club, not the place Walt buys his jackets), and I’m not one.
The girl who spoke English (very well, I might add) says I can use her card, but explains to me that you need to be a member. “How much is a membership?” I ask. She tells me that you have to be a re-seller (or a merchant of some sort). Visions of that cryovaced suckling pig are suddenly starting to dim. I didn’t believe her, but she was very nice and I was still experiencing some pangs of brain freeze and didn’t want to belabor the point. Anyhow, it was probably just a translation problem. Maybe I’ll check into it later on.
Since it seems that it is going to rain all weekend, I need a project for Sunday. I have just the thing in my cart….
29 July 2007
Here’s a picture of my Ex…
… my Ex-Dog that is.
Word from Jersey is that he has four Confirmed Kills so far this summer. I guess those are numbers 3 and 4 at his feet. You may need to click on the picture and get a larger view to see them.
As you can probably imagine, I’m just gushing with pride!
Word from Jersey is that he has four Confirmed Kills so far this summer. I guess those are numbers 3 and 4 at his feet. You may need to click on the picture and get a larger view to see them.
As you can probably imagine, I’m just gushing with pride!
26 July 2007
The Mailman has been very good to me this week…
It’s been a banner week for mail here at The Haven. One day I get Michael Jackson’s “Great Beers of Belgium”, the very next day brought “Pork & Sons” and the invitation to Nancy’s wedding in Spain.
Then today, not expecting any more good luck I hesitated as I approached the mailbox. As I opened it I felt a bit of elation as I recognized the new NRA magazine in the box.
But there was also something else.
A key?
To yet another mailbox.
Is this some cruel hoax?
I was looking around for Alan Funt as I approached the second mailbox with the key.
I broke out my NBC kit (Nucular, Biological, Chemical) and dusted it for trace elements.
Nothing.
I opened it, and found to my surprise … my new truck tent! I had almost given up on it.
Of course I had to do a test installation as soon as I got home…
Then today, not expecting any more good luck I hesitated as I approached the mailbox. As I opened it I felt a bit of elation as I recognized the new NRA magazine in the box.
But there was also something else.
A key?
To yet another mailbox.
Is this some cruel hoax?
I was looking around for Alan Funt as I approached the second mailbox with the key.
I broke out my NBC kit (Nucular, Biological, Chemical) and dusted it for trace elements.
Nothing.
I opened it, and found to my surprise … my new truck tent! I had almost given up on it.
Of course I had to do a test installation as soon as I got home…
Thanks Cliffy, I knew you'd come through for me!
25 July 2007
Damage
Here’s a picture of the damage to back of my truck.
You can see that the damage is not really that extensive. I stopped at the Toyota dealership on my way home from the accident so they could order the plastic light cover. I don’t know how long the rest will take to get sorted out, but I want to get this replaced as soon as possible. I don’t think they sell Tacomas in Germany, so I thought it may take a while to get the part in. Even if they don’t do body work (and I don’t know if they do or not), the part will be on its way. Worse case scenario, I buy the part from them and take it to a guy who does bodywork.
I went to the Metzgerei on Saturday and bought the following bunch of goodies…
Here’s the index…
1 – Mettwurst (a smoked sausage made of roughly ground veal and pork)
2 – Wildschwein Schinken (Ham from a wild boar)
3 – Zunge (tongue from a calf)
4 – Blutwurst (blood sausage)
5 – Bierwurst (I actually like the name better than the sausage, it’s a little rough for an emulsified sausage, an has a strange flavor that I haven’t nailed down yet)
6 – Bier Knackers (the real Slim Jims)
Sunday morning, I made a tongue omelet. Went something like this…
Cut up some onion and yellow bell pepper (‘cause I had it in the fridge)…
Julienned about three slices of tongue…
Sautéed them in a little Olive Oil, with salt & pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper (the pizza stuff)…
Beat three eggs and mixed them around in a hot pan until slightly set…
Placed the tongue mixture into the center, with some Parmiggiano shavings and a little more salt & pepper…
Folded it, hit it with some chives, s&p, and a healthy ribbon of sriracha. Served it up with some nice bread and some schmaltz…
It browned a little more than I would have liked, but it sure was tasty!
I just got a new book in the mail this week. Can you guess where I’ll be this weekend?
You can see that the damage is not really that extensive. I stopped at the Toyota dealership on my way home from the accident so they could order the plastic light cover. I don’t know how long the rest will take to get sorted out, but I want to get this replaced as soon as possible. I don’t think they sell Tacomas in Germany, so I thought it may take a while to get the part in. Even if they don’t do body work (and I don’t know if they do or not), the part will be on its way. Worse case scenario, I buy the part from them and take it to a guy who does bodywork.
I went to the Metzgerei on Saturday and bought the following bunch of goodies…
Here’s the index…
1 – Mettwurst (a smoked sausage made of roughly ground veal and pork)
2 – Wildschwein Schinken (Ham from a wild boar)
3 – Zunge (tongue from a calf)
4 – Blutwurst (blood sausage)
5 – Bierwurst (I actually like the name better than the sausage, it’s a little rough for an emulsified sausage, an has a strange flavor that I haven’t nailed down yet)
6 – Bier Knackers (the real Slim Jims)
Sunday morning, I made a tongue omelet. Went something like this…
Cut up some onion and yellow bell pepper (‘cause I had it in the fridge)…
Julienned about three slices of tongue…
Sautéed them in a little Olive Oil, with salt & pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper (the pizza stuff)…
Beat three eggs and mixed them around in a hot pan until slightly set…
Placed the tongue mixture into the center, with some Parmiggiano shavings and a little more salt & pepper…
Folded it, hit it with some chives, s&p, and a healthy ribbon of sriracha. Served it up with some nice bread and some schmaltz…
It browned a little more than I would have liked, but it sure was tasty!
I just got a new book in the mail this week. Can you guess where I’ll be this weekend?
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