Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

See you next year!

Pancakes

Sucuk

I think we need some inspiration...

Brussel Sprouts

... with roasted chestnuts and pancetta, wow!

Also, a terrine from our beloved French supermarket, which disappointed a little however.

Simple Foodz

... or the usual.

Chinese Hotpot

A Chinese coworker told me he had found a place that serves Chinese hotpot in Saarbrücken. Although I never really understood why the Chinese love hotpot so much (there are so many more delicious things to eat than fish balls and thinly sliced meatz that you invariably leave to overcook), in Saarbrücken you cannot be as picky about your Chinese food as in Beijing, so I decided to give it a try.


The restaurant was great and the hotpot not bad. Also, I liked the atmosphere better than last time I had hotpot with my colleagues.

Saarbrücker Christkindlmarkt

Great Homemade Foodz

The French supermarket still absolutely amazes me. We got the most wonderful ingredients, mostly originating from the Alsace, and made this great Chicken Normandy.



We paired it with the cider from Normandy, that was also used in the sauce.

Why we had bubbly today...

One year ago, I attended a career planning workshop. One of the exercises we did required us to imagine ourselves the next morning, one year later, and five years later.

I closed my eyes and imagined the next morning. Not very difficult to do, but not very pleasant either. Unhappy hubby, not very happy self, struggling to get used to yet another place, where we perhaps did not really want to be. Then, I imagined one year from that day. Getting up. Going to work in near darkness. Arriving at my office and looking at the lights in the Christmas tree in front of the building...
A short while later, I walked out of the workshop, and closed myself into my office to cry for the rest of the day.

I did not expect that we would still be here this year. In fact, I swore to myself that day, that I would not be here one year from then.

But I also did not expect that things would have gotten this much better. I can't say it is great, but definitely better.

So anyway, just to make sure this day would not be as depressive as I imagined it a year ago, we had bubbly today. And even without that, it was not such a bad day...

And That Concludes Our Visit

So it's goodbye Tuncay (and Chad, of whom I neglected to take a photo --- oops!)...



... goodbye US...



... and hello Germany.

Another Dinner, Another Cuisine

We had to push back dinner, due to our humongous Ethiopian lunch. Dinner was a full on Mexican affair. Sadly jet lag is messing with my short term memory, and I cannot recall all dishes.



Plantain.



Mexican ravioli with some sick corn.



Tamal.

We only ordered two main courses, which we shared:



Tres moles.



Squash puree in tortillas.

Then we also shared two desserts:



Tres leches.



Mexican bread pudding.

Tuncay knows the restaurant scene in Washington well.

Runch

For our final lunch in Washington DC, we went to my favorite type of place: a small restaurant that was just focused on food, and had nothing in the way of decor, service, wine list, or anything at all that was not food. We had the best Ethiopian I have ever had. Just look at this injera:



(For contrast, these are our home made things that we shamefully call by the same name.)

Or this amazing gored gored:



The beef was rare, and the flavors were fantastic. They also had a dish which was 50% raw beef, but knowing that we had to take a flight the next day, we had to pass on that one.

Fazit: Amazing food!

A Spanking Good Time

Pancake Breakfast

Tuncay made crepes for breakfast. We could choose between fig cream cheese, bacon, maple syrop, blueberries, among even more toppings.



Mmmmm, pancakes.

Afghan Foodz

Being in a larger city means the choice of a wide variety cuisines. We opted for Afghan food for dinner. We had three kinds of appetizers, one of them pictured above, and then shared three different entrees:



one dish with pumpkin, which was extraordinarily good, one with eggplant which was just good...



... and one with lamb, cinnamon, raisins and carrots which was outstanding.



A big city certainly has its advantages.

Pizza

We safely arrived in at Tuncay and Chad's, and told them we did not have pizza yet in the US. They took us to this great restaurant, where we had lamb meatballs with almonds, and salted cod croquettes as starters, and then some great pizzas. Pictured above is a pizza with fresh sardines, just one of the things that were really good there.

Guest of the Day!

We stopped in Harrisburg to recuperate. We were told that we were guest of the day when we were checking in, and received some coupons for a free drink at their loud bar. We thought they were kidding, but when we arrived at our room we saw we were the only ones with this mat in front of the entrance. We felt very special, but did not use the coupons.

Fish Fryday

On our way to Tuncay we found this diner that was very popular with old people in big ass pickup trucks. We immediately felt at home.

Where is your Computorrrrr?

We spent a couple of days at David's place, where we entertained and were entertained by his kids. We really miss waking up to the sound of little kids knocking on our door saying "Can we come in? Frans, where's your computorrrr?? Will you play with us?"

Garcia's in Cortland

Anke wanted some Mexican food, so we went to Garcia's. As is generally known, Garcia's in Cortland is superior to the one in Ithaca. I did not really notice a difference, but it did mean that we were able to buy some new fluffy towels at the K-mart in Cortland, as the one in Ithaca closed.

Our Other Favorite Syracuse Restaurant

... is Dinosaur Barbecue!



We had the quarter rack and some pulled pork, and where happily surprised that it was even better than we remembered!