Healthy

After a healthy bike ride admiring the wild life of Saarland...

(what kind of strange ducks are these?)

(pigeon hole principle!)



... I ate no pork, but only veggies.

Banff!

OK, this is definitely a perk to being a "mathematician" that I was not aware of yet. Sure, Oberwolfach in the Black Forest was nice. But having a center for conferences in Banff National Park? That is awesome!

Apparently, this place was started to kick start community theater projects during the depression. So besides a math center, there are three theaters, and they run a large theater and music program. They have 150 pianos, and musicians can come and spend three months here, where they are assigned one of these little huts to practice in. Awesome, awesome, awesome!

The workshop I am here for has been really good so far as well, so nothing but positive newses for once...

Brussel Sprouts

And potatoes. Sadly we are out of our Belgian mayonnaise (have been for a while), so I had to settle for this muslim-y variant:

To compensate there was pork:



(I imagine that there were actually people in the US who wrapped their Thanksgiving turkeys in bacon, in light of the news that their Butterball was actually a Burkaball.)

Hot and Sour Cabbage

I really like this dish with Sichuan peppers.



Also, some nice pork.

Yoga Photo Shoot

I did a photo shoot for Anke's yoga teacher as a return favor for the kindle cover she knitted for me.

Ooh la la!

Another flamiche!

Fish Eggs!

I am starting to love breakfast!

What This Week Ate We?

Time for another episode of What This Week Ate We? More tahinli piliç.



Another pumpkin risotto.

Proof of it being sunny in November in Saarbrücken!



A healthy portion of cheese and potatoes in the form of reblochonade.



And, finally, some veal liver.

India Rules!

Brie and Leek Flamiche

Something new and exciting! A Flamiche!

Fancy Breakfast

Poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce this week. Very wonderful!

Tasty Mess

Caturday

It's been a while since we posted a picture of cat, so here.

French Toast

Foodz We Did the Eating of

Winter foodz.



Turkish foodz.



More Turkish foodz.



Pastaz.



Chicken liverz.

Workshop in the Black Forest

I am attending a week-long workshop in Oberwolfach in the Black Forest. Plenty of brilliant people to talk to (but hardly any females of course):

The program is pretty full, but afternoons are free for hiking (and of course, working, because these people are plenty serious).

Lunner

Last weekend we went to cash in the fourth prize in the local photo competition at Casino Am Staden: a free brunch at a swanky restaurant!



It was a very interesting experience. We were welcomed, seated and asked whether we wanted a drink. Then we waited... Patience is a virtue that Germans seem to have perfected, and are happy to help you train yours. Suddenly soup was served, first for A, and after a little more waiting, another one for me.



After another wait, we were told that the appetizer buffet was ready. We saw that instead of brunch, we were going to have lunner: there was smoked salmon, poached salmon, chicory with orange, artichokes, salads, liver mousse on apple, fresh figs, tomato and mozerella, stuff I did not recognize, and more! And it was very good!



We both went back for seconds, and then sat back and relaxed...

This was quite enjoyable except for the fact that we had to be somewhere at 2, and we had not expected this to take so long. I think this was slow even for German standards. We asked the waiter, who told us we could eat as much as we liked until 3! That was not quite the answer we were looking for. Anyhow, after another waiting period we were informed that the main course buffet was ready to be raided.



This was really heavy stuff: duck, meatz, meat sauces, Knödel, Hoorische, brocolli, more salmon, etc.

This Knödel made from dark bread was really excellent.



The other main course dishes disappointed a little, sadly enough.



As did the dessert. Still, it was a very interesting experience, and the appetizer buffet was really good. I really enjoyed my fourth prize!

Fleischwolf!

We were feeling a little adventurous this weekend, so we got out the brand spanking new Fleischwolf to make some serious Chinese food. We made lion's head meatballs, which turned out to be a little firmer and heavier than what we we remembered, but the taste was divine.



We also made something we did not have before, stuffed eggplant.



Chinese food is awesome!