Lunch at Le Sarment d'Or

The next day we went out to taste (more) wines, and we found another Bib Gourmand to have lunch at: Le Sarment d'Or in Riquewihr. Only 14 euros buys you a wonderful entree and amazing main course for lunch!





And even the decor is quite beautiful:



Mission Alsace accomplished.

Aux Armes de France

Ellen is visiting us for a few days, and since that also means we have access to poppamomma's car, we decided to take a trip to the Alsace.

The trip did not start off so well, because we left home at noon, and then did not stop for lunch. So we were starving by 3 o'clock and of course everything was closed.
This did not amuse Ellen.

Fortunately, we did manage to amuse her with dinner at Aux Armes de France. In addition, Frans managed to look over 60, and had the senior menu.

Alsace

A little more than a week now, and we will finally have a normal(ish) place to live. No furniture, but plenty of room.

So come on by all of y'all!!!

Sure, nothing to do here in Saarbrucken, but the Alsace is oh-so close:

Inspired by the Alsace

On Monday we made a classic Flammkuchen with the bacon that we bought on the market in Saarbruecken and a fantasy Flammkuchen with apple and the boudin noir that we brought from France.

Foodz from the Roadz

Before we left Saarbruecken, we drove around town a little bit to see where we may live next year. We came across a slaughterhouse with a couple of meat wholesalers and restaurants.



We had boudin noir, that apparently is not served shaped like a sausage in Germany. It had a wonderfully clovey taste. Also, we had Weißwurst that was even better than Cafe Konstanz's Weißwurst. We did not take a picture, but we will make it up to you in a couple of months.

Instead of heading north, we decided to head south, to see what else what more or less in the neighborhood. We found simple French supermarkets, that already stocked all kinds of exciting foodz, and, a little further down, we even found wineries. We ended up in Lapoutroie which we visited one and a half year ago.

The hotel that we stayed in then was full, so we went to the other restaurant.





The farmer's salad was good, the onion tart was very delicious.



How can one visit the Alsace in winter without eating choucroute?



Or some civet de gibier?



Finally cheese cake. I think we can live here.

Bu hao --- hen hao

Today we had some very disappointing food, the most disappointing in Beijing so far. Luckily, we did not bring a camera, so we did not waste any film.

So, instead of today's food, we bring you food from the Alsace: We ate tarte flambée (a.k.a. Flammenkuchen) with Wolfert, Saskia, Christiaan and Ellen in the Alsace, before going wine shopping in the region.

After the Alsace, we went trekking in the mountains with Ellen and Christiaan. We encourage the interested reader to visit Ellen's blog Bergvakanties (Google's slightly incomprehensible translation can be found here) to read about our adventures and look at the stunning photos of the environment.

We will try and forget our dinner by sampling some wines. So far the wines we tasted in China were nothing short of abysmal, so we bought a wide variety today:

I can't imagine that a wine in a blue tube with the label "Precious Dry Red Wine" is anything short of amazing. Anke selected the leftmost tube containing hard liquor, because of the nice red color. Finally, we also chose a French wine.

UPDATE: We started with the Precious Dry Red Wine. Tasting notes:
color: startlingly opaque; when really trying, we could discern some brick-esque color. Not surprising perhaps, as this wine is a respectable 8 years old.
aroma: strangely missing.
bouquet: strong hints of vinegar and madeira. A second sniff (why are we doing this?) detected some sweet port.
taste: we wish it was more like the aroma than the bouquet.
price/quality: it looked pretty cheap in the shop, but $5 for two sips is a rather steep price to pay, and let's not forget the taste buds that were killed in the process.
recommendation: great as a gift.