By the time of the main course, we were already quite satisfied. But we managed to still find a bit of room in our stomachs for sirloin steak with a red wine reduction.
Christmas dinner accomplished. Time to go back to grading.
Life in Ithaca is so familiar! It is weird to have been away for seven years, lived in three different continents, and to find the same restaurants with the same menus as when we left. We've been to Aroma's which has not painted their interior or changed their pizzas (hmmm, black bean pizza!), to Just a Taste which still has the best cod fritters and the same staff, and Dano's, which was wonderful as always!
Only one more day together, and then we will be living apart for a whole academic year... :(
Meet the waiter of Adolf Wagner. Our day in visit, we got happily acquainted with a Germany that we did not know: we drank apple wine (not beer) and the Germans around us were humorous! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Frankfurt!
Adolf Wagner is a Frankfurt institution: there is no beer, and the waiter does whatever he wants and insults you in the process. It is a big tourist attraction for Japanese visitors.
The food is good: meat based, with a side of a Frankfurt specialty --- Grüne Soße.
We took our spot between two German couples, and drank with them, conversed with them, etc. Good times.
The customer waiter interaction reminded me a little of the following vid.
We recommend Adolf Wagner highly when visiting Frankfurt!
Another thing that is famous from Chengdu is hotpot.
This is usually not our first choice of foodz, but we had to try it as it is famous here. Also, the air just outside this restaurant was very fragrant, which was obviously a very good sign.
We also suck at cooking our foodz in a hotpot, and somehow this is easily spotted by waiters. We were very happy that we received some help.
Meatz before...
... and after.
Some stomach.
Overall, I think this was probably the best wet hotpot experience we had. Still not completely convinced by the concept, however.
... for some wonderful wintry homemade foodz. Above, boudin blanc and boudin noir, the latter fried in a little duck fat, sprinkled with some butter, lemon juice and parsley --- awesome! Below, the well known and loved meatfest known to the locals as choucroute.
Yesterday we decided to check out some local wineries (on the German Weinstraße), and were pleasantly surprised! Not only was the weather beautiful, but some of the wineries were lively (with senior citizens in RVs) and had some decent wines as well! We especially liked the winery in Königsbach, where we had fresh wine and a good chardonnay.
Here is a somewhat less lively winery, which had a soup that made A smile.
We ended up in Bad Durkheim, where we had local specialties for dinner.
So, instead of going to the Amberger Hütte, we hiked to the Schweinfurter Hütte. The clouds and mist in the morning made the mountains even more beautiful.
The Schweinfurter Hütte did not want to give us a bed or lager, which turned out to be a good thing. It can be reached by car, so the hut was full of people with a less than sportsmen-like physique, trying to maintain this physique by stuffing themselves with big plates of food.
We walked down to Niedertai and took a bus to Umhausen from there. The bureau of information was already closed (it was Saturday afternoon, and Niedertai and Umhausen seemed very religious), but the bus driver helped us find a pension for the night. (He actually drove us around Umhausen in his bus --- people in Austria are really awesome!)
