Pho King Good

Pho king good pho at Pho 76 in Newport News.

Chengdu Hotpot

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.

Genießen geblasen!

It's another beautiful spring here, so, despite the cold, we went biking this weekend. Because our favorite little restaurant along the way to Blieskastel has closed for unknown reasons, we now had to make do with the sunny terrace of the Waldhaus.





A made the right choice by ordering the Saumagen and Leberknödel.



The Schnitzel and fries was okay too.

Das war wieder genießen geblasen!

Wonderful Offal

A Week in Foodz

Just being back from cold Japan in freezing Germany, meant a craving for good hearty food.



So this week started with Spätzle, Brussel sprouts and hutspot.



Of course we also had our chicken livers...



... and some Chinese food: fish with rice vinegar.



And after shopping in France, we had these amazing boudins.

Home cooked foodz are not a punishment.

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.

Foodz We Did the Eating of

Winter foodz.



Turkish foodz.



More Turkish foodz.



Pastaz.



Chicken liverz.

Merry Christmas!

We definitely had one, and in the tradition of the internetz, we post pictures to prove it happened.

Ellen planned a very exciting sounding menu, and it came out the way it sounded. It started off with a bang: Smoked eel with elderberry sorbet and mousse. The flavors worked astonishingly well together and were in a beautiful balance in this amuse.



Next up were some scallops on cauliflower puree with a vanilla sauce. Not bad, but not the symphony of flavors of the eel.



What is a fancy dinner without offal? (Not fancy would be my suggestion.) In any case, Ellen chose the thymus gland for this Christmas served on a bed of couscous. Every bit as good as it sounds (or maybe even better).



Finally it was time for the main course: Venison with kohlrabi two ways, and pears. The venison had a special crust of nuts and orange powder, which made this another winner. The sauce was obtained from a befriended chef, who must be a very good friend indeed to give us such an amazing sauce.



Any last space still available in anyone's stomach was filled with this very nice plum pie.

Merry Christmas to all! I wish all of y'all wonderful foodz for the coming year!

Also Not Good Looking

But homemade and very tasty. Sunday offal day finally arrived again, albeit a few days early, with this chicken liver salad. The chicken livers were especially beautiful, thanks to my favorite food store in Saarbrucken: die Islamische Metzgerei.

Bad Pictures of (Reasonably) Good Food

We went to Zum Adler yesterday. This restaurant was recommended by A's new boss when we visited, but was completed booked when we tried it then. This time we were a bit earlier, and they still had a free table. The Flammkuchen with Münster and kümmel was very enjoyable, the veal kidneys not too shabby. (The desserts, however, were of such a quality that the server worriedly asked whether we did not like it when she came to pick up the dishes.)

No More Ms. Holiday Gal

Getting rid of the back log, and getting ready for research of the cutting edge kind.



Apologies for the rather awful picture quality, but these amuses-bouche were too good to not post them. We had an amazing 4 course meal at De Moerbei in Warmond with Liesbeth. Excellent food! Even though Liesbeth treated us, we had a peak at the bill, and I think it will be very hard to find a better deal than this in the Netherlands. Highly recommended!



We then went to Amsterdam, where we stayed in Wim & Rietje's house. They actually weren't there for most of the time we were there, so we had the opportunity to see whether we were still able to cook. We made this Normandy Chicken for Willem.



And the next day we had veal liver with potatoes and spinach. Mission "Cooking with the Oars that We Have" accomplished.



Next up: saying "Auf Wiedersehen" to Ellen and Christiaan by preparing this lime marinated chicken with Mediterranean bread for them (third Cordon Bleu recipes in a row!). I think they did not really expect our bread to rise, so it was a pleasant surprise that this did not come out too badly.



And then the moment was really there: we said goodbye to the Netherlands, picked up our rental car and drove to our new homeland, Germany. As soon as we entered Belgium we stopped to have a local specialty: patatje stoofvlees (fries with stew). The "frietkot" that we visited turned out to be a little on the raunchy side (smelly, the stew had way too much cloves and the serving lady was a little bitchy --- but that is kind of normal in Belgium for Dutch people I think), so we were happy to drive on to Germany.

Where the sun don't shine

Next up on our farewell Chinese food tour: pork rectum, a specialty from Shandong Province. Not as good as looks. Not even as good as it sounds.

Ellen Eats

A lot! Here are some of the foodz Ellen enjoyed whilst visiting, and this is not an exhaustive list. I'll add a link to Ellen's blog as soon as she makes one (or two) posts about her visit here. Also still to come: Ellen and F take a cooking class and pictures of a visit to the Great Wall at Jiankou.



Duck at Guo Lin (we also had duck at Quanjude, but I did not take pictures there).





Rural little potz with foodz, also at Guo Lin.



Carnival foodz: pumpkin cakez, also Guo Lin.



And finally duck liver at Guo Lin.

Then with Amanda we went to our favorite Xinjiang restaurant.



These are Xinjiang "Dim Sum". (Anke is the one in the back of photo wearing the "Toet toet beng beng, Peppie en Kokkie"-shirt.



Lamb.



And more lamb ("toet toet beng beng!").



Also some vegetables (toons and walnuts).

Finally then, the lunch we had before we climbed the mountains towards the Great Wall: