Richmond Food

Excellent food at Supper in Richmond VA: Charcuterie, fried oysters and griddle cakes with pulled pork. Yum-o!

Intermezzo: Chicago

Apologies for the slow posting of holiday pictures. Last weekend we were in Chicago where we saw Soumyadip, Oni and Tuncay...



... and ate lots of wonderful food.







We also saw a little bit of the city.

On the Way Back from Florida

After swimming with manatees, kayaking with alligators, snorkeling with sting rays and jelly fish, and camping with mosquitos, we are back in a motel with internet access on the way back home.



Here is Anke and a whole gaggle of other tourists trying to pet a manatee (and succeeding in doing so):



One of the hundreds of birds we saw (I think this is an ibis):



And here is Anke kayaking:



Yesterday, we had a food day. We started with an amazing huevos rancheros at Rosita's in Florida City:



Followed by a famous rock shrimp restaurant, called Dixie Crossroads. They served corn fritters, which was a great (early) substitute for the obligatory oliebollen (Happy New Year!):



And these amazing rock shrimp:



We then drove on to a town that is even crazier than Williamsburg, St. Augustine (still in Florida). Anke found another great restaurant though, Catch 27. We had a wonderful fish stew:



And an even better main course of shrimp and grits:



We also had blackened flounder which was good, but paled in comparison with the shrimp.

We then enjoyed a little bit of the local craziness:





Happy New Year!

Blackwater Falls

Forgot to post these pictures from our trip to West Virginia.



Ellen has already returned home. Here you can find some blog posts about her visit on her excellent blog.



This was the energy bomb we enjoyed for breakfast in the park: a baked apple pancake, which must have been covered in sugar before it was put in the oven. Surprisingly good!

Washington DC

On our way to the snowy mountains in West Virginia, we stopped in Washington DC and visited Tuncay and Chad. No visit to DC is complete without stopping at Zenebach Injera.

Ethiopian at Zenebech Injera

This has been a weekend of amazing foods so far. Upon arrival in DC we went back to the Ethiopian Tuncay took us to before, and it was as good as we remembered.

Second Birthday

As you all know, A had decided to celebrate her birthday in the Neue Regensburger.



This turned out to be a very good choice: there was birthday Germknödel (the candles were schlepped up the mountain by Team Hilvaria Studio's), garlands, Obstler (like the good old days --- supposedly there is a similar picture of A celebrating her birthday with Obstler in a Hütte from long ago)...

Rectification by Anke: In fact, it was bubbly, not Obstler (I was only 13!) and it was in front of our tent down in the valley. If my parents can still find the photo, please scan & send, so we can share it with all our  readers who have not seen it yet.



... birthday cake generously given as a present by the Hütte, who were tipped of by the garlands, and even had encouraged a Dutch group of Christian hikers to sing Dutch birthday songs...



... and very good food in general. Pictured above: the best Kaiserschmarrn of this holiday.





The Schlutzkrapfen and pork with Knödel where very festive and tasty as well! I think my Tyroler birthday may just be due next year.

UPDATE Now with embarrassing photo!

More Okonomiyaki

After biking around Gion neighborhood in Kyoto, where we saw beautiful Japanese buildings and ugly love hotels with hotel rooms that could be rented for 30 minutes (I guess this is where the kimono really proves its functionality), we wanted to eat something. We saw this little okonomiyaki restaurant, stopped in front of it, and decided it was good judging by the smell.



It turned out to be a good choice --- this one guy was preparing and serving food, and did it really well.







Mmm, okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki

Anke described Okonomiyaki as "... exactly what you would hope to make when you get home after partying all night. Not a great culinary delight, but definitely tasty." This time we did not go to the best okonomiyaki restaurant in Japan, and I would not be surprised if it actually is the worst one.

After exercising, one needs to eat

Hence, more beer snacks and beer followed our 5-minute exercise session.









We spent two days in Birstonas eating mediocre food, and going to a spa, which was even worse than the community swimming pool in Hilvarenbeek. But somehow, we still had a good time.

Pancakes

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!

Pancake Breakfast

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



Mmmmm, pancakes.

Slam!

The most important meal of the week...



... this week at Denny's!

Some Final Pics from Amsterdam

A went to a stock sale twice, during our visit, and bought more clothes than she had in the previous 3 years. Sadly, she did not buy this wonderful bear suit, however, but I managed to take a picture of her wearing it so you would not miss it!

Two more pics from the cellphone:





Great African food in restaurant Abysinnia. I don't know what happened to the colors. It really looked quite appetizing in real life, not like... Let me stop right there.

B'Elanna's Grandmother's Pancakes

Breakfast!

We have a new resolve: to eat breakfast at least once a week. Here is the first: Blinis with salmon and caviar.

Korean Food

We are back in Beijing! We went to our favorite neighborhood Korean restaurant, where we had the menu that consists of some fifteen odd courses or so.

Salmon Pancake