Category Archives: Europe

Posts about countries in Europe

Russian Yum

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Russian Snacks

The October box from Universal Yums was loaded with snacks from the continents spanning country of Russia.

 

The nice thing was there were none that I really disliked but it was also pretty easy to come up with the “worst yum” for me as well.

As usual there was a nice mix of sweet and savory leaning more toward the sweet end of the snack scale.  My favorite was also the first snack I tried, the Blackurrant Zefir.

This snack was a chocolate covered marshmallow cream with black currant. The layer of chocolate was very thin and brittle. The marshmallow filling was the star. It was a bit firmer than marshmallow fluff and a nice tangy mix of black currant throughout. Really tasty and a winner from the start.

My second favorite was the Grapefruit Chocolate bar.

It had a very good quality dark chocolate providing a thick shell for a creamy filling.  The filling had a significant grapefruit taste.  It was authentic enough I expected a bitter aftertaste that never came.  It was just the citrusy grapefruit goodness with some sweetness that melded well with the slightly bitter dark chocolate.

The worst of the lot was the Holodets and Horseradish Husks.

I didn’t know what holodets was until I read it in the booklet.  It is cold meat jelly and that put visions of that congealed nonsense you wipe off of spam or something like souse.  Either way not an appetizing picture to start.  When I opened the package I got a whiff of something that smelled vaguely meaty but not appetizing.  Husk apparently means something like breadstick.  These were rye bread bits and I figured getting past the smell would get me a sinus clearing taste of horseradish but it was very very mild.  The texture was like a crouton and since they weren’t very good just eating them from the bag I tried eating them with a bowl of homemade vegetable soup.  They didn’t ruin my soup so they had that going for them.  Anyway not the best.

The most unusual wasn’t anything weird but more like something unexpected in the Tula Pryanik.

This was a nice big gingerbread cake made with milk and honey.  The Russian writing was raised and the whole thing was about an inch thick and had a thin line of filling in the middle that was brown and sweet.  The cake itself had about the same consistency as a cake doughnut and the gingerbread taste was milder than just about anything gingerbread in the US.

In addition to the ones pictured there was a toffee with peanuts, shishkabob potato crisps, fairy tale roll cakes, wheat snacks that were shallot and potato flavored, salmon and cheese husks and a big old pack of milk cookies with a chocolate glaze on the bottom.  Oh yeah the bag of candies was great with forest fairy honey peanut delights, juicy light peach & apricot jellies, and caramel dreams that had no caramel but did have lemon fondant and apple jam.

Good box of snacks.  If I read the clues right next months featured country it Holland.  I bet it’ll be Gouda.  (I’m not even ashamed)

 

 

OMB

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Germany

OMB could stand for Oh My! Beer or October Means Beer or Olde Mecklenburg Brewery  In this case it’s the last one.  Since it is October and the temperatures finally started acting like it’s Fall it felt like a weekend for some German food.

Although I’ve had some of their beer before I’d never been to the restaurant at the brewery.  I checked out the menu online to make sure they had German food on the menu and not just bar food. They did so off I went.

It was a relatively short jaunt up the interstate to find Olde Meck which happened to be within sight of a cider company I visited a while back.  OMB is really more of a complex of buildings and a huge biergarten.  The restaurant is large also with a bar area and at least two seating areas I saw.  One has regular tables and the other has several rows of tables butted up to one another making long community tables.  Outside there is a covered area with picnic style tables and the biergarten which has row upon row of picnic tables to accommodate at least a couple of hundred people.

I got there fairly early and they had the seat yourself sign out and it was easy to do since I was the only person inside.  I’d have opted for the biergarten had the sun been out.  Anyway the service inside was good and I had a menu and beer list in just a minute.  Since it was an option I got a flight of 4 different beers to go with the meal.  For the meal I selected the Teller plate that included two sausages, a roll and two sides.  From the options I went with a regular bratwurst and Nuremburger brats plus sauerkraut and potato salad.

The flight came first and included a handy key in case I couldn’t have picked out the beers on my own.  I started with the Captain Jack, a pilsner that was a perfect option for Bud drinkers.  The food arrived and I had the Mecktoberfest and the Copper with my meal.  The Mecktoberfest tasted a lot like a full bodied version of the pilsner which made it better in my opinion.  The Copper is reddish in color like the name suggests and has a hoppier flavor but not like the overdone IPAs.

Looking at the plate it occurred to me I probably could have used a little color on the plate but what was done was done.  The wursts were good quality sausages, the mustard was a good slightly coarse vinegary style, the sauerkraut was plain tangy kraut served warm.  The potato salad was good but not great and served cold.  I think it would have been better served warm.  The bread was warm though and a bit dense and chewy.  Nice meal that paired well with the beer.

I finished up with the Fat Boy Porter (don’t make the obvious joke, you’re better than that).  It was my favorite of the four having a bolder taste, slightly sweet with a hint of caramel and the higher alcohol content was noticeable.  Nice desert.

Based on the number of seats OMB must be popular at times and certainly has capacity to host large events and the food and beer were worth the drive.  One note for the true German beer aficionados OMB adheres to Reinheitsgebot so they have a few different types of beer but the ingredients are the limited to the 4 approved.

If you didn’t check out the Tell Me More the last time I posted for Germany check it out for a little extra content.

 

 

Just Graft No Corruption

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Another DragonCon Edition

The Labor Day weekend and a few days before found me in Atlanta for DragonCon and visiting friends.  While at the con I stuck pretty much to known quantities and hit restaurants I’ve mentioned before in previous posts.  In some cases lunch is just a respite from the multitudes and the food is the same old, same old but I do want to mention two before I jump into the new place I visited.

Truva is a Turkish restaurant that I have been going to for years and I really enjoy the calm relaxing atmosphere, service and food.  I do try to sample something new each time and this time I had the Adana Kebab with an Efes beer.

 

I have to start by mentioning the warm bread that’s delivered with some olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette dipping sauce.  I love this bread and they are not stingy with it.  That and planning the rest of my days con schedule kept me busy until the adana kebab arrived.  As you can see from the photo it was a traditional ground meat, in this case lamb, formed and skewered kebab.  It was nicely spiced with red bell peppers, onions, a bit of red and black pepper plus other spices.  The salad was essentially shredded lettuce and no big deal but the grilled tomato and rice went nicely with the kebab.  The yogurt sauce also added a nice touch.  The Efes beer was a pilsner that didn’t have any special characteristics but was refreshing on the warm day.

The next place I wanted to mention again was the Pacific Rim Bistro where I got some nice sushi.

This is a busy joint during the con and they have seats around the sushi making station so you can see the chefs crafting it while you wait and it’s easy for a singleton to get seated.  You also get to meet new people who strike up random conversations about their trip from Michigan to Georgia and what their particular brands of geekdom are.  So what I’m saying is it’s a good place to get some lunch, R&R and make new friends.  I decided to let the professionals work for me and selected the Sushi Lunch Combo A.  This came with soup or cucumber salad, 5 pieces of nigiri sushi, 3 pieces of tuna roll, 4 pieces of California roll and Inari tofu (that’s the weird looking brown thing at the front of the sushi plate).  The cucumber salad was delivered first and I only got a few bites before the sushi was delivered so speed was something they did well.  The cucumbers were good and a nice change from the usual green salad offerings.  The sushi was fresh tasting and delicious and while it wasn’t spectacular it was a great variety and value in my opinion.  The Inari tofu was totally new to me and I didn’t have any idea what it was.  I lifted up the brown envelope looking thing and saw there was only rice under it so I figured it couldn’t be too dangerous.  The texture was a little odd, kind of rubbery, but the taste was ok.  It was a little sweet so it was appropriate I saved it until last and decided to dub it dessert.  Overall another good visit.

The last place I’m going to mention was actually the first restaurant I visited on my trip south.  As part of my DragonCon tradition I have the opportunity to share a great meal with my friend Sharon and she had scoped this place out ahead of time.  Graft Restaurant is a farm to table place in Grayson, GA.  It’s located in an old home and is loaded with heavy dark wood and a warm welcoming atmosphere.  The night we went was also a live music evening so we got a bit of a show as well.  Our server Kai (I’m guessing on that, I know it started with a K and rhymed with eye) was more than willing to go over the menu and explain what the evenings dishes were based on that days ingredients.  In the end I went with a couple of appetizers and Sharon got a salad with grilled chicken and I had a waiting beer and a meal beer.

The apps I opted for were the venison sliders and the twice cooked fries with cider vinegar aioli dipping sauce.  The venison sliders were cooked medium well and had some braised collards and a light tangy sauce all between a slightly sweet slider bun.  Very tasty.  It didn’t mention the sliders came with fries so I’d ordered the additional fries so there were a lot of taters on the table.  The aioli dipping sauce was very good bringing to mind a mash up of the vinegar the UK folks like with their chips and the mayo that the Dutch like with theirs.  Sharon reported the salad was good and the baby kale wasn’t bitter at all and the grilled chicken was great.  The beers I had were both from Akedemia Brewing in Athens, GA.  The dark one was the Hades’ Hounds Hunker Down Brown (any UGA fans will know why I had to have that one) and the other was Lemon Drop Blanc saison.  The brown ale was decent and had a nice malty taste with a bit of extra sweetness and the saison had a tart citrus flavor that was easy to sip as we chatted and listened to music (once they got the volume right and we could converse without yelling).

As I mentioned at the start Graft was a welcoming place and not only was Kai great but there was another woman walking around making sure everything was good and doing the needful.  And I don’t know if it was just us and the table next to us but when items got delivered it was a shared experience of “ooh what’s that?” & “that looks good” so there was a sense of camaraderie going on.  If you find yourself in the metropolitan Grayson area you should give them a try.

 

UK Yums

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United Kingdom

This month’s Yum box was loaded with snacks from across the pond and specifically the UK.  Just to get rid of any confusion the little booklet pointed out early on that while many people equate the UK with Great Britain they aren’t exactly the same.  Great Britain is England, Scotland & Wales and the UK is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland.  Now that we have that out of the way here are shots of the box opening.

The box leaned more towards the sweet side than savory side of the snack spectrum.  There were 3 bags of different flavored crisps and 3 different kinds of cookies or biscuits plus a couple of toffees and other chewy treats.  As has been the custom I’ll go over my favourite 2 along with the most unusual and least favorite and this week an honorable mention in the unusual category.

Both the favourites appealed to my sweet tooth.  The first was the Wagon Wheels.

These Wagon Wheels Jammie snacks beg for a comparison to moon pie’s based on first look as it was two cookies sandwiching marshmallow and covered in chocolate.  Covered in medium quality milk chocolate with a low melting point that didn’t taste bad but you could count on a little mess. The cookies were thinner than a moon pie and crisper as well as sweeter. The marshmallow cream was smoother and not chewy like a moon pie’s.  The biggest differentiator was the little dab of jam that added a great taste.  It was for sure sweeter than I was expecting but very good.  Also the packaging is complete with that icon of UKness, the Conestoga wagon.

The second place favourite (actually third but the real second was the most unusual) was the Toffypops.

These were a tad melty when they came in off the August in the South front porch so I threw them in the freezer and as a result they were not as pretty as if they’d come straight from the grocer’s shelf.  In spite of their unsightliness they were tasty.  Toffypops are tea biscuits with toffee in a well at the center of the biscuit and topped with chocolate. The cookie was plain with little flavor of it’s own which made the taste of the chocolate and toffee stand out all the more. The chocolate was ok but the toffee was quite good and the combo went well together.  I didn’t have mine with tea but I could certainly imagine it going well with a strong black tea.

My least favourite item was from the bag of candies.

The yellowish green one was called a chocolate lime candy.  These little nuggets are hard candies that have an artificial lime flavor typical of the genre and have a center of equally artificial chocolate flavor.  The combination did nothing for me and the whole thing just tasted so artificial it was off putting (that sounds better than nasty right?).

The most unusual category I have what was also my true second favorite as well as an honorable mention.

Johnny’s Pickled Onion Rings were a surprising snack that made me go Wow!  The vinegar and onion taste are no joke on these little bad boys. They are fairly uniform corn based rings and even as I was taking that first bite I smelled the vinegar.  I could feel the glands in my neck react and the pucker factor was serious business when they hit the tongue.  The vinegar is definitely the first impression but then the onion flavor gets to come out and play and the overall snack was a hit with me.  I could see bowls of these sitting on a bar doing the job of getting people to order an extra pint or two.

The honorable mention goes to one of the bags of crisps.

I can’t think of a more fitting company to make haggis and cracked pepper crisps than Mackie’s of Scotland.  I have to be honest and say I approached these with some trepidation but also it was the first snack I tried.  I had no idea what I was going to get because I’ve never had real haggis but I’ve read descriptions and never thought I had to book a flight and get me some.  Turns out it was a nice crisp.  The seasonings gave it a salty, smokey taste, then you got the potato flavor.  The cracked pepper was not to be left out and built up the heat a little as more of the chips were consumed.  One thing about all the crisps, they were thicker than a standard US chip but more delicate than a kettle cooked style.  Also the various flavor profiles were more subtle than what you’d get in a US chip and you could get a better taste of the potato.

The other items in the box were good and while I won’t detail them all I’ll mention what they were; Creamy Dreamy Toffee, Sea Salt & Cider Vinegar Crisps, Mature Cheddar & Onion Crisps, Chocolate Chip Shortbread biscuits, Rhubarb & Custard Chews, Walker’s Treacle Toffee, Prosecco Fudge, Kir Royale Black Currant & Champagne Chews.

Overall an interesting and enjoyable box with some items I liked more than I thought I would and some that were a bit disappointing but not bad, except the lime chocolates.  Those were not pleasing.

Based on the clues I think next month will be Thailand but I’m not sure.

 

Church Pub?

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Ireland

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last blog due to life so this is from a visit a couple of weeks ago.

As part of the life stuff my sisters and I were visiting my Father in the hospital and we decided to go out and grab some lunch in Durham, NC.  We strolled one of the downtown streets looking for something struck our fancy among the many options available and Bull McCabe’s Irish Pub fit the bill.  It might have had something to do with its being at the end of the street where we decided we were going to turn around but nevertheless it won out over the plethora of other options.

This place has quite a bit of outside seating on a porch running the length of the building and a lawn to add more or have events.  We decided to eat inside amid the interesting decor.  The pub is long and narrow and said decor is a mix between a church, library and soccer (football for the non-Americans) pub.

The booths are old pews with some high back wood panels and there are bookshelves with old books and knickknacks plus lights of a lantern design with crosses that makes the place feels like they plundered an old church for the furnishings.  It was a cool look.  As you can see from the second picture they have various team jerseys on the ceiling and a ton of TVs around the bar.  It was a nice atmosphere and the server was very pleasant and answered our questions on the beers with tact concerning the ones she didn’t care for or had not tried.  I got a local Lynwood Brewing Concern Bill & Ted’s Excellent Amber since it was a bit warm for a Irish stout.

The menu isn’t loaded with traditional Irish fare so I opted for a dish that did have a nod to Ireland, corned beef macaroni & cheese and a side decidedly not Irish, creamy mango slaw.

The macaroni was cooked just right and the cheese sauce was nice and thick with plenty of cheesy goodness.  I wasn’t sure how the beer braised corned beef was going to be incorporated and the nice big diced chunks were a great treat.  They were tender and big enough you got great corned beef flavor.  The mango slaw was tasty as well with significant hunks of mango.  I was a bit surprised at the spiciness of the slaw but the sweetness of the mango’s mitigated the heat.

My sisters chose the Chipotle BBQ Carnitas sliders & the Open Faced BLT which by all accounts were quite good and worth the trip.

The circumstances that brought us together weren’t ideal but as always it is a treat when I get to spend time with my sisters and enjoying a meal together just elevates it.  Thanks Lynn & Dee.

Judgement on Bull McCabe’s is that the food is good the atmosphere is pleasant and I suspect might be rowdy when a good match is being televised and the outside area probably let’s them have some great events when the weather is good.

 

 

St. Patrick’s Day

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Ireland

This is the second time for Ireland and was only fitting since it happens to be St. Patrick’s Day.  Not only was this a holiday weekend I had the privilege of sharing the lunch with my sister, two nieces, a nephew and the boyfriend of one of the nieces the lot of who had stopped in to see me.  And my pot of gold was a free lunch (thanks Sister).

I decided we’d give Tyber Creek Pub a shot to be the Irish representative for St. Pat’s and it turned out to mostly be a great choice.  They are on South Blvd in Charlotte in an area that has a lot of reasonably new apartments / condos.  This meant a fair amount of traffic but they have onsite parking to service their two story business so we didn’t have to do any searching for street parking.  Today they had a tent outside in part of their parking lot to handle the crowds which was nice except that made the parking more problematic than it would otherwise have been.  We did luck out and find spots without having to circle and wait for someone to leave.  There was a tight squeeze or two, figuratively and literally because many people are deficient in the skill of parking completely between two lines.

The hostess was outside right by the patio area which was full since it was a beautiful spring day.  We did get seated immediately upstairs though so again the luck of the Irish was on our side.  It didn’t take long for us to make our food choices and we got a varied selection so there are bonus pictures this post.  One thing they do differently than most restaurants is they bring some small glasses that look like overgrown shot glasses and then bring a big glass bottle of chilled water so you can serve yourself.  Water’s nice and all but I opted to have a Magners Irish Cider to drink while we waited and another with the meal

The cider was very smooth, not overly sweet and had a nice crisp apple taste which went well with the meal selection I chose, corned beef & cabbage.

There was a ton of food in this bowl plate.  In addition to the corned beef and cabbage there were carrots and parsnips plus mashed potatoes.  The corned beef deserved its lead billing in the title.  It was so tender it was just about falling apart, sliced thick and the salt and beef taste was excellent.  Honestly I have to say the potatoes were actually better than the cabbage so as I filled up and had to start prioritizing they were in the number two spot.  The potatoes were coarsely mashed so there were small lumps that let you know these were made from real potatoes and I think they had a little Kerrigold butter in the mix.  The cabbage was good, they weren’t overcooked like is common in many places, these were soft but had resistance as you bit them.  I can’t remember the last time I had parsnips and they were better than I remembered but a solid number 5 in the pecking order.  The carrots were ok too but honestly most of them got abandoned along with the parsnips.

The others with me had bangers & mash, fish & chips, shepherd’s pie and a tavern burger.

From all reports the each of those selections were tasty and worth trying.  The house made tartar sauce got a really good review.  You’ll probably have noticed there was no burger picture and that’s because it was the one thing that was not done right the first time.  It was ordered with only ketchup and onion but someone in the kitchen thought it needed cheese too.  While I personally agree with that sentiment it is not what was ordered.  They took it back to the kitchen and scraped the cheese off and brought it back.  That was deemed acceptable but just barely and if it wouldn’t have taken so long for them to make a new one it would have almost certainly been sent back again.  One other culinary point of discussion at the table was the Irish soda bread.  I tried it just to so I could mention it and I swear it was so dry all the saliva in my mouth was sucked into it.  To be fair they did serve it with a big pat of butter sitting right on top and the flavor was actually good once I go a sip of water to provide some additional moisture since my salivary glands were insufficient to the task.  After heeding my warning a few others tried it with the butter and the reviews ranged between “meh”, “it taste like bread” and “it’s good”.

One thing I can say is no one left hungry.  It was a great time visiting with family on St. Patrick’s Day, eating good food and snapchatting with some who weren’t present.  Thank you Lynn, Lauren, Jay, Haley & Chris for stopping by and adding to the meal and the day.

 

 

Poznan pt 2

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Poland

This is part two of a visit to Poznan.  If you missed the first part you can find it here.

We continued to patronize the wonderful breakfast buffet at the hotel in the mornings and had lunches brought in so the evenings were the food highlights for the last two evenings.

Wednesday night we went back the Stary Browar and to the Piano Bar restaurant.  We had the entire compliment of people working on the project so we had a large round table that accommodated all 14 of us but still allowed conversation with everyone.  In spite of the presence of the eponymous Piano no one played while we were there and none at the table admitted to being a pianist.  So we just had socialize and eat.

My first choice of meal was a grilled ostrich steak but they were out of ostrich so I settled for lamb chops.  As settling went it was a nice back up.

The lamb came with a few little potatoes and a pureed carrot sauce that made a good combo.  The lamb was tender and very mildly seasoned so the taste of the potatoes and carrots were very much in play.  I don’t say this often but the side salad was actually more interesting from a flavor standpoint.  It had some baby greens, sun dried tomatoes, marinated pears and Gorgonzola cheese.  The slight bitterness of the greens contrasted with the sweetness of the pears and the texture of the tomatoes made them standout and of course Gorgonzola.  A glass of Lech Premium beer washed it all down.

On the final night, since we had to be up at an unbelievably early hour to go to the airport, a couple of us decided to eat at the hotel bar again. Before I get to the food I have to go off on a quick tangent.

The waiter we had was a tall, thin fellow with very close cropped hair.  He was a very model of a cordiality and precision as he took care of us but it was bugging me because he reminded me of someone and I couldn’t figure out who until after I got back home.  This guy was a dead ringer for Christopher Eccleston during his Doctor Who run. It’s probably just as well I didn’t figure it out then as I’d likely have made some sort of time lord joke he’d not have understood.

Ok now back to the food.  I decided the to just go with the next thing on the menu after the duck I’d had the first night which turned out to be veal loin.

Let’s do a trip around the plate because it’s not easily apparent what each item is.  Starting at the 6 o’clock position we have and egg yolk confit, at 9 we have buckwheat groats wrapped in cabbage and topped with a couple cloves of roasted garlic.  At 12 is a hunk of wholemeal bread toast topped with more garlic and at 3 o’clock is the veal loin. All served with a thyme sauce.

That hunk of veal doesn’t look very big but somehow it seemed bigger when I cut into it (see what I did there Whovians?)  The veal was tasty and tender but again the sides held my interest more.  The egg yolk confit had the consistency of a thick custard and unsurprisingly tasted just like egg.  The buckwheat groats were an interesting change of pace on the grain front and I enjoyed them.  The cabbage wrap was tender and not fall apart soggy like I was afraid it might be.  The toast and roasted garlic was good but since I’d be trapped in planes for 11 hours the next day I didn’t want to subject people to the aftermath of a 3 clove meal so just had one.  I have to say as hotel restaurants go I’ve had great experiences both times I’ve been to Poznan.

From a culinary standpoint this trip was a winner on every front.  The food was great, the people were friendly, the atmosphere was welcoming and the company was outstanding at every meal.

 

Poznan pt 1

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Poland

Image result for poland passport stamp

After a bit of a holiday hiatus the Culinary-Passport is back with a two parter from a business trip to Poznan Poland.  After a couple of flights, one long and one delayed we got into Poznan, got to the hotel, checked in and unpacked we were pretty much beat.  That being the case we decided to dine in the hotel bar area which got their food from the hotel’s restaurant.  The restaurant was just a bit fancier than we were feeling so it was really the best of both worlds, casual atmosphere and fine dining.

The hotel we stayed in was the Andersia and their restaurant is Flavoria which also served the daily breakfast buffet which I’ll get to next.  The bar had a fun sort of retro feel to it with these interesting scoop shaped stools that felt like something out of a 70’s vision of the future.  The bartender who was also our server spoke pretty good English and was very friendly and helpful answering questions on the menu.

For my first meal this trip to Poland I went with duck as it was mentioned as a good local choice.

The grilled duck came on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes with pear chutney and caramelized endives in a marjoram sauce.  The duck was good, it was a bit tough to cut but it was easy to chew.  There was very little seasoning to the duck so the other dishes added the flavor highlights and every side was delicious.  My favorite though was the pear chutney.  Accompanied by a half liter of the Lech lager on draft it was a successful first meal.

Our room rate came with the breakfast buffet served in the restaurant.  The buffet was outstanding and designed to offer something for everyone no matter your culture.  In addition to eggs, bacon & sausage that are standard fare for us they had a salad bar with vegetables & fruit next to a cheese and cold cut section.  Across from that was a pastry, waffle, bread & roll section not far from three different hot cereal options that varied each day.  There were also selections of smoothies, yogurts, juices, milk, teas & coffees.  If you couldn’t find something to enjoy from this buffet you had to be basically dead.  For my first breakfast I went mainly protein with a slice of melon and one of bread as nods toward balance.

The eggs had such dark orange yolk I thought they had cheese in them but it was all egg.  I got one of each of the sausage options.  The white sausage was best described by one of my colleagues as tasting like a hot dog.  The reddish brown one was like a mini kielbasa and very good.  The sausage wrapped in bacon also had a light coating of cheese so while the sausage wasn’t as good as the mini kielbasa the combination was outstanding.  I couldn’t pass up grabbing a deviled egg from the salad bar area because who doesn’t love a deviled egg.  I didn’t toast the bread but it was a nice multigrain with some big seeds to give it texture and crunch.  The cantaloupe was ok but the mango orange juice was a fruit win.  Coffeewise I snagged a cup from the plastic urn because I didn’t feel like participating in the coffee dance around the fancy cappuccino / espresso machine.

The second evening after a long work day we went across the street to a mall built where an old brewery had been, Stary Browar.  One of our local colleagues was our guide & interpreter and after a bit of shopping we adjourned to one of the restaurants in the mall, Weranda which was an interesting place.

We dined in a loft section of the restaurant.  I’m not sure how best to describe the place as it had big pictures of tribes people of varying cultures, hanging mobiles of orbs and stars plus plants all over the place.  The picture directly across from me hanging above 3 of my dinner companions was a man with 1 tooth and two circles in his nose and a piercing or two, smiling like he just won the lottery.

I chose the grilled pork loin in mushroom sauce as my entree while three others opted for the burger and another for one of their huge salads.

You can’t even see my pork loin for the mushroom sauce but trust me there was a nicely grilled hunk of tender pork hiding under all those mushrooms and they made a tasty combo.  Alongside  the pork I got buckwheat groats with goat cheese and a pickled cucumber salad.  As good as the pork and mushrooms were I really enjoyed the novelty of the sides more.  The salad consisted of sliced cucumber pickles that had just a few pieces of onion in the mix and the tart acidic taste made a great contrast to the creamier mushroom sauce.  The buckwheat was ok but the addition of the soft tangy goat cheese brought it up a few notches.  To wash down the meal I started with a Polish craft porter and finished with some of the fruit infused water, both of which deserve a mention.

  

The porter was an accident.  Our local guide was a bit of a beer connoisseur and currently on a black IPA kick so she was trying to order the two of us one.  After a long conversation with our server she thought we had one on the way.  He showed up with two porters and that garnered him a couple of side eyes.  I decided to keep mine since they didn’t really have a black IPA.  It turned out to be a good pairing with meal.  It had a chocolate & molasses flavor that gave it a sweetness that cut the tartness of the pickled salad and goat cheese.  Towards the end of the meal I opted for water instead of another beer.  The water was served in a large carafe and had raspberries, lemons, cucumbers, mist and probably some other fruit leisurely bathing in it.   I definitely got the cucumber and mint tastes with undercurrents of lemon.  It was refreshing but not how I’d want my water every day.

By all accounts the burgers & salads were also excellent.

Day two had to be considered a culinary success.  Next week we’ll hit the last two dinners.

 

 

Oktoberfest

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Germany

Last week was busy and resulted in posts for successive weeks.

The surrogate for Germany was the Old Town Rock Hill Oktoberfest.  It was held downtown at Fountain Park which is the same area they have the Food Truck Fridays.  I parked a little further out than I do for the FTF’s expecting a larger crown but I needn’t have.  There were more people leaving as I got there than there were arriving, not a great sign.  I have to admit I was disappointed as well.

As I walked up I could hear the band playing something that wasn’t quite German but there was definitely some “oompah” in there.  The first tent in line was the ID check and beer ticket tent and what’s Oktoberfest without a beer?  I got a souvenir stein because I needed one more thing to try to fit in a cabinet.

For the price I would have expected it to come with at least one beer ticket but nope they were sold separately.  Well I had a couple of beer tickets and a mug so I figured I was at least partially set.  So here was my first disappointment.  I was really hoping for a biergarten and I’ll not lie I was hoping for fraus walking around with multiple liter steins in each hand serving up good German bier.  Alas that was not the case.  There were a couple of beer trailers and the one with the better beer had a line that was quite long but I persevered and wound up with a Dream Chasers Waxtoberfest beer.  That was enough to get me through my next disappointment.

There were only two food vendors, a pizza truck (WTH?) and the Wurst Wagen which had a line to rival the beer trailer.  How they could have 20 plus food trucks monthly for Food Truck Fridays and only two vendors for a once a year event is beyond me.

The one positive of standing in the line for my wurst was that I got to meet the winner of the wiener dog race.  For a 4 time champ and 2 time second place finisher Oscar was pretty humble and didn’t care for posing for pictures so you’ll just have to accept my description.  He was a solid brown dachshund with some white around the muzzle showing his veteran status and a pretty laid back demeanor for the holder of so many trophies.

The Wurst Wagen had a decent selection of sausages; weisswurst, bratwurst, knockwurst & kielbasa with sides of bacon potato salad, chips or sauerkraut.  I went with the weisswurst and sauerkraut.

The sausage was good but not really hot enough.  The guys were relying on a steamer they were keeping the sausages in to heat them up as they were precooked.  The problem was they were moving them so fast they didn’t have a chance to get very warm before getting served.  The taste was good and the German mustard and sauerkraut were good accompaniments.  I had just enough beer to make it through the meal and a couple of songs from the Foothills Oompah band.  I spent my second ticket on an Old Mecklenburg Mecktoberfest which tasted more like a good German beer than the Waxtoberfest, which had a hint of fruitiness to it.

That was good for a few more songs as the sun set and the fountain to my left got lit up.

Despite the disappointments it was a good evening and I can hope that next year will be better but I’ll let you know either way.

 

Kaaaaahn!

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DragonCon Edition

I guess that should have been Connnn!  Well, nerds gotta nerd.

This past weekend I carted the old culinary passport to DragonCon 2017.  In addition to all the great pop-culture, geek, gaming, educational, art and cosplay available there is no shortage of food options in downtown Atlanta.  In the host hotels and at the Americas Mart buildings you can’t swing a dead Pokémon without hitting a pizza or sandwich stand.  If you walk a bit further the Peachtree Center food court offers a ton of variety all jammed together and offers plenty of opportunity to make new friends as any empty chair at a table is gold and sharing tables is pretty much obligatory and sitting in the floor, back against the wall is not unheard of.  If you want to enjoy a bit of downtime from the crowds you can find some of the restaurants that aren’t totally overwhelmed with con goers.  I visited three while I was there.  One was a revisit and two were new.  They are truly international in theme as one was Italian, one Turkish and one a Pacific rim themed restaurant.

The first of the trio was Amalfi Pizza on Andrew Young Int’l Blvd.  The entrance opens to a wide set of stairs in a decorated foyer that take you into the restaurant proper.  There was plenty of seating and I was shown to a table by a smiling young lady.  I decided to have one of their house specialties, Pizza Amalfi and a Jekyll Brewing Hop Dang Diggity to wash it down.

The pizza was great.  First off it’s from a wood fired pizza oven so you get that little bit of char that adds that extra touch to the pizza.  The pizza itself had fresh mozzarella, spicy sausage, crushed tomato sauce, peppadew peppers, caramelized onions, and their own bacon jam.  The toppings weren’t piled on like a lot of franchise pizzas so the flavors might vary from one bite to the next.  When you got a bit of the bacon jam it gave the pizza an almost barbeque sauce flavor with the sweet and smoky flavor.  The sausage wasn’t very spicy in my opinion but did have a good Italian sausage flavor.  The beer was an IPA, nothing special amid the glut of IPAs in the craft brew world.

Next up was Truva for lunch.  I did a blog entry for Truva last year that you can find in the archives if you choose.  Truva is a Turkish restaurant and is a dimly lit place on a second floor and out of the way enough that only the people from the con who truly want Turkish food show up so it’s a great getaway spot.  This year I decided to have a couple of their appetizers instead of an entrée as I figured it might be a little less heavy.  I got the Etli Borek and Karniyarik.  I loved the menu description of the etli borek, cigar shaped meat pastry.  Karniyarik is stuffed eggplant.  While I was waiting for the apps I was provided with a metal basket of warm bread with black sesame seeds and olive oil & balsamic vinegar to dredge it through.

That bread was worth the trip.  Trying to be mindful of the calories I only ate a couple of pieces and felt like that was showing heroic restraint.  Fortunately my meal of starters showed up.

The stuffed eggplant was partially peeled in sections to provide a decorative presentation and it was stuffed with a ground, spiced lamb and beef combo.  It was ok but honestly I think it could have been spiced up a bit more and the eggplant was a little rubbery.  Not my favorite dish from Truva to date.  The cigar shaped meat pastries were better although it was essentially the same meat mixture.  It benefitted from the pastry dough and the yogurt sauce which tasted like it had some mint in it.  They could have doubled the sauce and made the dish twice as good as far as I’m concerned.  I wrapped it up with a Turkish coffee.  I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the fancy cup like I did last time but the coffee was good.  I’d have to give this visit only 4 stars.  I’d have gone as low as 3.5 but the waiter was very good so that kept in the very good range.  Oh yeah and the bread, I finished that basket before I left.

Last but certainly not least was the Pacific Rim Bistro on Peachtree Center Ave.  It covers a wide span of Asian cuisines including sushi.  This place was packed with con goers so I was seated at the sushi bar and even though I didn’t order any I got to watch them make it as I waited for my food.  In addition to seating at the sushi bar they have tables inside as well as outside and both high tops and regular tables.  The staff is also very attentive.  I was checked on by at least three people aside from my server but it wasn’t annoying.  I was torn between the Malaysian curry chicken and the Lamb stew in coconut curry and my server was helpful enough to let me know the lamb stew had been extremely popular so that tipped the scales.

The stew came with big chunks of vegetables; peppers, broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower, all sharing the coconut curry bath with a healthy portion of bite sized lamb.  The menu indicated it would come with black and jasmine rice but they only had jasmine by the time I ordered mine.  That wasn’t a problem though as this was fantastic.  It was one of the best things I’d eaten all week.  I even like the cauliflower, which is a vegetable I’ve never really cared for.  I’d definitely recommend this dish to anyone that didn’t have an aversion to something a little spicy.

Overall I was quite happy with my international dining experiences while enjoying DragonCon.  If you’re in downtown Atlanta don’t hesitate to check one of these places out.