T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
As if coming home to find David Hasselhof climbing the charts weren’t bad enough, Germany also welcomed us back with a bit of an E.coli pandemic. At first I didn’t pay it much mind; the outbreak was small and happening in Hamburg, which is about as far away from Munich as one can get in Germany. But instead of the cause being discovered quickly and us all living happily ever after, the outbreak is only becoming worse, and spreading all over the country.
We spent most of January in Edinburgh (I know, I’m a little behind on my blogging), so we got a chance to try quite a few of the city’s restaurants. That is, when I wasn’t busy using our apartment’s induction hob or sampling oddly-named desserts from Marks & Spencer. Here are the notable eateries, favorites first.
David Bann quickly became my favorite restaurant in the city
David Hasselhoff The Hoff has a new song climbing the German charts. Any chance it won’t become the overplayed hit of the summer? Or should I just get out now? Update: The above video won’t work in the US, but the link below should (although it won’t work in Germany). What is with requiring … Read more
And here we are, on our somewhat-annual pilgrimage back to North America. As usual, we planned this trip to include some familiar destinations and some new, exciting places. First stop: New York City, where I am busily adding to my food porn collection (see also: 2009 NYC food porn, 2010 NYC food porn) in between visits with friends, family, and the city’s vast art collections.
I’ve been rather quiet for the past couple weeks, I know, but I have a good excuse. I was busy putting together my first art show in Munich.
It’s here! Spargelzeit is here! What, you mean you don’t celebrate asparagus time where you live?
The Germans are crazy about white asparagus, a special breed that grows underground and is only harvested for a couple months each spring. Restaurants have special menus featuring white asparagus done every which way, and all the fruit and veggie stands display big piles of it, as if it’s the only thing worth eating this time of year. Preparing this Teutonic vegetable is relatively easy, but there are a few things you should know before doing it for the first time.
Halle an der Saale might be one of the largest German cities you’ve never heard of. In the little-visited eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, Halle was my home for three years during the 1990s. I was thrilled when I managed to talk my friend Kim into stopping by on our way back to Munich from Leipzig a few weeks ago.
In English bärlauch is called ramsons or wild garlic, or sometimes even bear’s garlic (which is the translation most similar to the German name); that’s a lot of names for something I had never heard of before moving to Germany. The edible leaves are pungent, with a flavor that falls somewhere between garlic and wild onions.
As with TBEX in Copenhagen, the highlight of Travel Bloggers Unite (TBU) for me was getting to hang out with a bunch of fun, travel-minded people. Manchester was a wonderful setting, too.
The TBU panels and presentations were interesting, and they gave me new things to think about regarding where I want to take this blog in the future. Below are my comments on some of the travel blogging topics that were discussed.
Last week was all about visiting cities which are delightfully grittier than Munich. Not that it’s hard for a place to show more grit than our home city (which could be mistaken for the setting of many fairy tales), but last week’s destinations were particularly satisfying in their lack of polish. Cheers to the Travel Bloggers Unite conference for giving us an excuse to visit Manchester for the first time.