freiburg food

We visited Freiburg last week and though it wasn't nearly as tasty as Strasbourg, we did have two great finds.


First... At the farmer's market, one tiny stand had a long line, apparently only one product, and was selling it at lightning speed. On principle, I like any booth that has a small product offering (here's to you In-and-Out!), so I jumped in line and then tried to figure out what I was in line for. Turned out to be german cheesecake, which is lighter than American cheesecake with a crust. It's made with quark, a yogurt-like fresh cheese not readily available in the US. It was sooooo good. It was so smooth, so light, and totally tangy, not sweet at all. This stand sold three flavors: classic, raisin, and cherry. I'm almost curious enough to go back to try the other ones. I've had Käsekuchen in Zurich a few times, but here it's much more cakey and dry, basically completely different in every way. I highly recommend this if you happen to be in Freiburg.



Second... We're always scanning the food booths to find something we haven't tried before. We found this super yum spätzle/sauerkraut combo at a sausage stand. It's truly inspired. We all loved it, even my 4yr old.

strasbourg: sticky

Macarons! Almost every pâtisserie in Strasbourg had some, but I liked these from Riss (35 Rue du 22 Novembre). Max and I shared this sampler bag, splitting every one in half so we could taste all the flavors.


I'd never seen these giant macarons before, but lots of places had these in addition to the normal bite-size ones:


The cakes were so colorful and fanciful. I wish I could live there so I could try a different cake each week.


I liked the look of these "baked potato" treats in the back and the lemon tarts in the front. I'll have to try these next time.

strasbourg: savory

When in Alsace, you must eat the traditional Choucroute garnie. We first ordered this in Colmar last year, not really sure what we were ordering. We ordered one each, based on the cute, normal portions of food other diners were enjoying. This pot arrived. Correction, two of these pots arrived. I was scared.


We opened our pots to reveal an unholy amount of pork in various forms, sitting on top a mountain of sauerkraut. Plus a huge basket of steamed potatoes. It tasted fine, it was just a ridiculous amount of food.


Tyler tried Choucroute again in Strasbourg and received this tasty plate:


He starteted his meal with some foie gras, of course.


I don't know what I ordered but I got some sort of creamy sauerkraut studded with ham bits and maybe nuts??? It also had weird ham slices that had the consistency of salmon sushi. It was pretty tasty but unlike anything I've ever eaten.


The "kid's" meal came with a chocolate mousse dessert, which was dark, smooth and yum.


The restaurant was cute and small, with an interesting deli/meat counter on the first floor. As the name Porcus implies, this place is all about the pork.


I liked these elaborately decorated meat pastries in their window.

strasbourg: sweet

I want candy!

We stumbled across this fantastic candy shop in Strasbourg, France. OK, it's impossible to miss, directly in front of the cathedral. We loaded up on lollipops, caramels and fruit candies. It's a magical wonderland of pastel fabulousness. And they gave out lots of free samples, American-style consumerism - I love it! I definitely recommend visiting this place if you're in Strasbourg: La Cure Gourmande 5, Rue Mercière


it's cheaper to buy individual pieces by weight, but more fun to buy them in the crazy cute tins


these look like big candies, but they have little sticks making them into short, squat lollipops


the cute door


outside the shop

homemade yogurt, pure magic

homemade yogurt - try it, you'll like it

When I first read about making homemade yogurt in Super Baby Food, I thought the writer was crazy and thought it was ridiculous to waste time that's already so inexpensive, good quality (at least in Switzerland) and relatively unprocessed. Then I read/heard a few things about how commercial plain yogurt (even organic) doesn't contain much of the the beneficial or probiotic bacteria, which is one of the main reasons to eat yogurt. Plus it often has added milk powder (which increases the lactose making it harder to digest) and is often pasteurized, bla, bla, bla...

Anyhoo, I decided to experiment and was quite pleased with the results. I like anything approaching magic with food and yogurt certainly fits the bill. Scald a little milk, add a bit of starter yogurt, let it sit for a few hours and voila - yogurt! I followed the instructions in Super Baby Food, but there are loads of recipes on the web. Here's my short version:

1. Scald a quart of milk (heat to 185F, just before boiling)
2. Cool to 115F
3. Stir in 2TB yogurt (your starter that should have active bacteria)
4. Pour into sterile containers and put on lids
5. Place in warm place (oven turned on lowest setting - 110F) to maintain temp of liquid between 90F and 120F (ideally at 100F). Leave for 4-12 hours until mixture is firm. You now have yogurt.
6. Refrigerate for a few hours.
7. Add flavorings/sweeteners, eat and enjoy.

Notes: I used whole milk and mine was plenty thick. I didn't add any milk powder or gelatin to thicken it. I used mason jars to store the yogurt in. Mine was done after 5 hours. It wasn't sour at all, which was a plus because I'm trying to get my baby to eat it. If you want it more sour, just ferment it longer. It keeps 1-2 weeks in the fridge. If it doesn't set, either the starter didn't have enough bacteria (maybe too old) or the fermenting milk got below 90F or above 120F, thus killing the bacteria.

one fish, two fish

the semi-clean spot in the middle was where my salmon was cooking

This is why I don't cook fish. Every time I cook fish, my pan ends up looking like this and I can never get it all off. Does this happen to you? I know I must doing something wrong, but I don't know what. I get the pan hot, use a minimum amount of oil, and don't move the fish during the advised time (about 7mins for salmon). The fish was tasty, but at what cost? I've probably spent an hour trying to restore this pan to its original condition. I've tried all sorts of chemical concoctions (de-glazing and boiling combos of dishwashing liquid, baking soda, vinegar, etc) praised on the internet, to no avail. Any suggestions?

Later that day, I baked a fish encased in salt, aka salt coffin, and it would have been great if I had paid attention to the recipe and realized the cooking times were for a 2-3 pound fish, not a 3/4 pound one. I'll try this method again though, much cleaner.


my single serving fish in his salt coffin

prague: last yum yums

One last Prague post. We loved these filled donut things - you should definitely have one if you go. There were so many treats we didn't try, particularly lots and lots of cakes. I hope we make it back soon but there are so many places to go still. Thanks Prague. Our tummies are happy.

prague: pork knee and other hearty stuff

me and pork knee - a phrase seldom uttered

Czech food, I love you. Where have you been all these years? I admit this new crush is based on only a few lucky meals, but seriously, I loved what I ate in Prague. For one thing, I had no idea until this trip that I love cabbage. Here's a sampling of some of the good things we ate.

Our first meal in Prague, we hunted for an hour and finally settled on Restaurace Certovka, near Kampa Park, with a patio overlooking the Charles Bridge. It was absolutely empty (I hate empty restaurants) and we expected the worst). But it turned out to be our best meal of the trip. Here's my meal from here, potato pancakes, ham and sweet apple cabbage - yum, yum, yum!


Tyler had goulash with dumplings, good but not my favorite:


My favorite sausage of this trip was this one topped with sauerkraut and horseradish. I didn't even know I liked either of these toppings but I couldn't get enough of it. At breakfast, this booth was serving the same sausage topped with a fried egg:


Our car driver recommended Olympia, one of the Kolkovna chain, basically a cleaned up pub with better food. After returning home, I've seen lots of bad reviews online from expats living there (expensive, grumpy service, tourist trap, etc.) but we liked it. The food was good (we had much, much worse elsewhere) and seemed freshly-made compared to other places that clearly were serving frozen mass-produced stuff. We could get all the Czech standards in one place, instead of hunting and pecking all over town. The prices were the same or lower than everywhere else we looked (~200kc is a normal main dish price, but on the Old Town Square, you'll pay 2-3 times that). The service was fine, but we did eat slightly off-peak hours. Below is my yum meal of goose leg, potato dumplings and sweet cabbage.


Here's a detail pic of the Pork Knee I ordered at Olympia's sister restaurant. Who can resist ordering something with a description like this: "Knuckles roasted on black beer, with onion and grandmother cabbage crackles."


Below is Olympia's menu (click for a closer look).

prague: honey cake

I picked up a last piece on my way to the airport, so no time for staging this pic

I didn't try honey cake, aka Medovnik, until my last day in Prague, and then only by accident. I had skipped breakfast and was starving outside Troja Chateau. There was only one restaurant and they didn't have any breakfast items. The waiter suggested something from the dessert menu and I luckily selected honey cake, my new favorite cake! The first bite was heaven and it only got better and more satisfying. No law of diminishing returns here. The waiter said it was a 1000 year old recipe. I can't wait to try making it myself. If anyone knows where I can get one of these in Zurich, please let me know. I want to have a Medovnik party asap!

Here's the honey cake story from The Prague Post
Check this fun blog entry I ran across, waxing poetic on Medovnik.

prague: langoše

langoše "pizza"

The other main treat at the Prague easter market was Langoše, which I'm told is actually Hungarian. In Prague, it was served with garlic, ketchup, and cheese - not a particularly good combo. But the fried bread is double yum, so we tried it again, but with nutella, which was delicious. You know you are eating something good when people come up to you asking where you got your food. Price: 50 crowns, about 3USD/CHF.


I was fascinated by the enormous mounds of dough they emptied from huge plastic sacks onto the table, then proceeded to cut with a monster serrated knife into individual dough portions.


ok, the picture is horrible but nutella was a winner

prague: trdelnik

When traveling, I love trying new food almost more than seeing the sights. Here's the first of several fun foods we tried in Prague - Trdelnik. It's a sweet dough rope wrapped around a metal bar, which is spun over a flame until golden, then rolled in a sugar/cinnamon/nut mix. It's yum and not hard to find. At the old town easter market, there were at least a dozen booths. I ate three or so, then switched to langose, which I'll blog about next.


I was a little worried that one of these enormous trdelnik replicas (each booth had one) would fly off in the gusty wind and take us out


best when warm, also works as a wrist band