Munich's English Garden (Saturday June 5, 2010)

We had lunch in the English Garden at the Chinese Tower.

Ethan and Pyul ate the roasted chicken - the BEST Roasted Chicken EVER!

I ordered the fried pork cutlet with fries and a giant pretzel.  Pyul and Ethan chose the right thing. Oliver ate a couple different types of sausages. 

The craziest thing happened while we were eating lunch.  I just happened to look up and saw my cousin Dave who I haven't seen in nearly 10 years!  He's working in Austria and happened to come into Munich for the day to run some errands - what a small world! 

In the afternoon, we relaxed at an outdoor bar and enjoyed the most amazing drink - rhubarb beer.  My favorite in Munich was Radler (lemonade and beer), but the rhubarb beer was so good.  We'll have to see if we can replicate this at home.  Pyul's been raving about this dessert that we just had to try and it was really good.  It's like chunks of pancake with apples and and raisins - delicious!  I couldn't stop eating it! I can't remember what it's called. 

Later this evening we took an overnight train from Munich to Venice.  We had a first class sleeper car and it was surprisingly comfy.  It was nice that we had our own toilet and shower and it worked out perfectly. 

Before we caught the train we picked up some snacks at the grocery store - cheese, prosciutto, bread and wine. 

It was pretty late, but I was craving a little snack so we ordered curry wurst (it was so good yesterday), sausage with ketchup and curry powder, and a salad. 

Next stop, Venice!

Dinner at Broeding in Munich (Friday June 4, 2010)

Janet and I have lot's of catching up on our meals during our trip to Europe! For our second breakfast in Munich, our friend Pyul took us to Victorian House where we had scones, jam, and clotted cream. Yum!

A bit later in the day we stopped at a lovely beer garden for a pick-me-up beer. The pretzels were fine, but not nearly as good as the ones we had the night before.

After fortifying us with beer, Pyul took us to get currywurst. Her favorite currywurst place wasn't open, but this restaurant's offerings were fine by me!  The dish consists of chopped up frankfurters, fries, curry ketchup, a sprinkling of curry powder. We ordered another plate of it after finishing this one.

We stopped for a coffee and a sweet. I had some marzipan cookies and we each had a little white chocolate confection topped with candied rose petals.

And for dinner we had an amazing meal at Broeding. There's a nice write-up about the restaurant in the New York Times. There is a single choice each night, so whatever the chef is serving is what one orders (with an option of adding a cheese course).

Couscous salad with fish

Scallops with wonderfully buttery kohlrabi and an arugula salad 

Soup with sliced speck

Janet liked the tuna, even though she usually isn't a fan. 

Super-tasty lamb with white asparagus.

It was asparagus season in Bavaria and we saw huge mounds of it being sold on the street:

Back to the meal at Broeding:

Can't remember what this was, but it was sweet and came with melon. On the melon was strands of what looked like saffron, but I think it must've been something else because there wasn't a saffron taste.

Mascarpone mousse

I also had the cheese course... Whereas the preceding meal was amazing, the cheese was unremarkable. It was a slice of reasonably decent brie--I had been hoping for the cheese to be a revelation rather than something I can get at most American supermarkets.

Hallo Munich! (Thursday, June 3, 2010)

Our first day in Munich and we couldn’t have been more welcomed here by our friends Pyul and Oliver.  They moved here last July from New York and it was a great chance to see them and spend time in their new city.  If you think I like to eat, oh man, you haven’t met my friend Pyul.  This girl is about a tiny as my pinky and she can eat like two grown football players.  It brings me such joy to eat with her.  If I did this every day, I think my stomach would explode.

Here’s how the day looked:  We arrived in Munich and Pyul picked us up when we landed at 8am and we went straight to a restaurant for breakfast.  This place supposedly has amazing Mississippi Mud pie, but they didn’t have it ready for breakfast…darn!  Ethan and I ordered the two eggs, potatoes and bacon.  Pyul ordered french toast.  Pyul, if you’re reading this, I’ll need your help on the restaurant names.

We had dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant and had enormous amounts of food.  It’s white asparagus season right now so we had to order a side of this.  Not only is it gorgeous, it was so great with the hollandaise sauce and butter.

The pretzel was NOT just an average little pretzel.  It was so beautifully perfect - it was what you would hope a pretzel would taste like…THEN add this completely addictive mustard to each bite of your pretzel…what a great way to get you ready for the rest of your meal. We had a total feast – take a look:

Sweet Mustard

White Asparagus

Roasted Pork belly, and another part of the pork with bread dumplings

Gigantic Pork Ribs, uncooked pickled cabbage (tasted a lot like sauerkraut)

This is Pyul's dish of more roasted pork - different from my dish but I can't remember what cut of the meat she ordered.