Hello from Fleet River Café! I’m sitting in a pretty swanky
café right now off of the Holborn tube stop and mooching off free internet
while enjoying a hummingbird cake (banana and pineapple cake with a lemon
butter cream) and homemade chai latte. Yup, life is good.
So I figure that I should write another food blog before I
forget, wait another month, and then post a bunch of blogs at once. I tend to
do that. So, as I mentioned in the last blog, I went to Frankfurt, Germany! To
honest, Frankfurt wasn’t on my “places to go to while studying abroad” list,
but my friend Sam (who’s been featured in a few pictures on my blog) has a
cousin getting her masters there… so why not?! Free digs and my first out of UK
experience. The thing to know about Frankfurt is that it’s actually a pretty
small city. It’s the financial capital of Germany and one of the most
international cities in Germany as well (luckily Sam’s cousin spoke a bit of
German, but Sam and I could get around and order things off menus by pointing),
so people speak English if you ask. The day we arrived, Sam and I had been
traveling for 8 hours. Now it’s only an hour and half flight from London to
Frankfurt, but we dealt with a lot of craziness and waiting around thanks to
Ryan Air.
Now to get to the food… I have to start with my favorite
place: Kleinmarkthalle! Translation: small market hall. Oh my goodness, I love
farmer’s markets and this was a good-sized indoor market filled with sausages,
cheeses, flowers, bread, pastries, nuts, olive oils, and more! I was so excited
to see all the wursts hanging in stalls and free samples (who doesn’t love free
samples? I mean that’s one of the draws to go to Costco, no?). The first time I
went was with Frankfurt on Foot (walking tour) and Sam and I got streusel and a gingerbread cookie. When we
returned the next day (‘cause we had to… I was not satisfied with the mere 30
minutes from the day before), I got to eat my first wurst (pork
sausage—incredibly large in diameter)! I also had a soft pretzel and some other
carbs. Oh boy, do I love carbs.
One night, we had a really late dinner at Adolf Wagner, a
well-known German restaurant known for their traditional food. The atmosphere
was fantastic, probably because it’s what you’d imagine if you were to go to a
German restaurant. Glass pitchers with blue decorations lined the walls (what
Frankfurt is known for) and there were long dark-wood tables and benches for
seats. Everyone looked like they were sitting together and one big party. As
expected, there were glasses of beer as well as apple wine at every table. I
got to try apple wine and was actually delightfully surprised. I’m not a big
alcohol fan (probably because I haven’t had much experience drinking and just
started in January—whoo 21!) and typically have a hard time downing anything
that doesn’t taste fruity, but apple wine is quite nice. It kind of tastes like
beer, but not bitter and actually a bit sour. Oh, and it’s a bit bubbly! As for
food, I had my first schnitzel! At Adolf Wagner, the cook hammers out thin cuts
of pork and then sandwiches cheese between the piece of pork and thinly-sliced
ham. Oh, and the potatoes at the side were perfectly salted and roasted. Sam
had a beef brisket with green sauce (typically
made from hard-boiled eggs, oil, vinegar, salt, sour cream, and generous
amounts of seven fresh herbs, namely borage, sorrel, garden cress, chervil, chives, parsley, and salad burnet). The green sauce is a
Frankfurt specialty and was highly recommended by our Frankfurt on Foot tour
guide Dave. It’s creamy, yet surprisingly refreshing and was great with the
brisket and I even lopped some on top of my schnitzel. You can’t go wrong with
comfort food anywhere abroad.
And on our second to last day
in Germany, Sam’s cousin took us to Heidelberg. It’s a cute town and known as
the most beautiful town in Germany. Before we left, I got to eat a
buttermandel-kuchen at a nearby bakery and café. Hmmm… how to describe it?
Imagine custard on a fluffy pastry showered with almond shavings. How does that
sound?
At Heidelberg, we all shared a milk chocolate ballen mit
nußschokonugatfüllung (that’s a mouthful). For some reason, the taste of it
reminded me of this Taiwanese rice-crispy-like snack. It was okay, but really
difficult to eat. We had to smash it on a curb to break it apart! I also had a
hot cocoa that day (70% cocoa), but other than that… I survived off Haribo
gummies. Yup. I decided that to be super frugal and sacrifice my well-being to
save some euros for the next day. I basically ran on sugar that whole day.
And thus summarizes my food
adventure in Frankfurt and Heidelberg! I have so many papers due in the next
few weeks, not to mention a bunch of internship applications I have to turn in.
But don’t worry, all this craziness won’t stop me from going out and eating
good food (I mean, that’s the whole reason why I’m in this café). I have more
food stories to tell and I’m even going to Borough Market later today (famous
food market)! Auf Wiedersehen!
