T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
After breakfast in Levico, we drove a quick 1.5 hours down to the southern end of Lake Garda to spend two days in Sirmione. While the northern parts of Gardasee are overrun with German tourists, Sirmione is overrun with a healthy mix of nationalities.
After a leisurely lunch in Bressanone, we drove another couple hours to Levico Terme, a small town on a small lake just outside of Trento. This destination was mostly chosen for its location – we wanted a short drive for our first day of the trip, and we wanted to relax and do nothing once we arrived at our destination. Well, nothing besides eating yummy Italian food.
We recently rented a car and headed to Italy for 11 days of food, art, medieval cities, wine, grappa, gelato, more food, more wine… you know, the kind of stuff you do in Italy.
We (along with most everyone else in Munich) are hosting a lot of house guests these days. Seems like as good a time as any to add to my breakfast-making repertoire. Plus, I like to make up recipes. Our most recent guests (the delightful Redenii) inspired this experiment with their love of German pretzels. We had a few left over one day, and I was trying to figure out what to do with them before they went stale. At the same time, I was thinking about the next day’s breakfast, which was possibly going to be french toast. You can probably figure out where this is going.
This is our fourth Oktoberfest as locals. Since leaving my parents’ house at 18, I’ve never lived anywhere else for more than three years, so this is kind of weird for me. I’m not used to doing things for a fourth time.
But here I am, getting out the dirndl (paired with sensible shoes for dancing on wooden benches) for Oktoberfest number four. Conversations with friends all include an exchange of details about which tents we will be in on which nights. The guest room is booked for almost a month straight with various configurations of friends and family.
Scott and I get back to New York to visit friends and family about once a year. Well, we pretend we’re there to visit, but mostly we are there to eat. Here are some of the culinary highlights from our most recent visit (those marked * were my absolute favorites from this trip).
With the exception of, well, pretty much anyplace in Italy, London is my favorite food city in Europe. Long gone are the days of tittering about the blandness of English cuisine; London restaurants are creative, varied, and plentiful. Here are some of the notable eateries from my last visit.
Tis the season of endless long weekends here in Catholic Bavaria, affording plenty of opportunities for short getaways. So away we got, three days enjoying the cognitive dissonance that is the German-speaking part of Italy.
This trip started, as so many do, with a quick stop in Bressanone for lunch followed by a proper Italian espresso.
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