China Palace Dinner

Not very far from the Hotel, just drive down a steep hill.

The 4.5 star review I checked sounded good. The buffet style serving sounded promising to get a lot of different tasty treats.

The restaurant opened at 5:30 PM and it filled up quickly.

Sorry to say, I haven't had that badly offered Chinese food in a very long time.

Fried chicken or fish or squid rings were soaked in oil and the panneing was soggy. Prawn in shell were like rubber, the fried noodles were swimming in soy sauce and haven't seen any frying. The fried rice was cooked and mixed with peas and carrots. Just a bit of soy sauce.

The best of the dinner buffet was the red and green Jell-O and the canned fruit.

Going there the other night was just no option.

Ice Cream on a cold Day

I walked through the pedestrian mall in Bad Driburg after I bought a new umrella. The old one got destroyed from the wind.

My "lunch" was not so brilliant and I was looking for a Café. Someone recommended a place that sold waffles. But that was closed from 12:30 to 15:00.

Then my eye caught EIS IN NATUR or ice cream in nature. That sounded promising.

They make their ice cream in house without any industrial products, fake aromas and color. A huge display with the different ice creams. Many are only available in season.

I decided to treat myself to 4 scoops:

Mango

Spaghetti ice cream

Coconut cream

Raspberry Cookie

Greek style Salad in a Rehab Town

I am going to a Mercedes Benz Driving Event at the Bilster Berg. A 270 km/170 mile drive up North.

I needed a place to stay and the nearest city is Bad Driburg. This is a Rehab Clinic Town well known for all this with mud/moor. For 200 years now the black peat is harvested around here and processed for people to sit in or lay on top. There is even a great exhibition about the whole mud/moor thing.

But all that and 3 hours of driving got me hungry. A restaurant looked Greek to me. The menu on the outside showed some Tsatziki and other stuff.

The 80s music blasted out of the speakers - I loved it!

I gave it a try. No Tsatziki or other starters available. I went for a "Greek Salad Bad Driburg".

The 80s came back on the plate with a big slice of orange on top. Yeah!

The salad was huge with fried and chopped chicken nuggets, nearly an entire cucumber and 2 large Tomatoes. Many Kalamata olives and ready bought lettuce from a supermarket bag.

The dressing was "original" Greek, but good. Olive oil and red wine vinegar with dried oregano.

The music was the best, but I do not complain about the food.

Sausage Salad or German Fleischsalat

Sausage Salad is a better description for the salad than the "Meatsalad" or Fleischsalat as it is called here in Germany. And be sure, it has nothing to do with any kind of the usual salads.

In the mid 19 hundreds the butchers tossed together leftover meats and added mayonaise to bind it to together to make a "salad" for the people who had cold "Abendbrot", meaning eating bread with sausages or cheeses for dinner. 

At first leftover cold cuts of beef or pork were made as a salad, then the meat was taken out and Lyoner or Bologna sausages were used instead. But the mayo still bind everything together.

To make the salad a bit lighter, pickled gherkins were added together with some of the brine. My Mom always used boiled eggs to strech out the salad and made it enough for 3.

Ingredients:

200 g Lyoner or Fleischwurst

6 Gherkins

2 medium hard boiled eggs

30 ml gherkin brine

80 g Mayo or more to bind the salad

Pepper, some salt

Potato Soup with leftover Fleischkaese

My neighbor was in the hospital and was released last weekend. Standing in the kitchen is not easy for her in the moment.

I am taking food upstairs to help her. A vegetable soup with some protein is a good way to heal. I had a quarter of my Fleischkäse still in the fridge. A good time to use it now. 

I looked through my veggie drawer in my fridge and took out carrots, leek, parsley root and an open package of bacon bits. A couple of potatoes that gave the soup its name.

Onion and garlic and some chicken broth paste. I went on my balcony and harvested majoram, bay leave, parsley and lovage.

Chop all veggies and start the large pot with the bacon bits in a little oil. Next the onion and garlic follows. All other veggies, except the potatoes were next. Season.

Pour in the chicken stock and scrub the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Last the potatoes and the herbs go in.

Let it cook for 15 min. Take a potato mascher and give some of the veggies a little smash.

Cut up the leftover meat and put it in to warm through. Add fresh parsley and chives and serve hot.

Ingredients for 4:

2 tbsp oil

5 large potatoes

1 white onion, 3 garlic cloves

2 carrots, 1/4 leek, parsleyroot

60 g bacon bits

150 g Fleischkäse

900 ml chicken stock

Fresh majoram, oregano, parsley, bay leaf, lovage

Salt, pepper

Meatpaste to bake in the Oven - Fleischkäse

A slap of "sausage meat" on a roll is the Fast Food everybody knows here. Many xall it Leberkäse, but it does not contain liver or cheese. In the 18th century the form reminded people of a bread loaf (laib) and the baked meat was cheese like from the consistency.

So, do not worry if you are asked if you want to try Leberkäse, especially in Bavaria, it is just flavoured pirk meat and very tasty. 

This baked paste can be fine or coarse, with onions or pizza flavoured. Since a shorter time, butchers create new flavour combinations and add more ingredients. But I either choose the fine one or pizza.

The very fine meaty farce comes in an oven proof carton. But someone now sells Mason jars where you take the lid off, put it in the oven and the moment the thing is done, it shoots more or less out of the jar.

A slice of Fleischkäse is usually served between a bread roll. Often with mustard, but many like it with ketchup.

Savoury Pan Baguette for Breakfast

I had a day old baguette from my French food haul.

Sunday mornings are great for new things and the baguette had to go. Instead of sugar and cinnamon mixed in eggs and milk, I used smoked paprika, salt, pepper, thyme, parmesan and mozzarella.

Soak the thick slices of baguette in the mix. Turn around and let the cheese stick to it. Melt butter in oil in a pan and brown the slices on both sides. You may have to scrape the cheese off the bottom of the pan.

Serve with some thick Greek yogurt.

Ingredients:

5 slices of baguette

2 eggs

150 ml whole milk

20 g parmesan

20 g mozzarella grated

Salt, pepper, smoked paprika, thyme, Piment d'Espelette