Eating everyday with Grandma in Germany

My husband's grandma lives in a winery area of Germany so you can see the grape vines everywhere in whole surrounding neighborhood. We walked together between these grape vines. It must be very pretty in summer. Grandma also has her own garden which she makes vegetables and flowers. I wish I had a garden like hers. It is quite big and she takes good care of it. I heard that there are some places in NY where you can rent a garden but there is no garden or farm around where I live so there is no such a thing here. Too bad.

It seems like I had been eating non-stop when I was visiting grandma. I was pleasantly surprised how much grandma can eat and drink! I think she can eat and drink more than I do. Maybe it is her secret to longevity :-) She enjoy eating good food and drinking good wine or beer.

One of the restaurant which my husband's cousins took us was an Italian restaurant. This Italian restaurant was really good. We ordered about 6 appetizers and shared them and also had each main course.

There are not so many photos of appetizers we ordered but one of the appetizers which I liked was this octopus appetizer. It is not too easy to find octopus dishes in the U.S. so I was quite happy to eat this octopus. We eat octopus quite often in Japan so I miss this kind of food sometimes.

My main dish was pasta! Of course. They had something special like this rolled Lasagna. Isn't it a great idea to roll up Lasagna like this? It was with porcini mushroom and the thick creamy sauce was divine! This was really really good. I would like to recreate this at home sometimes.

Grandma was eating Mushroom Tortellini. This was also very creamy and rich and delicious. Since I was sitting right next to grandma, I stole a few of her tortellini :-) It was sooooo good!

I never imagined that Italian food can be this good in Germany. Who knew, right? I feel like the quality of food at restaurants in Germany are really good. Maybe because people always take me to good restaurants but so far all the restaurants I went in Germany were really good!

The following night, we went to a neighborhood restaurant and ate a lot again.

I had stake at this restaurant. Look at this garlic! This was great for a garlic lover like me!
Also the potato croquette on the side reminded me of Japan because we also eat potato croquette.

My stake came with salad. I liked salad in Germany because salad dressing is mild and salad leaves are very tender.

My husband was eating Spaetzle which is a special noodle in Germany. I have made this at home before. It is great with cheese and sauteed onion.

Grandma was eating two kind of fish special with some vegetables and pasta. It is quite and amount isn't it?

I was happy to be able to visit grandma. This was the second time for me to see her and I really enjoyed spending time with her. She is just so cute! Her smile make me feel very happy. And, I realized that she likes eating like I do :-) I am looking forward to seeing her again sometime soon!

German Grandma's home cooking

I have already told you that I ate lots of great food in Germany. Now, I would like to show you what I ate.

In my opinion, German food is underrated. I really like German food. I did not know much about German food until I met my husband but I realized that I like German food maybe more than my husband does :-) Of course, it is quite heavy so I can not eat them everyday but I love eating them once in a while.

First stop was at my husband's grandma's place. She used to have a restaurant which she cooked and served every day so she is excellent at cooking.

One of the things which my husband always eat when he visit her place is "Schnitzel". It is a thin sliced fried breaded veal. I also like this dish a lot. I think it is originally from Austria but you can order this at any German restaurant.

I have eaten many schnitzels in restaurant but I think grandma's schnitzel is the best! She has quite a lot of experience and also she put lots of lots of love in it :-) I have observed every move she made when she was making schnitzel so hopefully I can make schnitzel similar to hers. She uses two pans to make many schnitzels at the same time. I love watching her cook.

The side dish which comes with Schnitzel is potato dish called "bratkartoffeln". She boiled the potatoes and peel them (and she peels the hot potatoes with a lighting speed!) and slice them into thin slices.

Then, saute them in a pan with some butter.

It is so simple but taste great! I think German potatoes are different from what we have here in the U.S. or in Japan. Potatoes in Germany just taste sooooo good!

Yummy! Everything was delicious. After all, nothing can beat grandma's food. Isn't that right ?

Back to NY

I came back to NY last night from Germany. I ate so much great food and met many people and had a great time. While I was eating lots of delicious food, I got many inspiration for some food I would like to try to make at home.

Also, all the nice easter decoration made me feel like I want to decorate my house with flowers.

I will upload all my pictures to the computer and select some of the best ones to post here.

Please come visit again to see some of the great food I had in Germany.

Since we ate so much during this trip, we think we should go on a little diet for a while :-)