German Pastry Adventure - Krapfen

While I was in prison, one of the things I attempted to do to alleviate my boredom was to reverse translate Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen back into English. I got through about four or five pages when I gave up and decided to just read the original English text. But the most important thing I learned in those pages was the word for donut - der Krapfen.

This past weekend, I met up with ChrisH to make up for being in hospital during his birthday/housewarming and to drop off my gift of Honey Joys (quote, "Ahh...they smell like home!"). As we were toddling around and bitching about things that annoy us, like European pillows, he mentioned that he hadn't had lunch so ventured to a cafe where he ate a schnitzel and I utilised my expanded German vocabulary. 

Behold! A standard Krapfen!

 

Mmmm, powdered sugar and apricot jam filling.

I can't remember the actual name of this Krapfen - it had a much longer name that included a brief description of what it was. How to describe...it was a lovely ball of deep-fried dough filled with apricot jam and lightly dusted in Puderzucker. I was however annoyed that I was given only a fork to eat my Krapfen and trying to use it to cut it into bite-sized pieces was apparently very highly amusing. In the end, I just used my hands. Mmmmm. 


The pastry quest continues!

Things you eat when you're alone - München Edition

I knew I would miss Asian food while being here. Not only because I don't know where to eat (and there's no Chinatown for me to follow my nose to what's *right*), but because recipes for making Asian food seems to result in quantities that need to be shared between Giant Asian Families or friend groups. However, the Italians ripped off a great Asian dish and happily converted it into one of the staples of meals for one. At some point during my day at work, I started thinking about what I had at home and how I could make it for dinner (okay, it might have been many points during my day at work). I also started thinking about how to make it more *Asian* to satisfy my cultural hunger. I settled on turning Pooey's Butter and Soy Pasta into something akin to Char Kway Teo.

Why didn't I just make myself char kway teo? Well for one, my place doesn't have a wok and I'll be damned if I go out and buy one due to the second reason. The second reason is that pretty much all European kitchens are kitted out with an electrical hotplate stove. The lack of flame licking at the pan means you don't get that slight burning and texture - aka Wok hei - and I think we can all agree that chaw kway teo is nothing without that slight burn on the noodle.

Knowing that I had spaghetti, butter, soy, onions, garlic, mushrooms (alas, not shiitake - better remedy that!), and chinese sausage at home, I decided to make a quick detour to an Asian grocery to get some bean shoots and springies for texure and to veggie it up. Then walking back home, I made a split second decision to go into Lidl and splurge on some frozen shrimp!

And here's how it ended up:

To quote Pooey, "It does look like Char Kway Teo!"

But it didn't really taste like char kway teo apart from the obvious deficiencies in noodle and wok use. It did however satisfy my desire for *Asian* flavours, which is all I can ask for until I get the urge to make roast duck for one.  I naturally made far too much for myself to eat in one sitting, so I did what char kway teo is also good for - eating the leftovers for lunch at work!

Things my co-workers say that I find hilarious

"I was told that there are two days a year where spiders have to mate in Australia. So for those two days a year, they all come out of hiding and there are poisonous spiders EVERYWHERE!!!"

I need to file this one away for future use!

Teapot!

Before I left Melbs, someone commented to me that I'd probably starve in Munich because I like nice things (Hi Silver Fox!). I'm not starving yet - probably because of large cash injections from Australian savings but he's right - I do like nice things. 

One of the nicest things I left in Melbs were my Bodum Assam Teapot and Bodum mugs, as well as various loose leaf teas that I liked to brew in it. *sigh* But you know, Bodum is a European brand - instead of shipping a glass teapot all the way to Germany (hah!), I could always buy myself one here! Except that Bodum still retains it's *nice* status here and is therefore not on the cheap side. I was tempted to buy a Bodum set consisting of Assam pot and Pavina glasses which was on special for €40 but I managed to exert some self control...*sigh*. 

While I was mooching around the coffe and teaware section, I saw this pot!

Cheaper than the Bodum set and also very stylish looking! So I decided to acquire this *nice thing* for the continuation of my enjoyment of loose leaf teas while slightly less cutting into my food budget. Thumbs up all round.

Imprisonment (aka Hives)

Before I went swimming at Nordbad, I was chilling in my flat, eating a bowl of tom kha gai that I'd made myself (and was pretty damn delicious), and enjoying German-dubbed TV. At some point, I noticed I was developing an itchy red spot above my eye. Having encountered this kind of reaction before, I wasn't particularly worried, dabbed it with some corticosteroid ointment I'd brought from Aus, and chalked it up to a mosquito bite. (I know, mosquitoes in Munich in the middle of Winter. What the hell was I thinking?)


The bump went down, I went off and swam my usual kilometre at Nordbad, and returned home incredibly peckish and decided to polish off more soup, this time supplemented with carbs in the form of pasta bow ties. At about 11:15pm, I noticed my elbows and armpits were developing a slight rash so I dabbed them with corticosteroid. At about 11:30pm it went haywire and I noticed the rash was travelling along my collarbones and about to join up together. It also felt like burning so I removed my jewellery, changed from my shirt to a singlet, and sans hat, gloves and scarf, ran out into the 0C weather in the search of a 24hr Apotheke (pharmacy). 

I made an educated guess that it would be in the direction of a party zone not far from where I live. It was wrong and when I finally reached an Apotheke that had a sign saying where the nearest one was, my frantic condition stopped me from being able to translate it. This is where the lovely and happy/drunken citizens of Munich came to my rescue. Seeing some people outside a bar/pub, I ran over and asked my usual *Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Englisch?* and they happily translated the sign and explained to me how it works (the pharmacies take turns on who gets to be all-nighters) as well as looking up the location of the closest ones. Thank you, friendly drunk Germans! I raced off to the closest one to my place which turned out to be in the opposite direction of where I'd run. The pharmacist took a long time answering the bell asking for help (it was around midnight at this point) and some other random German asked if I was alright and gave me the translation/pronounciation for antihistamine (turns out it's antihistamin-ah). I swallowed one quickly and headed back home. Two hours later, the rash had pretty much spread all over me, joining up over my back and chest, and started up over my wrists which nearly joined up to my elbows so that I was wearing a burning red shirt. I decided it was time to go to the hospital.


This time I was properly dressed so I didn't look so frantic as before, and in fact, when I jumped into a cab and asked to be taken to the Krankenhaus (hospital), the driver was a bit surprised. I showed him my collarbones/neck and he said what I think was the equivalent of *HOLY SHIT!!!* The funny thing was by the time I made to Emergency, I actually felt a bit better and considered going home, but then thought I'd made the effort to come, I may as well check myself in. After an amusing pantomime conversation with the security guard, I was admitted and pumped full of cortisone, antihistamines, and had some blood taken for tests. Here's some photos of what I looked like:

Note the classic raised wheals in my armpit

My elbow rash trying to join up with my wrist rash.

When I woke up around 7am, the rash was completely gone and I wanted to check myself out - I had a full day of experiments planned. The doctors were a bit *WTF?!* and asked me to go to Dermatology and talk to the specialists there about my madness. I got the same reaction there and so when I rang work to tell them what had happpened and they begged me to stay, I ended up staying after they connected me to an IV drip. 

Pooey finds this incredibly funny.

At 4pm, my doctor said the results of my blood test had come back showing I was perfectly healthy with all my results being wonderfully within the normal zone - except for my blood glucose (remember, I'd eaten a bowl of pasta and soup before they took that reading!) - and since the rash wasn't there, they couldn't keep me there. I was however warned to come back if the rash came back.


Needless to say, it did come back during the night. I examined myself in the morning noting I was a pink marshmallow but my breathing was fine so having confirmed that I wasn't dying, I went to work. They took one look at me and begged me to go back (quote: Your earlobes scare me, they are red! Please go to hospital, we don't want to tell Australia that we killed you). I went back, met the same specialist (quote: I told you it would come back!) who promptly put me back on the antihistamine drip, then doubled the dosage later when the rash spread over my face. Thus began my second incarceration.


And when I say I was in prison, it really was like I was in prison, except prisoners are allowed to spend a portion of their day outside, wash their hair, and have a variety of foods. (Random fact - Pooey also told me prisoners in Norway are allowed to spend time with dogs). Because I was hooked up to the drip, I wasn't allowed to get my arm wet meaning I couldn't shower, and was fed only rice and potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the extent that the 85-year old woman I shared my cell with asked me if I was a vegetarian. I dreamed of meals of French cuisine and looked at other peoples (not particularly appetising) meals with envy. I couldn't even have butter, salt, or pepper with my carbs and carbs! I was later shifted to a room with a 27-yo (Anni) and when she went to get some more bread to go with her dinner, she was instructed not to share any of her meal with me! There was one television in the communal patients room which seemed to be permanently surrounded by old men watching the Biathlon (apparently a German man won for the first time in years?), although Anni and I managed to grab it and watch the second half of Tropic Thunder. I also started doing an ancient jigsaw that I quickly established was missing quite a few of it's original 1000 pieces, much to the amusement of the TV audience who would come up, say a few words in Deutsch, laugh when I said I spoke kein Deutsch, and then walk away.

Eventually, it was conceded that the barrage of tests conducted on me had proven that I was EXCEEDINGLY HEALTHY, and that since the rash had subsided and didn't come back 24hr after they changed my drip to plain Ringers, I was free to go. I tried to restrain my happiness for Anni (she was told she might be allowed to go on the weekend, maybe) and we impatiently waited for someone to remove my drip. As soon as it was out, Anni gave me some of the best chocolate of my life. Okay, it was just Moser Roth but hey, something! This experience has taught me that I am not to be taken to hospital unless I am dying. And even then, I think I'd rather die than be made to stay in hospital for 4 days again. Please.

Nordbad

I had decided to change the main focus of my exercise regime to swimming while here because I didn't think I could afford the gym fees. So imagine how thrilled I was to discover a pool one u-bahn stop (or as I prefer to think of it, walking distance) from my apartment. Nordbad advertises itself as a heated indoor pool surrounded by classical architecture. It was a balmy 0C as I trotted on down to check it out.

The website advertised a cheaper late session if you entered after 9:30pm. It's a bit later than when I like to swim but I figured I could go swim 1km and still get home by 11pm.

First impressions, it really is a nice building with all those columns; I probably would have picked it as something like a library. Secodbly, who was the smart ass who decided to put a maccas opposite? Evil genius.

The surprises kept coming inside.The changing area was communal although there were individual changing cubicles. However, its still kinda weird when I sneezed and done random guy in the next cubicle goes "gesundheit!"

At the surprisingly crowded pool given the time and weather, I was a bit perplexed to see a lack of lane ropes. I quickly realised that my usual swimming method wouldn't work if I wanted to not smash into ppl. And so, I quickly swam 1km while trying to dodge ppl cutting across diagonally, those who stopped in the middle of the pool, and that trio of girls who very slowly swam keystroke in a horizontal line up and down the length of the pool.

Would I go back? Maybe, if my doozy of a following adventure lets me!

Movie review - The Green Hornet

English language cinema exists in Germany! Although I said I'd be happy to see it in German, I ended up watching The Green Hornet in English. When the movie was done, I couldn't help thinking I probably would have enjoyed it more of it were in German.

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the playboy son of newspaper magnate (Tom Wilkinson) who berates him for wasting his life. After his father's sudden death and angry at hearing all the glowing tributes at the funeral when in reality his father was not particularly kind to him, Britt and his mysteriously mega-skilled mechanic Kato decide to decapitate his father's funeral monument. In the midst of this, they beat up a gang who were harassing a couple. Thrilled at the combo of crime-fighting and violence, the pair become vigilante posing as villains, using Britt's paper to fuel publicity. But this has adverse effects by attracting the attention of crime king Chudnofsky (Christopher Waltz).

I hated this movie. Not the deep loathing I reserve for SATC 2 or Paranormal Activity, I hated it for the simple reason that it failed the questions I ask myself when watching movies. As a refresher for people who are too lazy, these questions are 

1. What do I expect from this? 

2. Am I enjoying myself? 

3. Did I get my money's worth?, and finally

4. Is this a good movie? - although it should probably be "Would I recommend this movie to other people?"

I expected to get some mindless entertaining fluff with random fighting thrown in. Well I got the fluff and the fighting but I sure didn't find it entertaining, and at several points I found myself bored and outright hating what I was watching. I place this solely due to Seth Rogen due to his dual roles as both lead actor and writer. I'm sure his character is meant to be viewed as a lovable rogue, your best mate, everyday Joe ...whatever. Britt came across as a stupid shallow asshole who sexually harasses his PA (Cameron Diaz, can't remember character name), realise both his intellectual and physical limitations - and get pissed off when it gets pointed out to him, or even give due credit to Kato, who, let's face it, is the actual one who allows The Green Hornet become reality. It really should have been The Kato Show, a la when Bruce Lee filled the role in the 60s. Instead we get a movie where the most inept character is meant to be the hero when the reality is he's only the hero because he's bankrolling the operation using money he didn't do anything to earn. There's something wrong in the world when this is the case.

In addition, the film can't seem to decide whether it wants to be action or comedy. There are a lot of really incredibly juvenile jokes interspersed with scenes of prolonged extreme violence. And then there are scenes of prolonged violence that are clearly meant to be comedic, for example when Britt and Kato get frustrated with each other and descend into a physical fight. As part of the fight, they kick each other in the nuts. I'm talking about a fight scene that goes for....well it felt like eternity but was probably 5 mintues. And then the villain Chudnovsky decides he wants people to fear him so he carries a double-barrelled revolver and later makes everyone call him Bloodnovsky among other stupid things? Christoph Waltz has an Oscar for playing one of the most chillingly comedic villians out there and they make him do this. *slow clap*. 

This movie is a real disappointment from the guy who brought us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Too Many Dicks On The Dancefloor. I guess I should have insisted we watch it in German cos my friends seemed to love it. Probably the only reason why I'm not giving it a much lower score is that I only paid €5,50 (approx $AUD7.50) to go see it.  That's pretty cheap in my mind - much less than what I thought I was going to pay, but still more than I wanted to pay. Having therefore failed 2.25 of my questions, I'm guessing this is a score of:

4/10

Although since my companions loved it, I'm going to estimate their score as being - 7/10. seriously, they all found it entertaining.

Blue skies and sunshine

Believe it or not, the weather cleared up after the Snowpocalypse start to winter, to the extent that I have been able to go out without gloves and hat, and even once without coat! (I won't be doing that again, got a lot of weird looks from everyone else who was in a coat). And since I moved out of the village about a fortnight ago, I can now walk around my district/the city showing the blue skies, sunshine and NO SNOW in my touristy shots. 

 

Looking towards the dome of Theatinerkirche.

 

Wittelsbacher Platz - site of the Mediaeval Xmas Market!

Such a change!

 

The Andy Warhol commemorative Dom Perignon for sale in Dallmayr.

 

Sproggie!

 

Cool building - I think it's Art Nouveau?

 

The sun sets behind Sendlinger Tor

Now, despite the clear skies, the sun does start to set around 4:30pm hence the long shadows in all my pictures. But the sun was nice when not walking in shadows!

More German Pastries

Oddly enough, I managed to get out of my apartment a little bit earlier than normal today and so I decided to walk the *long way* to the U-bahn, hoping to meet eine Bäckerei (bakery). Now because the long way basically consists of walking in the other direction around the block, I didn't meet one, I went back to the store in the U-bahn stop and did the point and smile method of ordering again.

Today I got this:

Vanilla Pudding-schnecke

(aka, vanilla pudding snail - learning a language through food *thumbs up*) 

Believe it or not, I actually thought it was half the size of what it actually is (like a danish), and was kinda horrified when the woman picked it out of the window and put it in the paper bag. Anyway, I'm slowly making my way through it now and my preliminary thoughts are that I'm really liking the pastry, oddly not enamoured of the vanilla custard! The flavour is nice enough but the baking has given it a kinda plasticy crust as opposed to a soft Asian egg tart layer or a sugary French-style crust. No matter, oh and I'm still working my way through it!

Deep fried dough

After reading Pooey's post about QVM donuts, I felt like some deep fried dough covered in sugar. Luckily, I'm in exactly the right country for those kinds of sweeties. I got up a bit late and wasn't able to make myself breakfast but it was okay because there's a bakery of sorts in my local U-bahn stop. Mein Deutsch ist sehr crappy, so I pointed towards something donut-y looking, paid €1.35 and continued on my way.

Eating it at work, it wasn't as comforting as a warm jam donut and I think there was a meagre attempt to make it apple flavoured. Would I eat it again? Maybe, once I made my way through all the other pastries but I suspect there would be something I preferred more.  

Things I say that my workmates find amusing

"But he jerked her around for years!"

- my comment about Mr. Big from SATC

On the radio...

My new place came with a TV and a radio. Okay, I can't understand the German DJ prattle, but now I can have music on while I try to pilates! And one of the things I heard that I hadn't in Oz was a guitar version of 50 Cent's Ayo Technology by Belgian singer Milow.

Okay, it's a song about taking a pole dancer home and doing the nasty but like this, it actually sounds pretty good! The Germans were so impressed it was number 34 at the decade-end Singles Chart!?

A Truth Universally Acknowledged...

...that women the world over love Pride and Prejudice and Colin Firth is the DEFINITIVE Mr. Darcy!

I was hanging out at Yuliana's place before Xmas when I noticed she had not one, but two copies of Pride and Prejudice. When I pointed it out, she said she LOVED the book and had watched the BBC edition many times - but not the German dub version because apparently it's 1.5 hours shorter (wtf?!) - and in fact, she had the DVD right there!!! Naturally, I was :D and as we trotted off to work's Xmas party, we agreed that we had to watch the episodes again together. We caught up with Caro and told her of the plan, whereupon Caro informed us that she had NEVER seen it. We were both :O and invited her along!

After a decadent brunch, we three settled in to watch it. And just like the last time I watched all six hours in a row, we sat enraptured and commented along with the scenes! For example: 

• When Firth makes his appearance at the Meryton Assembly rooms, Caro's priceless comment was, "Is that Mr. Darcy? Oh my god, HE'S A MAN!!!"
• Shuddering at how sweaty Mr. Collins always looks. 
• Reciting Darcy's original proposal with him!
• "Dearest, loveliest Lizzie...how come no one ever says dearest, loveliest Yuliana?!"

 Caro said she went home in a haze of loveliness, to the extent that her bf asked her to leave 1815 Hertfordshire and come back to Munich. And as we discussed how awesome the series is today, another girl revealed she had NEVER seen the BBC version, only the Keira Knightley movie version! We all looked at each other and declared that we must simply do it again! HOORAY!!!

Something I can't figure out

Since Toshi died, I've been blogging at work because I can't figure out how to blog on my new phone. 

I'm sure I'll figure it out soon because I suspect the boss won't be too cool with me blogging at work (we share an office *gulp*)

End of Year Round Up!

Wow, what a year 2010 has been! It started with me procrastinating by doing a jigsaw and then flying off to eat our way across Sydney with Lydia, and ended with me flying off to Muenchen and eating alone in Maccas! Okay, just kidding on the last part. Sorta.

After gallivanting around the nation last year, 2010 was a year of overseas travel! Sometimes I think back to September when I hit destinations such as Paris, Munich & Heidelberg, Belgium, and London in that crazy, that frantic fortnight and wonder, how the !$#@ did I do that and not go crazy? But it was worth it just to say it was done! And of course, there was that Xmas run-in with Easyjet and Gatwick. I think I've calmed down from that now. However, it wasn't all gaining overseas frequent flyer points! Semi-exotic locations such as Sydney, Radelaide and the Barawesome Valley, and C-town were also visited at various points in the year. It was all good! 

Movie of the year...hmmm, reading over my reviews, 2010 appears to be the year of overhyped movies leaving me feeling somewhat disappointed (Avatar, Inception), stupid movies that nonetheless left me entertained (Predators, The A-Team), surprises from movies of which I knew and expected little (Made in Dagenham, Never Let Me Go) and of course, an absolute shocker for which everyone who was associated should be put in the Abu Dhabi desert and told to make their own way back on foot as penance. According to my ratings, Toy Story 3 takes the title - in fact, I'll confess that part of the reason I didn't buy a Lotso toy when in London despite it being EXCEEDINGLY cuddly was because I couldn't get over the thought that he was EVIL!!! Honourable mentions to The Social Network and Made in Dagenham. 

And of course, it was a year for Eating. (Although to be honest, what year isn't for eating?) We celebrated eating at many high class establishments as well as celebrating the lower-priced end of the spectrum as well as many, many, many, many trips to eat dumplings. Other than the trip to Sydney to eat, gastronomic highlights include eating at Philippe Mouchel for R's going away party, Dr. dinner at Bistrot Vue, lunch at Cafe Vue, seeing the Duck Nazi for the last time, and of course, the epicness that was Taste of Melbourne. Gastronomic lowlights (but humour highlight!) would be those infamous bacon gumballs. Hilarity in a tin.  There was also much baking, particularly my (ultimately unsuccessful) double-barrelled shot to win the ACB Bake-Off (congrats to the Silver Fox who came second!) and of course, I finally made croissants from scratch. And then I improved the method! Mmmm, pastry. Anyway, based on the number of times I visited the place, restaurant of the year will be Horoki. Eat there. Everyone should. 

Hotties of the Year....well I didn't really make any new finds so much as contiuing appreciation of previous hotties. There was of course my husband Iker:

Love the profile but I think he needs to grow that beard back!

(Source)

His World Cup and RM teammate Xabi Alonso

(Source - Real Madrid.com)

 On the theme of gingers, I made a late rediscovery of the so pale and red he's almost fluorescent Damian Lewis!

(Source)

Oh, and I guess Andrew Garfield is a new one, but he looks like a kid in the google image search despite being 27 years old. Hmmm, I wonder if I have to demote him.

(Source)

So to finish, 2010 was the year that I finally, finally finished my PhuD, way back in Feb, although it wasn't conferred until August (damn you examination and then conferral delay!). These events were naturally celebrated with copious amounts of alcohol given that I didn't need my brain cells anymore. *cough cough* And then after cruising along as a Tech for the Uni, finally decided to put my Phud to use and combine with it with my desire to travel by upping sticks and moving to Muenchen. Here's a to a great (European) 2011 everyone!