New fitness program.

Before Pooey's wedding, we both went on a crazy, last ditch fitness program. I actually think it delivered results because despite gaining 1kg/week for every week I was back in Australia, when I got back at Easter, people were telling me how thin I was - even more so than when I got back last time!

Although I'd been going to the gym about 3-4 times a week for...years...Pooey discovered Fitness Blender online and we both started doing their workout videos. And you know, I thought I was pretty fit, or at least, not bad, but HELL!!! Their brutal HIIT workout bloody incapacitated me for a couple of days. Needless to say, I was hooked! (Incidentally, I showed this video to Markus and he said it looked like stuff he did while doing his military training.)

So now I have started one of Fitness Blender's 8 week fitness programs based on their videos. It consists of doing exercises worth 30-60 minutes 5-6 times a week for 8 weeks, and I figure it's worth a shot to make a last-ditch attempt to see if I can get abs. And since I'm more likely to be dedicated to it than everyone else, a few people have said that once I'm done and show them the results, they might also give it a shot. Wish me luck, people!

Home made poison pork rolls

One of the things I've really missed since moving here are poison pork rolls, more properly known as banh mi thit. In fact, it's been quite the thing to talk about - when Michael visited us, Steffi (my boss) mentioned to him that I'd been really suffering about the lack of specialised Asian foods, and he even mentioned how great poison pork was and how he could get it in....Okhlahoma City. WTF?!?!? He also told Steffi how delicious they are and how he totally understood that I missed them. But on the spirit of *Stop Complaining - Start Making!* I made my own poison pork rolls!

The various things I needed to assemble it, clockwise from top! Some mini baguettes, soy sauce, margarine, one chili, Japanese mayonnaise, home pickled carrots, spring onions, leberwurst, coriander, cucumber, and cha lau (viet pork loaf). 

First step! I couldn't make the eggy paste that's usually used but Pooey assured me that when she made them in London, that butter/margarine and mayonnaise worked as a good subsitute. Also, I used leberwurst instead of pate because they're pretty much the same with leberwurst being a fraction of the cost pate given that I live in Germany.

Second step! Layer the pork loaf, carrots, cucumber, spring onions, and coriander. I couldn't find the other meats that go in there but Gott sei Dank! cha lua was in the shops!

Season with soy and chili (chili optional!). I also put a bit of pepper in. 

OM NOM NOM!!!

Upon first bites, it wasn't quite the same - the different meats have various flavours and fat content that of course affect the overall flavour, but I'll say it - it was a pretty damn close feeling! I happily made and ate two and life got a little bit better here :D

Plant Killer

My new apartment has a a great and terrible balcony. Why so? It's great because it faces west meaning I get a lot of afternoon sun - great for when the sun actually does shine! However, it is also on the Erdgeschoss (ground floor) and it faces the street meaning I have very little privacy. But everyone who visited me has said it's a nifty thing - I could just put some plants in the planter boxes, and voila! I could have a bit of privacy as well as a small herb garden. This would therefore be handy and delicious!


Things have not quite worked out that way. 


So far, I have killed 

• Two pots of Vietnamese mint
• Two pots of lavender
• One pot of coriander (okay, it might be too cold to grow that here)
• One pot of basil

And of my surviving plants (a small rosebush, two gerberas, a pumpkin vine, and a solitary box hedge plant inherited from the previous tenant), the pumpkin isn't looking too great and the gerberas will die come Winter. I've been told to invest in more roses - apparently they should be hardy enough to survive. *sigh*

Things You Eat When You're Alone - Vitalgebaeck

German discount supermarkets are awesome. As Chrish said when we reflected on the huge paycut we took when agreeing to move her from Aus to Germs, "Thank God for Lidl and Aldi!" Yesterday I went to Aldi with Juliane looking for food to make for dinner and snackies to take on the Schnitzmuehle, and I saw these:

Peanut and cashews held together with caramel!

They remind me of these peanut sticks that you could get in a Chinese grocery to be eaten for CNY but also of my almond and hazelnut cookies! Mmmm, I should make some batches of those. Anyway, I was well on my way to finishing the bag when Fabi came home and I offered him some. He was slightly surprised (horrified?) that I was enjoying them so much and refused the offer. Oh well, more for me!

Sushi Sano

I have craved many things since I moved here. Close to the top of this list are Asian food and seafood. Combine these two and you have me crying over not being able to eat sushi (amongst other things). I accept that one of the problems is due to Munich being a landlocked city with a not particularly large Japanese population. Luckily, there is a wonderful invention called *The Internet* and I used it to look up Asian restaurants here. Based on a suggestion on myasianmunich.com (apparently looking this up makes me a stereotype), I decided to go to Sushi Sano.


I took a look at the menu and was pleasantly pleased at the different raw seafoods available.

Jakobsmuschel?! YES PLEASE!!! (Scallops for the non German-readers)  

But then I started to panic - I was a hungry girl and one piece at €1 each? I'm someone who can eat at least 250g of sashimi and was one half of a small Asian duo who ended up paying $50 at a$2.50/plate (hai Poo!). After calming myself down, I decided to set myself a budget - how much would I be willing to pay vs. what I wanted to eat. And so I decided to get the following...

2x Tobiko, 2x Tako, 2x Jakobsmuschel

2x flounder (I thought it was squid :(), 2x Tuna, 2x salmon!

After eating these 12 pieces, I wouldn't say I was as stuffed as I can get when I'm eating this much sashimi, but I was comfortably if not outrightly pleasantly full. While the fish may not have had the slight crunchiness of superfresh raw fish, it definitely did not have the slightly sour taste of the not so fresh. This is a good thing. 


So, out of the three places I've had sushi/sashimi in Muenchen, Sushi Sano is near the top and will definitely will get a revisit!

I think it's time I got a new bf...

...because I was looking at my most played tracks on iTunes and the top 10 are pretty much break-up songs. Of course, it probably doesn't help that I've pretty much been playing Adele's 21 on repeat since I got it.  For the curious, the songs (in order) are...

(yes, I apparently love Taylor Swift - at 11 was *You Belong With Me*)

Ferrero Garden

 

One of the best things about moving to Germany is all the different sweeties that are now available to me. For example, Haribo gummis are advertised as being a *World of Haribo* but in Australia is usually limited to things like bears and other basic things. When Boodle came and visited, she observed that, unlike in Australia, the range is huge in Europe to the extent that it actually lived up to the advertising!

Ferrero is one those companies whose range is drastically reduced in Australia but is huge in Germany. I became aware of this when visiting Anya and she forced me to take back a box of Ferrero Kusschen. These are her favourites which she found to be criminally unavailable in Aus. The box was duly devoured by the lab in less than a day. The other day, I was doing some shopping when I saw a Ferrero product I had never seen before – Ferrero Garden.

Is this a completely new product or something I just never noticed before? I don’t know. What I do know is that Ferrero Garden needs to be sold in Australia. The packaging makes it look like a pink version of Ferrero Rocher, 

 

and after unwrapping, it seemed this was the case. 

But biting into it...

 

oh! It’s filled with strawberry-flavoured creamy stuff! 

It’s utterly delicious!I gobbled the first one completely before I realised that I should have been recording this for blog posterity! If you see some, get them. They’re worth it.

Hooray! New living arrangements!!!

I am happy to report that my hell is coming to an end and I will not be sleeping under a bridge. 


After following the advice of many, I decided to meet up with a native-speaker and form an apartment-seeking fellowship. I required his German-speaking negotiation skills, and he needed my Dr. title to make sure people didn't just regard him as a student. So after having officially received the keys, I will now be moving to a place 4 U-bahn stops down the line, into a less cooler place, but into a much larger apartment with a much more sane flatmate. And you can't put a cool price on sanity.


Now all I have to do is acquire some furniture....

Pooey's here!!!

Yay!!! Pooey arrived yesterday to help me babysit Dad and Brother and since she's here, I decided we should try to eat at some of the places near my (current) apartment which I have wanted to eat at but haven't for whatever reason (usually exhaustion and being alone). There are two Japanese restaurants I wanted to check out and we ended up at Kushi-Tei because we were so lazy we kept walking straight.


Part of the reason why I always wanted to go here were the magical words in their title - Japanese grillhouse. Another reason was their chalkboard outside the restaurant featured Japanese handwriting. Pooey and I were both heartened by this because it meant (to us) that Japanese people actually worked there. We were then pleasantly pleased upon entering to find that the clientele were also Japanese. Only good things could come from this. And then the guy serving us was a bit of a cutie. In fact, when he gave us our tea or something or other, Pooey actually said, "Thanks, Cutie." As he left, I said to her, "You know, he can probably understand you." Heheheh. 


We decided to get a pair of set izakaya/yakitori menus (B and D for anyone who want to follow this up) and I can't really remember what they were but I'll give it a shot. 

First up, we were given some free carrot and cucmber sticks. This was good because it turned out that we really needed the vegetable component. Since I have been deprived of fresh seafood, I asked for sashimi. Unfortunately since Munich is landlocked, we could tell from the texture of the salmon that it had probably been shipped here deep frozen :(

Next! Some panko fried things. Ummm, off the top of my head I think it was prawn, mushrooms, chicken, something I couldn't identify, and I can't remember the last one. We also go a capsicum (paprika) stuffed with meat!

Yakitori chicken and Zucchini followed by Chicken with garlic. Mmmm, fragrant.

More yakitori chicken with cherry tomatoes (nice! Wouldn't have thought of it) and stuffed mushrooms. And then some grilled chicken chops with baby corn.

Dish of the night! Grilled beef and I can't remember what the side was, it was so overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the meat. Some disappointing california rolls came with the menu, although it was nice to get the taste of roasted sesame again. 

The menu also came with miso soup that was bizarrely given to us with a spoon and roasted green tea which Pooey is enjoying 

While we were eating/waiting between courses, we were looking at a cartoon menu that was tacked up above the door. We were so tempted by one particular item that we ordered it despite not really needing it in the menu. That item that temped us so was...chicken skin. Yes, we ate deep fried/grilled chicken skin on skewers. It was artery-clogging awesomeness.

Would I go back here? It's a bit on the excy side but for genuine jap flavours served by a cutie? Definitely! Also, Pooey pointed out that they had a bar area I could sit at if I decided to return all on my lonesome. Win!

Not going to bother anymore.

This might be debateable, but I think I'm a fairly nice person and moderately tolerant of the flaws of others. But I'm not going to bother being nice to my flatmate anymore. Apparently she's allowed to leave me passive-aggressive notes but I can't leave her notes (that were actually nice and contained money - cos I'm nice). 

Either way, I'm out of here by the end of May.There is a slight chance I'll be homeless but anyway... WOOHOO!!! I'd rather sleep under a bridge than live with her anymore!

Why no blog updates?

I realised last week when I had time to be at home (no German class last week), that I really REALLY hated my housemate and I was living in a state of avoiding going home early or thinking how much I hated her which obliterated most of my other thoughts/moods.


I'm not saying I'm a perfect housemate, in fact, I'm sure I do/did plenty of stuff to annoy her. But if you want to work it out, there's got to be talking and not just the leaving of passive-aggressive notes! Or try being polite when my friends visit. Or not leaving your (washed) laundry in the washing machine overnight. I'd write more but people who know this have told me it frustrates them as well. 


I can't believe I've lived here for only 3-4 months. Feels like an eternity. But in better news, I spent Sunday lying in the Englischer Garten. I wasn't naked, but it sure felt nice. 

Things You Buy When You're Not Alone - Munich Edition

Caro told me she had been invited to a special designer discount sale this past weekend and Patri very strongly  recommended that we attend the sale instead of going to Ikea which was the original shopping plan. Given that I appear to not have packed myself any handbags (how the hell did I overlook that?!) and wanted some heeled boots to wear around, I decided that this would be a prime opportunity.


Being the disciplined person I am (haha snort), I decided to set myself an item budget of a handbag and/or boots, and to keep it all below €200. And believe it or not, I kept to it!

 White leather clutch. As Patri said - you better buy this!

 

Wedge ankle boots. 

The photos aren't great because they were taken on my phone and the sun still sets by 5pm hence the dodgy lighting. I'm not sure how much the *shopper* and *fashion* tags are going to be used while I'm here. As a sign, when I asked Patri where I could buy nice shoes, her first reply was, "Spain", and apparently German sizes are a bit larger because Germans are a bit larger. We'll see how it goes.

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!

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!

Things You Buy When You're Alone - London/Munich Edition

One of the sad things about being in Munchen is that I've basically moved from being surrounded by people and sound to now being isolated. This has been made worse by Toshi dying *sniffle mourn mourn* but marginally better by TeeCee taking up the void - able to watch Youtube in bed, yay! 

When Pooey was alone, she bought herself a pair of Totoros while in Adelaide, and in the comments for the entry, she noted that she talks to them when she comes home from work, Castaway-style. I now have my own silent conversant to greet when I arrive home/sleeping cuddlebuddy - Pooh bear!

 Ohai Pooh! He's so happy after waiting for me to come home to talk to him.

Pooh was purchased at the Disney Store Oxford St. Giant (60cm?) Poohs were actually on special for 20 quid. I was so tempted to buy one to keep Normal Pooh company except for the sad fact that since I was flying Easyjet, I would have to check either him or my bag in as a piece of luggage. As I paid for Pooh, the shop attendant even said, "You know its the large ones and not this size that's on special?" Yeah, thanks for rubbing it in.

Later, Soph watched with a bit of amazement as Pooh and I conversed and bonded. Turns out Pooh is a bit vulgar (he burps and scratches) but I'm sure that away from the bad influence of the shopping crowds that will lessen with time!

Places to Stay When You're Alone

...except I wasn't really alone, it was just the last night in London before catching mein flugzeug nach Muenchen. Given that the flight was supposed to leave at 6:20am and the gate was closing at 5:50am, I decided it would be best to sleep at the airport. Now, I was fully intending to pull an airport hobo stint and actually sleep on the terminal seats, but you know, Gatwick isn't as clean as Franz-Joseph Strauss, and I decided to book myself into one of the hotels. 

I considered going into the Sofitel (haha snort) but ended up deciding on the adventure that would be the YOtel. Upon arriving, everything seemed alright with gentle purple-tinged lighting to help ppl feel sleepy. The staff were friendly and asked if there was anything I needed - I requested a wake up call at 4:30am and was handed an alarm clock. Fair enough.

Upon arriving at my pod, I burst into laughter - the layout was...interesting. The purple lighting continued and in that small windowless pod, it made me immediately think of shooting up. I quickly had to turn on the big lights which somehow made the room seem smaller. It was about 2m x 3m? and divided by a glass wall indicating the bathroom with the bed pod built into the wall. I naturally did what we'd normally do in this situation - take photos!

 

Standing at the (closed) door looking in

 

Sitting on the loo, looking towards the bed!

Lying in bed, looking towards the door and toilet

 

Flatscreen tv at the foot of the bed! Handy! Also, take note that the walls and edges of the pod are padded to stop one from smashing themselves on it.

 

And sitting at the TV, looking towards my bags and the shower half of the bathroom.

I hope the pics give an indication of how it lived up to its tiny reputation! I probably could have touched wall to wall. That might be an exaggeration. Despite the small size, it was kinda cool and since it was only me, the lack of size wasn't so bad. I took a shower repacked my luggage, keeping my flight clothes out, hopped into bed, turned the tv on for some nightnoise, and availed myself to the free wifi. 

My sole complaint was the alarm clock didn't go off and I ended up waking at 4:50 and furiously had to get myself out in 10minutes. Would I do it again? Hell yes - it was 50 quid for 8 hours. But next time I'll bring a proper alarm with me. 

Things you eat when you're alone - München Edition

I think I've been pretty good about what I've been eating while in this city. I've generally been making myself scratch dinners - albeit huge servings of them because I haven't quite mastered cooking for one, and then astounding people at work who don't realise that my moderately small size hides a stomach of ten kings - but still, I think I've been pretty good at avoiding foods that are too bad.

That was until this week.

I was supposed to meet a girl to look at her spare room at the time of 8:30pm. Due to various bus and train linkages I had to make, I calculated that I would not have time to leave Neuherberg, go to Unterschleissheim, eat dinner, then return to Maxvorstadt/Schwabing in time for the meeting, and so I decided to just go to the city straight from work. This then resulted in the problem of what to get for dinner. I didn't feel like standing in the cold and eating a (very delicious) bratwurst and I lacked the funds to go somewhere expensive. So I fell back on that old friend to homeless people in need, Maccas. I got a Happy Meal (mit ketchup for my frites) because apparently small cheeseburger meals don't exist in this country! And I sat inside, happily playing with my (H)Teecee.

Oh, and here's the toy I got.

How appropriate!

Things You Eat When You're Alone - Munich edition

Branching from Pooey's very highly entertaining mini-series (of sorts), I'm faced with the question of what to eat now that I'm alone. And the issue is compounded by the (relative) lack of access to the foods that I'm usually able to cook, equipment that I'd need to cook it, and cost/transport limitations.


Given that I didn't know what was available for me, I decided to pick up some basics at the supermarket. This included:
Eggs
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Garlic
Butter
Olive Oil
Pasta
Pasta sauce
Bread
Cheese
Dill 
Bread
Carrots
Frozen chicken wings
And on the advice of the colleague who was with me, Spätzl (a kind of German noodle). 

With these basics, I was then able to make myself a fairly hearty dinner of Spätzl in a creamy mushroom sauce, kinda like the Jaeger schnitzl I had at Oktoberfest sans schnitzl.  

 

Yes, I know it looks like dog food but it was very nice and I had it for lunch as well!

For breakfast (Fruhstucker), I have myself some scrambled eggs with tomatoes and mushrooms (seeing a theme here?)

Made using the Gordon Ramsay method!

Now, Anya said that one of the things she missed most about Germany when she was in Aus was the bread. German bread is...shall we say...kinda hearty. And dense.

I'll admit, I got to calling my bread, "The Doorstop", it's that dense and hard.

Its the perfect bread for toasting and eating with cheese. Unfortunately, one of the appliances my place is missing was, believe it or not, a toaster. No worries, I could just use the oven method of toasting bread. Except there's no oven either. At this point, I decided to be a bit like Pooey and go bad.

That's right, I fried my bread for sandwiches. Awesome, but not particularly healthy.

Here's to more food adventures coming soon!