Tag: local/traditional

Bridge Work Still in Progress

For the first time in a while, we took a stroll back to the old neighborhood for the Maidult festival running there for a few days yet. You can count on the Dult, in May or in the Fall, to provide plenty of good people watching. It’s like an American amusement park in that regard — it takes all kinds and all kinds do show up for the beer tents, rickety rides, carnival games, and odd specialty goods for sale.

We were there with some of my work peeps whom I don’t see much anymore.

You can see that the middle of the bridge is still covered up in a tenty, shed-like thing. We haven’t heard any news about progress, or the lack thereof. Have you?

Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter much, especially if you’re one of the people enjoying a warm evening with friends on the bank.

The Dult is done, now come visit us for serious reasons




Sunday marked the final day of the Regensburger Maidult 2011. We managed to visit a few times — more than usual — for a taste of the local carny flavor. But don’t worry — there’ll be plenty of Fest over the summer to tide you over until the Herbstdult rolls around again in August. Here’s a short video of the Bierzelt flavor, for the uninitiated. Note: this is the Early-Sunday-Afternoon Oma & Opa vibe, which I much prefer to the inevitable Sweet Home Alabama and Country Roads vibe — that’s for evening Dult events.

In other news, Regensburg proudly unveiled its World Heritage Visitor Center on Saturday night. It is a free, permanent exhibit explaining what it takes to be a World Heritage Site and why Regensburg fulfills those requirements. It has a lot of potential visitors from our household over the coming weeks. I think it’ll be perfect for those just getting off the train, after just getting off the plane, trying to stay awake as long as possible to beat the jet lag on the first day before crashing out. It’s right on the Danube banks in the Salzstadel (right next to the Weenie Shack of the Ages), has all text in German and English, and features of plenty interactivity: buttons to push, motion-triggered movies, “secret” cupboards the curious can open to dig deeper into Regensburg’s cultural past. It was neat!

Alte Linde

alte_linde_fronleichnam

late summer view of the Regensburger dom

Beer Night 1

The Joint

Müllerstraße 1
93059 Regensburg
Germany
Tel./Fax: 0941 – 8 80 80

http://www.altelinde-regensburg.de

Cliff

We found this place pretty quickly when we first moved here. It’s great, in my opinion, for a drop-in shady outdoor meal or snack. Don’t take it personally if you get the crabby old lady waitress who’s seemingly always there (perhaps whence the attitude?). If you’re lucky you’ll get the middle-aged guy with the butch haircut and the earring — he’s a good sport, if a bit more jokey than I’d like initially, and outwardly kind of gruff at first, but there’s a twinkle in there. The view from the Biergarten is quite nice, and even in the winter it’s not too shabby on the inside. And Tammy and Matthias did their wedding reception there — also lovely. They have beer varieties I like, food selections I like, pretty good schnitzel, and some of the best potato salad around — all good reasons to stop in. But our luck with larger (≥ 6 persons) parties has not been good. Read Sarah’s opinion for the details.

Sarah

I like Alte Linde a lot. I like it when it’s warm and breezy and you can sit outside and look at the river and the Dom. I like it for an impromtu schnitzel-and-potato-salad craving. What I don’t like is the attitude we seems to get when we try and plan ahead for a large party – which always seems to take place during soccer tournaments.

The first time I tried to snag a reservation there for about 8 people was during the 2006 World Cup and I went over there personally with a friend (to avoid language-related misunderstandings) about 3 days before we actually wanted the reservation. I was very clearly told that they were not accepting reservations for the night we wanted (the night of the Germany-England game), but to get there early and it shouldn’t be an issue. So Cliff and I went over about 3 hours prior to gametime only to see a sea of ‘Reserviert’ tent cards on a variety of tables. Maybe it was due to my language skills. Maybe he said ‘We’re not taking any more reservations for that night.’ I just know that we were less than pleased.

This most recent time, I was feeling braver and decided to reserve over the phone. A very nice man spoke slowly and clearly with me and confirmed everything that I outlined. Outside? Check. 10-14 people? Check. 8pm on the 20th? Check and check. Great! That was painless. Until we got there anyway. We saw 3.5 members of our party wandering around saying, ‘Um, there’s no reservation.’ Cliff went over to the guy with the big book and asked about the reservation under my name. And he responded with ‘Oh, you mean the one that you called about and postponed until Monday?’ Um, wie $%#¢&§@ bitte?! I reserved it under ‘Sarah’ and I think that there’s a good chance that there’s more than one of those in Regensburg, so I can understand the confusion. I just don’t get the crappy attitude. Especially, as local expert Rainer pointed out, since the confrontation wasn’t necessary: they had a table of adequate size available. It wasn’t reserved, but it worked out just fine. Why annoy the source of of their income by trying to convince us that we had cancelled our reservation if there was ample room for our party?

That potato salad isn’t going to make up for the nasty attitude forever.


Fürstliches Brauhaus

Waffnergasse 6 – 8
93047 Regensburg

Telefon +49 (0)941 / 28 04 33 – 0
http://www.fuerstlichesbrauhaus.de

Cliff

We’ve been eating here for years (see here, here, here and here) and yet have never posted a review of the place, oddly enough. It ranks up there in my opinion, though some say it was better back in the day, under the previous ownership. The Schnitzel Büffet days are a real trip. Fortunately, they don’t do those too often anymore. Their Strawberry-Mascarpone-Dampfnudel-Lasagne dessert was the motivation for me write this review. It’s awesome, but I’m not sure it really qualifies as a Dampfnudel, but hairsplitter though I may be, I’m willing to forgive the terminology for the sake of recommending the dessert. Maybe it’s one of those things that is better eaten without a meal beforehand — perhaps you’d make the trip extra for a cup of coffee (go fancy, get a cappuccino or something) and this dessert. It’s certainly lovely enough.

The venue is nice (see below), if a bit loud when crowded. It serves well for large gatherings and the veranda out back when the weather permits it is also a nice touch. Service is kind of hit-or-miss, but our Kellnerin today was quite good and friendly to boot.

Sarah

I like this place, but I’m not very hard to please and am often (too) willing to overlook lackluster service when the food is really good. That said, they’ve stopped doing the Schnitzel Büffet every Monday as in the past – it happens intermittently with an e-mail notification beforehand – and my favorite item, the Münchner Schnitzel, is no longer reliably on the menu. So my patience is getting a bit thin with them. But the beer here is always very tasty, the prices are low-to-middling and the surroundings are very attractive. It’s kind of a crapshoot, but when it’s good, it’s very, very good.

30032008(001)

Fürstliches Brauhaus

Bauernstube im Kügelgenhaus

The Joint

Inh. Karin Przybyl
Haupstrasse 13
01097 Dresden
Germany

S-bahn: Neustädtermarkt or Albertplatz

Tel. 0351/ 56 33 126
Tel. / Fax 035975 8064
http://www.bauernstuben-kuegelgenhaus.de/

We stumbled around Albertplatz in blinding snow whipped into our faces by the wind and were really disoriented for a few minutes until we could look at map and re-orient ourselves. Then it became pretty easy. We headed toward this restaurant on the recommendation of a travel guide for the city of Dresden. We liked the layout of the travel guide, but I’m questioning the authors’ taste after tonight. This place wasn’t bad, but the service definitely was hit-or-miss, and the food didn’t wow us. It was fine, but we’ve come to expect better from restaurants recommeded by travel guides.

Beer

We both had the Pupen-Schultzes Schwarzes – suprisingly good dark bier! Milder and sweeter than expected, with no cringe. Sarah had some good advice here: when you’re trying out a new locale, order a beer from near the top of the list.

Sarah

Erdäppelsuppe — alright. This soup was kind of bland, and tasted like Fr. Knorr. But the cheese bits are nice touch.
Feurige Pfanne — where was the fire? Tricolor corkscrews in a thin, paprika-spiked broth with chunks of stewed pork and cheese (?) baked over the top. It took 3 or 4 bites to find a hint of the spiciness. This was underwhelming.

Cliff

My Kartoffelsuppe mit Knoblauch (potato soup with garlic) was just OK — almost the same as Sarah’s but with garlic instead of cheese. For my main course, I had the Lammbraten mit grünen Bohnen. The lamb was nice and tender, but the beans were a little salty…not inedibly so, but definitely more than I expected. Potatoes roasted on a skewer with bacon wrapped around them were a treat.

Recital

The Joint

Sos. Bucium (langa statia Petrom)
Phone: +40 232 21.87.01

http://www.inoras.ro/?section=local&instit=326&dom=3&or=1

NeluBar none, this was my favorite dining experience in Iasi. Nelu kindly took me on a night-time driving tour of the town, which ended here. I’d been looking for an authentic Romanian restaurant to try ever since I arrived on my first trip to Iasi back in November 2006. I am so glad he showed me this restaurant.

Nelu told me that Romanians like their food sour, and he was not kidding. We had crusty, crunchy bread on which we spread olive paste and red pepper paste, and an appetizer of dill pickles dusted with paprika. I tried a Romanian beer brewed in Iasi that is quickly getting famous. It was very good.

Mutton with polenta and sheep's cheeseFor the main course, I had mutton with polenta and sheep’s cheese. It was excellent. The sheep’s cheese adds a great tangy flavor to the polenta and also compliments the flavors of the mutton.

I recommend this place to anyone visiting Iasi looking for authentic Romanian cuisine. It’s so hard to find traditional places like these among all the pizza/Italian restaurants!

Zu den Drei Hacken

The Joint

Singerstr. 28
Wien
Austria
Phone: +43 1 512 5895

Cliff

Portion Gansl mit RotkrautMore goose! I got a drumstick with Rotkraut (sweet-and-sour purple cabbage) and it was excellent. Also, there was some paté which was quite nice — and apparently also made of goose parts (but that’s just a theory).

Franz Schubert was a big fan of this place. Nice atmosphere, but loud if full (or there’s a big party behind you) and little chance to escape the smoke.

Sarah

I finally tried Tafelspitz! In spite of my previous forswearing of beef in German-speaking lands (they’re better at pork), I had to sample this famous Viennese dish. The verdict: meh. It’s not bad, it’s just not outstanding. I think I’m spoiled on American beef.

That said, this place is very small and old-fashioned, but was bustling. The service was nice, but a little rushed. And by the end of the meal, we all needed to get out of the billows of second-hand smoke. Normally, I don’t mind a little bit of smoke, but I think the Viennese smoke more than most.

Sternbräu

The Joint

Griesgasse 23
5020 Salzburg
Austria

Cliff

Started off this trip through Austria correctly; that is, with a nice Schnitzel. This place had great big portions of traditional Austrian cuisine in what looked to me like traditional Austrian decor. Nothing fancy or high-falootin. And we were all happy with our stuff. I’d come back here again. The neon sign, nearly visible across the river, gave me doubts as we approached, but they were unfounded. Our waitress was friendlier than most, so that was nice too.

Sarah

This place was outstanding! We found it in the Frommer’s Austria that Carolyn brought us and we were not disappointed. It’s in the old city area, about a three-minute walk from the house in which Mozart was born. There might be more than one dining room, as the one we were in looked sort of small. The place was decorated with lots of murals depicting the history of the area and old dark wood and brass around the booths. The service was wonderful and the beer was worth writing home about.

But the best part was the food! Big portions for small prices and the quality of the ingredients and preparation was outstanding. I had the Schweinebraten (pork roast) with Semmelknödel (bread dumpling), a dish I’ve had several times since moving to Germany and I can easily say this is the best permutation I’ve had yet. Don’t miss the Sternbräu if you’re ever in Salzburg!