America, the land of the food

“Generally speaking, the internal clock resets at a rate of about one hour (or time zone) per day.” –Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This is the reason I am giving for waiting 9 full days before writing the blog on our USA trip – seeing as Colorado and Munich have a 9-hour time difference.  It’s science!

Noah and I spent our Valentine’s Day in airports and planes – making our way from Munich to Houston via Chicago.  Our original flight plan took us through Newark, which we were luckily able to change for free due to the massive winter storms hitting the east coast.  Thanks to my mom for telling me I should call United!  Turns out our original flight out of Munich was 5+ hours delayed, which would have made us miss our connection… and left us stuck in New Jersey.  That would have been romantic!  We still met some delays with the new route, and made it to my parents place for VDay pizza at 10 that night.  Thus begun our quest to fulfill every culinary desire we knew we would be missing out on for the next year(s?).

Our 4 days in Houston flew by, with barely any downtime.  Between visits with my friends and family, Noah’s friends and family, plenty of shopping and returns, and a trip to my mom’s Water Aerobics class – we never had any rest and relaxation on this part of the ‘vacation’.  But that was fine with us because it was great to see familiar faces and indulge in Which Which, Rudy’s BBQ, Los Cucos Tex Mex, Whataburger, Chipotle, Jimmy Johns….  Yes.  We were gluttonous.  

Wednesday morning we (Noah and myself and my parents) flew out to Colorado for my brother’s wedding.  The highlight of the drive between Denver and Beaver Creek is definitely Smokin’ Yards BBQ.  Of course it would be food related!  The BBQ sandwiches, fountain Dr. Pepper, and fried okra…. Let’s just say that if anyone is interested in opening up a good BBQ place in Munich – you could count on us to be your first regulars.

Once we got to Beaver Creek, we met up with my brother and his then-fiancee (now wife).  We gave them their gifts that we hauled all the way from Germany – some beer glasses, a stein, and coasters, all from the Steffens brewery.  Since Ashley agreed to marry into the Steffens family, I thought she might need some drinks to get through it.  Kidding. Mostly.

The next day kicked off the beginning of the wedding festivities.  Us gals (my mom, Ashley and her mom, and her bridesmaid Julie, and this Julie) all went for manis/pedis.  I haven’t had one since my own wedding almost 4 years ago, so it was definitely a treat for me and my nails.  Though I learned my sis-in-law is on the ticklish side – she could barely handle the foot massages. 

We met up with a large group of wedding goers for lunch at the Northside Café, where Noah and I had a delicious burger/shake/fries combo.  Between getting a junior Whataburger earlier in the week and thinking it was giant (I would always wolf down the regular sized burger in the past) and having our friend Jason comment that the burgers are small when he saw our order….  Noah and I are learning that our ideas of portions have changed the past two years.  And here I am talking about food again.  Apologies.  Here, have a group shot of everyone that Noah took: 

Thursday afternoon was the wedding rehearsal, and as the Best woMan, I had some major responsibilities.  Wait, that isn’t true.  I just had to walk down the aisle with the other Julie, see where to stand, and walk back out with her again.  Easy enough!  

Later that night it was time to dress fancy for the rehearsal dinner.  It went really well – with my mom’s signature slideshow of the couple, and way too much good food (what, did I just say that?).  We wedding party folks also got our presents (yay!) from the bride and groom.  I got a nice fusion of the girls and guys gifts, which included a really pretty snowflake necklace with my initial like the other ladies, and a warm furry winter hat like the other guys.  Because I was both a lady and a guy for the wedding. 

The Groomsmen working it

Finally it was the wedding day, where my day started at 8:45am for hair and makeup.  Unfortunately I couldn’t start my day with the guys (12:45pm), because technically I am a lady.  But Ashley and her family made the morning wonderful for us – not only covering the costs of the hair and makeup, but providing us with breakfast and lunch too!  Since there was a lot of down time (7 of us and only 3 ladies doing hair and makeup), I got to play around with my camera and amateurishly mimic the typical ‘preparing for the wedding’ photos.  

My sweet 'artsy' shots

Left: Clearly a Pinterest bride (well, maybe not so clear in the small version of the photo)

This lovely one was taken by my wonderful mom.  Thanks Mom!

Soon the wedding party and family was at the venue for pre-wedding pictures.  All I can say is I am very curious to see the outcome of the groomsmen pictures.  Hopefully the photographer was able to capture one nice one for the photo album.  At least we were able to capture one last family photo to capture a pre-married Logan.

No longer just a family of 5!  Wait - to be sure, this is NOT a pregnancy announcement.  I mean Ashley is now officially a family member 20 minutes after this photo is taken.

The ceremony went without a hitch, though from my point of view I could see Ashley’s face always near tears.  And when I heard the emotion in my brother’s voice, I started tearing up, which caused my parent’s to tear up (and apparently a few others), but I think we mostly kept it in check.  One side note – the day before I had asked Ashley if she had her something old/new/borrowed/blue.  She told me she had everything but ‘borrowed’.  I had the idea to lend her my granny’s (mom’s mom) wedding ring that I wear sometimes.  I didn’t tell my mom my idea beforehand, in case Ashley already had something borrowed in mind.  Luckily it all worked out, and I think my mom especially enjoyed this little touch.

I am double-chin exited!

Left - you can see my granny's wedding ring

Soon the reception was underway, and before long it was time for dinner / speeches / cake / dancing.  I think I did pretty well at all four.  I successfully ate my dinner without it ending up on myself (Noah can’t say the same – the horseradish found its way on his tie).  I calmed my nerves for my Best woMan speech and delivered it without spontaneously tipping over.  At the end of the night I was given to go boxes for the cake I wanted to eat later. And I tore it up on the dance floor (there might have been a dance off between Logan and me).

I left the dance floor for 2 minutes… and I have no idea what was going on here

All in all – a very successful wedding in my book.  And I have a new sister-in-law!  Congrats you guys. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steffens

After a night of dance-induced altitude sickness (all the water in place of alcohol I drank at the wedding wasn’t enough), I was ready to take it easy the next day.  Plus it was our last full day in the US!  Noah and I spent the morning resting, packing, and buying last minute groceries to take back with us.  After lunch, the two of us took the shuttle up to the mountain.  Originally we thought we would be skiing ourselves, but after a hectic week of shopping, traveling, and weddings, we were fine to simply watch the newlyweds ski/snowboard down the mountain in their suit and wedding dress.

After Logan and Ashley took off to put on regular clothes and continue skiing, the rest of us hung out around the ski town.  The highlight for me was finding the guy handing out free/fresh/hot chocolate chip cookies.  Why can’t this happen everywhere I go?  We also saw the same lederhosen-wearing man who played an alpine horn that we visited with 2+ years before.  While we didn’t talk to him this time (had to catch a bus), it was fun to think about our conversation with the man right before we moved to Germany.

Left: Dec 2011  Right: Feb 2014   Same outfit, different instrument.

Our last night in the US was spent eating pizza with our family (which includes Kathleen) and the Ricke family and watching the Olympics.  It was hard for us to believe that our USA trip was actually over, but I think my waistline was happy about it.  We currently have no plans to travel back home any time soon as there are still too many places we want to see here (and our budget isn’t limitless).  Instead it is time to focus on what we will miss in Germany when we eventually move back, and don’t take it for granted.  Because I sure took Whataburger for granted all those years back home!

Welcome to the Hotel Weiss (such a lovely place....)

Last week, Hotel Weiss officially opened for the 2013 season with our first visitors this year – our friends from Phoenix, Stacy and Adam (though none of us live in Phoenix anymore as of 1 week ago).  They are the first of 11 total guests over the next 3 months – or at least those are what we know of today.

They landed around lunchtime on Tuesday, so I took them for some tried and true good jet-lag lunch food – döner kebap over by Rotkreuzplatz.  This is the same place we have taken a few other guests – including my mother, who took this awkward photo of one employee with the döner:

Noah made it home early from work, so we picked up some chicken from the Tuesday chicken cart and headed over to Hirschgarten’s biergarten for dinner and beer.  We all Noah lucked out in that Hirschgraten was showing the UEFA Dortmund vs. Real Madrid semifinal game on the big screens.  Stacy and I started with our backs to the screen, but had to eventually turn around - it just became too creepy to have all those faces staring our way.  

The next day the pups got to join us for a pizza picnic in Hofgarten followed by bocce ball in the Englischer Garten.  Sadie became obsessed with a woman riding horse around us – I had to keep her leashed up or she would have tried to become friends with the horse – and most likely fail miserably.  And while I kept her from that danger, it might have been my fault one of the bocce balls hit her in the face.  I have never felt so guilty in my life – I think I was more upset about it than Sadie was.

We spent the evening over at Frühlingsfest for more chicken and beer, and again… Noah was able to watch the UEFA FC Bayern vs. FC Barcelona semifinal game in the beer tent!  The place definitely had a different atmosphere with the game playing (as we were there the Saturday before with some international friends… and 1 authentic German), but it was a very happy one with FC Bayern winning 3-0 and clinching a Germany vs. Germany UEFA cup final.  We also got surrounded by a German boy band ‘flash mob’ – but not sure how flash mob it really was when there isn’t much room between the tables for their few dancers.  And a huge shout out to Stacy and Adam for partaking in the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl!  Now they really need to come back for Oktoberfest to get their money’s worth out of it!

Thursday we stayed in the city center spending money… what else can you really do in bad weather?  We continued our theme of daily German food at Zum Franziskaner – this time treating our guests to an eclectic combination of Weißwurst, authentic Wienerschnitzel, and Kaiserschmarrn.  While all three authentic German/Bavarian food on their own – I don’t think they really go together.  But no one complained.

We switched things up for dinner and went to a Greek restaurant.  Our old Munich friend Laura joined us, so Noah and I were able to toast her goodbye (again) at dinner.  She found a job in Cincinnati and was here in Munich to finish up her last 2 weeks at Intel.  That just means her and her soon-to-be husband need to come to Munich on vacation, instead of business trips.

Our plans for Friday originally included walking through the Partnachklamm Gorge, as we had heard cool things about it.  We even pre-booked one of our car sharing vehicles for the day.  Unfortunately for us, they decided to ‘close’ the gorge for the week for maintenance, and it would open again Saturday.  But we had a car for Friday – not Saturday!  We decided to be resourceful and just find another place to visit with the car.  Solution: Eibsee and Zugspitze!  

We began with a nice 7km hike/walk around the Eibsee – a lake at the bottom of the Zugspitze mountain (which, by the way, is the highest point in Bavaria – the mountain, not the lake).  Here we made fast friends with the ducks, who clearly are used to people feeding them.  At one point we stopped to look at the lake on a small hill, and this little duck came walking all the way up the hill to try to beg.  Impressive little climber!  We also found a rock shaped like Texas, so naturally I had to stop and give it a photo shoot.

After the 7km hike/walk, we took the cable car to the top of Zugspitze, which left both Stacy and I rather uneasy.  The mountain is 2,962 meters above sea level – or an elevation gain from the bottom of 1,950 meters.  Whatever way you look at it – you are going very high, very fast.

Once at the top, you take an elevator up 3 floors to get to the actual summit.  It is amazing how tiny Eibsee looked from up here.  After stomaching all I could handle of the heights, we moved to Deutschlands höchster Biergarten (Germany’s highest beer garden) for lunch.  I can say I had a real beer at the top of Germany – no Radler for me that day!  

For our guests’ last day in Munich, we decided to focus on the biergarten experience (again).  We first went into the city center to hit up Viktualienmarkt – the large open market near Marienplatz – to pick up a nice lunch spread.  After a quick detour to see the Hofbräuhaus, we hopped on the Ubahn up to Olympiapark, where Rita and Sadie cuddled in the small space between the seats.

Once there, we somehow managed to hit up two separate biergartens.  We did split them by stomping around the park grounds and making it to the highest hill there for some nice views of Munich and the Alps.  It was also nice that Stacy and Adam had one day of beautiful weather in Munich – how we wish it was every day!  Sadly this marked the end of their Munich leg, and we woke up Sunday to an empty apartment.  Well, not too empty – we had two waggly little dog butts to greet us in the morning.

In 9 days, Hotel Weiss will welcome my parents, and we will do it all over again!

At the Lone Star Saloon…. in Bavaria

We often find there are many similarities between Texas and the German state of Bavaria we live in.  The pride, historical sovereignty, conservative values, local traditions, the unique dialect, and in particular unique phrases for hello (howdy y’all = servus).  Well we found one more reason to stretch the comparison after discovering the Lone Star Saloon Steakhouse restaurant in a small town outside of Munich (Seeshaupt).  This place could pass for Texas in just about every aspect, until the people start to speak.

To provide some back story, my co-worker Andreas insisted on taking me to his favorite steak place after learning about my Texas roots.  Although he was being nice and showing me new places, he was more interested to learn my opinion on the steaks.  He wanted to find out just how good (or bad) his favorite steak really was compared to most reputable steaks of America.  It would be like having a friend from Japan tell you that your favorite local sushi restaurant is the best.  Another reason for the invite: I had told him our experience eating beef in Germany has not really been the best.  Julie, the true Texan, couldn’t even finish her 4 oz steak the one time I cooked it at home.  She said it tasted like steak that belongs in dog-food, and once she said it, it started to taste bad for me too.

So back to last fall: Once I realized how excited Andreas was to get my opinion, (plus the opportunity to eat a high quality steak) I went out with my co-workers for a steak dinner.  Upon arrival I was pretty much in a state of jaw-dropping awe the entire night.  How could a town with less than 3,000 people in the middle of Bavaria have a hidden portal back to Texas!?  Let me start with the photos so you can see what I mean.

The amount of Texas memorabilia is really, really unbelievable, but what you can’t see is that Billy Ray Cyrus music was playing in the background.  And just to make sure I got the full experience I ordered the biggest steak on the menu – a 16 oz rib eye which was absolutely delicious (surprising, considering this was German beef!).  This was one of those moments that reminds me just how out of control food portions are in America when my co-workers could not believe an establishment would sell (and that I would order and could eat) such a big portion.  Certainly, I would not normally order so much food, but if I remember correctly this is an average size steak at any American steakhouse. Everyone else ordered 8 oz steaks.  In the end I had to give Andreas credit: this is a top quality steakhouse and really represents Texas very well.

I was so impressed by the place I took Julie along with our American friends Eddie and Laura to share the joy a few months later.  That’s when I learned I found the key to a Texas girl’s heart – good quality steak.

But this place gets even better.  The second part of this story is that the Lone Star Saloon offers all-you-can-eat TexMex fajita buffet on Thursdays, which if you have not noticed by all of the tortilla delivery requests is probably the one food we miss most from the States/Texas. 

The other week I went out again with my co-workers and this time I made sure to bring Julie with me.  I’m glad she did not miss it because it was quite humorous to watch a few of my German colleagues eat fajitas for the first time (wait, you mean that exotic food we heard about in the movies once!?!).  Without any instruction their instinct is to spread out the sauce and toppings over the entire tortilla, like a pizza, and then roll it.  Then they would pick up a knife and fork to commence eating it.

Luckily our waiter was there to give them better instructions.  Though perhaps the funniest part of the night was when he encouraged everyone to fold the fajita in thirds - by tucking in the bottom (more like a burrito) to keep it nice and orderly.  He was particularly insistent that Julie do this too.  After she said “I’m OK. I am from Texas”, he said, “I lived in Texas for 5 years and you should fold the bottom”.  Julie laughingly replied, “I lived there for 22 years, so I really am good!”  I think then he got the point and everyone got a laugh out of the German trying to enforce his ‘true’ Texas methods on the only real Texan in the place.  This did make for some nice conversation when we learned the inspiration for the restaurant.  Our waiter actually lived his 5 years in the Houston Bear Creek Park area.  This is an amazingly small world. 

In the end the fajitas were some of the best we have eaten here, but relatively mediocre compared to good Tex-Mex.  But then again, nowhere does it like Texas.  It doesn’t matter though when there is some good old Texas flare to help wash it down.  No doubt this is now one of our favorite places in Germany and we strongly believe it should be in all guide books – at least for the steaks.