Party time, excellent!

March 10, 2007 · Filed Under Uncategorized 

Yesterday, Rainer’s group had it’s welcome party in the Institute and everyone from his group brought some dishes to serve (yes, I’ve been mostly up and about since Thursday evening, and now Rainer has the killer cold). I ended up cooking and baking up a storm, providing a not too spicy Massaman curry and a Ricotta Cream and bittersweet chocolate cake.

Massaman beef with potatoes and pineapple

Ricotta cream and bittersweet chocolate cake

The cake is a standard American-style white cake with buttercream frosting, but the filling is ricotta cream with orange peel, bittersweet chocolate pieces, and Marsala wine. To Germanize the recipe a bit, I also sprinkled the cake layers with the wine.

Shockingly, at least half of both dishes were left over at the end. Many people did not even try the curry (and only hesitantly bit into the Indian appetizers that one of Rainer’s group members provided). I was a bit surprised, since ethnic food was always a big hit at the parties in Berlin. The biggest draw yesterday was the raw veggie plate. Maybe it’s just that folks in Berlin are so starved for decent food that they devour it as soon as it comes along, while Bavarian cuisine is pretty good. But one of Rainer’s colleagues who came with him from Berlin took a huge Tupperware full of curry home for the weekend and we’re more than happy to finish the curry and cake ourselves. I guess next time I will not put so much effort into whatever I do. Maybe this also explains why my previous offers to show folks how to cook Thai food some time were not taken all that enthusiastically, even by the Americans I’ve run into down here (our neighbors and friends in Berlin-Mitte were just the opposite). So, yet another difference between up there and down here.

In baby news, I’d been feeling baby movements every once in a while, usually a couple times a day, but since last night, I think das Baby has decided to open a mosh pit in my uterus (moshing = pogo dancing). I don’t know what it’s up to in there, but it was seriously disturbing my sleep last night, not to mention that it feels really strange when someone decides to use your cervix as a bongo drum. Rainer had to tell the baby that it better stop before it falls out!

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

Comments

8 Responses to “Party time, excellent!”

  1. rita on March 10th, 2007 3:33 pm

    poor rainer. that cold really ounds awfull. actually, how are you feeling now? any signs of improvement, sinuses clearing up?

    that cake looks so terrific. the bavarians just don’t know what they’re missing out on. had i been there, i would have called it a cake-fest. :D and thai cuisine… *mouth starts to water*

  2. Christina on March 10th, 2007 3:49 pm

    @rita: My sinuses started clearing this morning and the cough is no longer that bad. Rainer is in the miserable 2nd day of the cold however and has hardly left bed since we got home last night.

    And I had a nice big curry lunch with a piece of cake for dessert. YUM!

  3. Maria on March 10th, 2007 6:34 pm

    The Boy was a soccer player on the inside… Kevin told him that he had better get over it in there, because once out, he wouldn’t be kicking me. LOL!

  4. Vicky on March 10th, 2007 6:48 pm

    WOW— all that food looks divine!!!!

    Hey would any of your guests be observing Lent? If so, that would explain them not trying the curry— no meat on Fridays.

  5. Isabelle on March 10th, 2007 8:19 pm

    Christina.. I just love Thai food (and anything with curry). That Massaman looks wonderful! You can send me Thai recipes any time.. The cake looks delish too, btw, but I am a complete sucker for curry! Hope Rainer is feeling better soon!

  6. EuroTrippen on March 12th, 2007 1:23 pm

    The curry looks excellent… and any entry worthy of a Wayne’s world quote is a good thing.

  7. christina on March 12th, 2007 1:52 pm

    Yum! Great looking food. I think it depends on the company you’re in which dishes will be a hit. I’ve made “exotic” (ie: not even spicy but just not German) stuff before and some people didn’t even touch it. There’s the German phrase “Was der Bauer nich kennt, frisst er nicht.” - “What the farmer doesn’t know, he won’t eat.” and I find a lot of Germans do adhere to this and refuse to try anything new. On the other hand we have some friends who will gobble down anything I make, so I invite them over a lot. :-)

  8. Christina on March 12th, 2007 2:20 pm

    @maria: das Baby has calmed down a bit in the last days, or maybe it’s that I’m sick and just don’t notice. :-)

    @vicky: Thanks! Good thought, this is a Catholic area (the Pope was a prof at the Uni here!), but most Germans are not very religious (the Catholic church is very liberal here and is still losing members). And they were eating the ham cold cuts, so I think that’s out.

    @isabelle: Unfortunately we’re both feeling rotten at the moment. :(

    @eurotrippen: Thanks!

    @Christina: I think you’ve nailed it. I’ll just let Rainer make brotchen with cold cuts and potato salad for them from now on. :)

Leave a Reply