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Directories
Ask and ye shall receive
Everyone else is doing it (or at least B. and Blythe), so I figured, hey, why not jump on that bandwagon. Ask a question, any question, and I will do my best to answer it.
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Regensburg Baseball Eurocup Meetup: June 21-22
Mark your calender! A weekend meetup will be taking place in the lovely, UNESCO World Heritage site of Regensburg on the weekend of June 21-22 to coincide with the Baseball Eurocup. It will probably go something like: city tour and dinner/drinks on Saturday, Brunch and European Baseball Championship on Sunday. I’m sure events can be planned for Friday evening if there are folks interested. The tour and the game will have some costs involved.
Please let me know if you’re planning to attend. The tour will be limited to 30 participants. I’ll help with arranging accommodations, etc. See my FlickR page for a preview of the sites.
Hope to see you in June! And I’d appreciate it if you spread the word about the meetup. Thanks!
Video Wednesday: Persian Knife Dance
So here it is, the longer version of this Persian wedding custom. The video isn’t perfect, I took it with my digital camera and the room was dimly lit. I also stopped to take photos in between, so I included those snapshots.
Here’s an explanation of the custom from the Persian Mirror:
The purpose of the Persian Knife dance (Raghseh Chagoo) is for the couple to retrieve a knife from the dancers so they can cut the wedding cake. The dance starts with one person dancing a typical Persian dance, with the knife and basically asking the couple for money. Once the dancer gets the money, the knife is passed on to the next dancer. The bride and groom continue to offer money to try and get the cake knife. A little back and forth, and a few dance moves later, the couple finally are given the knife and are able to cut the cake.
One final point, it’s from Brother #2’s wedding. Enjoy!
Chocolate Withdrawal
We spent this weekend with my in-laws and I think I gained back all the weight I lost over the last 8 months. My jeans were tight when we left and I spent today going through chocolate withdrawal. In case you don’t have a German mother-in-law, visits to a GMIL could qualify as world class eat-a-thons. There’s bread, cold cuts, cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and super strength coffee for breakfast; then a nice big Braten (roast) with Knödel (dumplings) and cauliflower in Hollandaise sauce for lunch with pudding for dessert; 2-3 slices of cake with another cup of super strength coffee for Coffee and Cake Time; then more bread and cold cuts for dinner. Sometimes, breakfast also includes leftover cake from the previous day. Actually, dinner often includes leftover cake too. In addition to this, there will be a large plate of chocolates set in front of you the entire visit. It is not possible for me to ignore this plate, even when I am bursting at the seams. To make things better/worse, my GMIL learned that Americans like fried eggs for breakfast and that we often eat warm dinners, so in addition to the above food, she lovingly prepares additional eggs for me at breakfast and dinner (fried eggs qualify as warm). So basically, I just ate a couple dozen eggs over the last four days.
For my birthday, Rainer got me the book “Top Secret Restaurant Recipes,” and I decided that this week, I’m going to try out a bunch of the recipes. Tonight, we started with the Big Boy Cream of Broccoli Soup clone.
I might have had this before, but the last time I was in a Big Boy, well… I can’t remember when that was. I was definitely a small child at the time. Do they even have Big Boys anymore? Aside from that, the soup was delicious, and easy to make too.
For the next course, we enjoyed the Dive! Sicilian Sub Rosa clone with a side of the Hooters Pasta Salad clone. I’ve never been to either of these restaurants, I’ve never heard of Dive! in fact, so I can’t attest to how well these recipes “clone” the originials, but both were very good. Actually, the sub might even rate as awesome. At first I thought the pasta was a bit boring, but it grew on me. Both were kind of a lot of work though, so I’d rate them as good for the occasional splurge, but not as a regular menu item in the AmiExpat household.
I’ll get around to answering comments tomorrow. I wasn’t the only one going through withdrawal today, Oliver was having constant-center-of-attention withdrawal. Tomorrow should be better and I should be able to get a bit done. Cheers!
4 Nights in Munich
Last week we had a blast in Munich. I thought we had good restaurants in Regensburg, but the ones in Munich blow them away. We had really great sushi at Tokami on Theresienstrasse. We enjoyed one of the best Arabic meals I’ve ever had with Schokolade Mädchen and her man, G, at the Lebanese restaurant Cedar Lounge on Georgenstrasse. We met up with Hezamarie and Jul and their hubbies, along with several of Hezamarie’s friends at Max Emanuel. One of Rainer’s colleagues said this was the worst food in Schwabing, which had us a little scared, but it was totally good. If it’s the worst place, well then dang! And finally, after 6 years of searching, I found decent Mexican food in Germany! It’s a Germany-wide chain called Sausalitos, so there just may be one in your area. I had the combo plate. The chicken enchiladas were just okay, but good compared to what one normally gets in Germany. What really stood out to me were the chicken wings (nice and spicy) and the chili con carne taco. The salsa was blech, but I don’t like most salsa in Mexican restaurants in the US, so I won’t mark them down for that. (One place in Herndon, VA that has great salsa - and great mexican food - is Tortilla Factory on Eldon Street… hmm, maybe I should do a restaurant guide for northern Virginia…)
After 5 days wandering Munich, my conclusion? I loved it. I always used to say that I’d love to live at the edge of a big city, so that you get the green, but can still do all the big city stuff pretty easily. After living out here in the country, I was wondering if I still felt that way, and I certainly do. I would love to live in the very north of Schwabing, or another similar neighborhood. The only thing is, over and over, it seemed like Müncheners don’t go out all that often. We heard from person after person that they usually eat in. So maybe with the high rents, living in Munich wouldn’t be that awesome, because you’d always be taunted by all the really good food that you couldn’t afford to indulge in all the time!
Anyways, here’s some photos of Munich:
Go to my FlickR page for more Munich photos.
And does this one belong in a catalog or what?
Tomorrow we’re off to spend the long holiday weekend with the in laws and since my future post function doesn’t work (you probably noticed all the posts from while I was away in Munich got published only upon my return), I won’t bother making up posts for the next few days, So, see you on Tuesday and have a great Easter!
Video Wednesday: Random Muvee Creation
My new Flip Camcorder came with some very basic video editing software from Muvee. I actually like its simplicity, but you can’t hardly do anything with the software, so I followed the software link to the Muvee website. According to the website, with Muvee AutoProducer, you can:
Shoot it, muvee it and share it. Instantly create and share the kind of home movies and slideshows that make people go “WOW!”
Is it easy? Incredibly. You don’t have to be a computer whiz because muvee automatically edits your video and syncs stylish visual effects to the beat of your favorite music.
I was intrigued. I downloaded a free trial of Muvee AutoProducer and as an intro, it offered to create a video straight away, using randomly selected photos and videos from my computer. I thought, sure why not. This is the result:
So, is that the kind of home movie that makes you go, “WOW!”?
(It took video from my brother’s wedding and pictures of my Thai Mango Salad and put them to techno music. It’s amusing, but I think I’m gonna pass on upgrading to the pay version. My free trial ends tomorrow.)
Full of suck?
Sounds like the perfect place to shop!
(This lovely store is located in the Schwabing neighborhood of Munich)
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