The main course of our French feast à la the Smythe-Subers

Time and money are scarce in our household right now. Oh, we have plenty of money to buy groceries, heat our house, pay the bills. We are surely blessed. But there’s not a lot of excess. We’re not scheduling any jet-setting to Paris in the near future.

Shannon works her magic

So, you can imagine our excitement when we were invited over to our friends’ house in Trenton, New Jersey to experience a homemade meal. My friend Shannon is an excellent cook … always. But she was trying out recipes from a new cookbook (which is now on my Christmas wish list, by the way). It’s Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.

I’d heard an interview about the cookbook on NPR, which had already piqued my curiosity. And Shannon had thoroughly planned our menu–planning is one of Shannon’s specialties–course by course.

(I just noticed that there are several recipes available on NPR’s website, if you’d like to try them out: we had this, but this cake is different than the one we devoured.)

We also got to visit their new third-floor apartment in a huge, old house in Trenton. They’d done a great job working with the space. (We’d last seen it filled with boxes on their rainy move-in day.) Their decor, along with the unique molding over the doors and the lovely wood floors, only added to the appeal of the whole dinner.

We started with drinks and homemade cheese crackers. Delicious.

Just look at this set up:

Salad, crackers, lentils

Next came a salad. I can’t remember exactly, but I believe there were mixed greens, a vinaigrette, goat cheese, and roasted beets (yum!). I loved the salad. How can you go wrong with beets and goat cheese? I wager that you can’t.

The heart-shaped cracker accompanies the salad

We had a soup course, too, which was deliciously warm and rich. I think it was cauliflower. My recollection is imprecise. I think I had a haze of food-joy going on! Aren’t the table linens great, too?

Soup and salad

Look at that! Was the soup garnished with bacon? I think so. No wonder I blissed out.

Shannon served lentils with the stuffed pumpkin dish. The pumpkin was rich, but you felt justified in downing massive amounts of cheese because the pumpkin was a healthy, piping hot medium for the cheese.

The main course itself, pumpkin and lentils

I was so glad I had a backstage pass, though, because the pumpkin was cool to see fresh from the oven. It actually deflated a little bit after sitting out, but rest assured: the deliciousness was unabated.

The cooked, stuffed pumpkin, fresh from the oven

Did I mention that we were entertained all the while by THIS character?

Next came the cheese course. I felt transported back to my only trip to Paris back in 2001. I was in college and had never before heard of a cheese course. Ahh, but I learned quickly to appreciate it.

I can't believe this is the best picture I got of the cake! It was sooo delicious!

Finally, we had the dessert course and coffee. Can you believe we still had room? The dessert was a delicious apple cake. It was rustic and so French. I can’t quite explain why. It reminded me of something you’d buy in a French bakery. (Or a German bakery, like many I’ve been to, that has many, many French items.) You’d cherish its moist density, alternating bites and swigs of dark, bitter coffee. Shannon served the cake with vanilla ice cream from Halo Farm (another Trenton treasure).

The dinner was delicious. The company was wonderful and fun. The dog was adorable (I’ll close with a picture of him). And I was reminded that my mouth and senses can travel a long way … without booking a plane ticket. A fabulous cookbook, a well-selected menu, and an adventurous (and skilled, in Shannon’s case) cook can really transport you to another world! I know that the menu was a splurge. But the cost pales in comparison to a trip to France. And although we definitely hope to visit there (among a host of other places), this tastebud-trip was wonderful in and of itself.

Cooking at home isn’t a consolation prize, it makes travel a real, thoroughgoing lifestyle. It’s even more fun to share the food journey with friends. Weren’t we lucky? I loved this meal. Merci, Shannon and Kevin. C’est magnifique!

Linus dressed for dinner. Dapper gent!

In the meantime, it’s been more than a week since it went up, but I did a guest blog at The Daily Conundrum called “(Return?) Trip.” When given the opportunity to write a post on my brother’s would-you-rather blog, I just had to do something about traveling, of course. Go weigh in … or be stumped like me!

A few weeks ago, they launched a new magazine feature, “Ask a Park Ranger,” and invited questions on the blog.

Because (1) my husband and I had just eked out some time in September to finally have a real “summer” vacation, and because (2) Acadia National Park in Mount Desert, Maine was first on our planned route, and because (3) I love getting advice from experts, locals, and all-manner of opinionated souls, I shot off a question about a two-day itinerary.

And, today, Park Ranger Wanda Moran answered me.

Which is perfect, because we leave on Sunday. (So, we won’t be there for her suggested Night Sky Festival, but will stick that on the “sometime in the future” radar.) And, to express a worry that’s on my mind presently, I hope that Hurricane Earl won’t cause us (or them, mostly!) any trouble.

I am thrilled to have had my question answered. Thrilled to have such great and knowledgeable advice. And thrilled to get to see the first National Park east of the Mississippi!

Having my question answered on their official blog might just have been the added boost I needed to get my real work done, then get my camping preparations in gear. Yes, I think it was.

Expect to hear more about this and the other e-x-c-i-t-i-n-g stops on our trip.

Here’s a hint: There might be some of this beauty in our post-Acadia/pre-return future!

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!

Charlie at the subway entrance to the Museum of Natural History

I’ve been pressed for blogging time. That is, the time I formerly stole from my dissertation and used for blogging has been returned to dissertation-matters for the time being.

But my husband and I took a little jaunt to the Natural History Museum in New York City this past Friday.

[We used a Museum Pass from our local library. We got in free! Maybe a library near you has a similar program.]

It was wonderful, educational, everything a museum should be. (Except that art museums are my very favorite.)

Dinosaur fossils in foyer (which is under construction)

Afterward, we went quite a ways out of our way to go to Hanco‘s in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Now, their Yelp! reviews are great, but I might not have gone out of my way just for that.

[It was actually an easy subway trip on the B train downtown, switching at Rockefeller Center to the F train to Brooklyn. Having our iPhones handy certainly doesn't hurt. Especially since the NYC metro transit system does not seem as user-friendly to me as others (London, Berlin, D.C.) do.]

Instead, I heard about Hanco’s from a recent episode of the best radio show ever, This American Life. (My husband and I are regular supporters of the program, which is saying something on a tight budget. I promise you, NEVER have I wanted to do housework more than when I have an not-yet-listened-to podcast of the show waiting on my iPod.)  Their episode called “Million Dollar Idea” starts with a story about Hanco’s.

Unassuming store front, Hanco's of Cobble Hill

There’s another location in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which I know to be a nice area. I’m not really sure how the locations compare. This was a small restaurant. A lot of their business is either take away or delivery, I’m pretty sure. If I lived in the area, it would be hard not to order from Hanco’s very frequently … or hourly. There were two other tables occupied during our time there, and several people were in and out over the duration. But the restaurant definitely wasn’t busy like it reportedly can be during lunch hour.

Inside Hanco's, looking at the entrance

I am quite a fan of Vietnamese food as it is. I love their cold, summer rolls (with shrimp and peanut/hoisin dipping sauce). I am a big fan of the vermicelli that mixes sweet and savory, cooked and raw, soft and crunchy.

So, it’s no surprise that I should love Vietnamese sandwiches. But until hearing about Hanco’s, I had no idea that Vietnamese sandwiches even existed! Now, I shall never forget:

Please witness the unmitigated deliciousness of the Hanco's original sandwich.

Patrons can pick the sandwich they desire based on their contents, which can be pork, chicken, or tofu, at least. Variations in spiciness are the second attribute one must choose. I went with “medium.” It was spicy, but a just right kind of spicy. The texture and flavor variations that I love in vermicelli were also packed into the sandwich, encased in a crunchy pressed roll.

Crunchy? Soft? Tender? Yes.

The other attraction at Hanco’s is the bubble tea. Unfortunately, they were out of tapioca (bubbles) the day we visited. Tapioca is, by far, my favorite way to have bubble tea. But we could choose between lychee jelly and mango jelly. I chose the former, Charlie the latter. We both got our “bubbles” with a coconut flavored milk concoction that may have included green tea. I’m not quite sure.

Lychee Jelly Bubble Milk

Again, the play with textures is just part of what makes bubble tea so much fun. I’ll have to try them again, since the jellies just can’t compete with tapioca in my book. The coconut flavor was very fresh and cool, perfect for a beautiful August day in the City.

So, Hanco’s, until we meet again …

WELL, SKIP OVER THIS:

I thought I was missing German food. And I was, in a way. Okay, I’ll admit it: When I tasted my Wurst, my eyes might have rolled back in my head a little bit. When I tried my German potato salad, I may have had to tone down my shriek of “Oh! This tastes just like the Kartoffelsalat I had at the Schwarzwaldstuben!” But I think, honestly, what I was and am missing is my time in Germany. I was there (alone, not counting when Charlie came to visit at the end) for two months last summer and it was a total learning experience of the grandest sort.

Me in front of Berlin's Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

There are lots of things I don’t miss:

1) Being away from Charlie.

2) Being away from Charlie.

3)      “          “         “          “     [repeat]

…

29) No free refills on drinks and having to buy water at restaurants.

30) Meeting no one who understands what on earth I do professionally.

But I suspect I miss the adventurous feeling, wherein every day held something new. I miss speaking German out of necessity, not just as a novelty. I love that language. I miss the strange array of people, architecture, and foods that make Berlin such an amazing global city. I miss having a singular focus into which all of my activities (leisure, classroom, study, sight-seeing) fit in some aspect: learning German. I miss the amazingly comprehensive public transportation.

Adventures like that most likely live on as a golden-hued chapter in our memories precisely because they are short-lived. My scholarship didn’t go on forever. I am a wife and Ph.D. student and I couldn’t stay away from my husband and study a field (German) only tangentially related to mine (New Testament). And I didn’t want to.

But in retrospect, what I remember isn’t the heartsickness for my beloved husband nor the loneliness of being in a new place where I knew not a soul. I don’t remember the times when I embarrassed myself terribly by calling something by the wrong name or committing some social faux pas (like sniffing repeatedly or putting a hand in my lap at the dinner table). Instead I remember the joy of discovering new things, new foods, unique places, hidden alleyways, city quirks, local haunts, new worlds of history in unequaled museums, new stories on walking tours with Berliner guides, cultural particulars both of Germans and other nationalities in my class, and the sheer loveliness of the German language (NO naysayers allowed. I adore German!).

On a fantastic walking tour (Spaziergang) of Berlin's Mitte

So, I shouldn’t have expected a restaurant featuring the cuisines of the countries of the Alps (Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, namely) to have been the balm to cure  all of my wistful feelings regarding Berlin. First of all, Berlin is nowhere near the Alps. Second, a Berliner is much, much more likely to be found munching on an organic salad topped with sprouts and flaxseed, or eating a Turkish kebab on the run, or snacking on tapas and drinking wine for hours and hours in an outdoor cafe than they are to be eating anything we Americans would classify as “German cuisine.” In fact, many “German” restaurants in Germany are geared toward tourists. And, third, what I hadn’t considered, but really should have known is that no one in Allentown, NJ would be speaking German at a German restaurant. In fact, they’d be butchering it (in speech or, a couple times, on the menu) to a degree that would make me cringe. And I’m an American, not a German! This lack of German conversation should have been a given, but it took me by subconscious-surprise and made it impossible for me to even pretend that I was in Deutschland. So, that was a bummer that shouldn’t have bummed me out, but did anyway.

START BACK HERE, O FOOD-CENTRIC READER:

The Alps Bistro opened on Allentown, NJ’s picturesque, historic Main Street (the perfectness of which, for me, makes it the standard by which any small town American main street will henceforth be judged) on July 6, 2010. So, it had not even been open a month when Charlie and I decided to check it out. I, see previous post, felt compelled to have some German food, so we made reservations. The restaurant is open for lunch most days and dinner only on Friday and Saturday. The dining room is also quite small, so reservations are recommended.

The Alps Bistro

It was full when we got there. As many nice NJ restaurants are, The Alps is a BYOB place, although they have sodas, coffee, and water at least. We just had water, but folks around us had brought along wine. I thought it was kind of cool that the local liquor store had suggested some wine and beer pairings that would go well with German food (they were German, mostly). This, along with other signals like the small lace table adornments, showed me that the management is really trying for authenticity. I appreciated that.

* I apologize that the food photos that follow are really quite grainy. I tried to use my iPhone for subtlety, but I’ve learned my lesson. These photos do not really do the food justice. I apologize. *

Charlie's salad (It came with a three-bean salad, too)

The mood of the restaurant was upbeat. Owners, employees, customers were excited about the new business. They were excited to try something new or, for the many people of German descent in the area, they were excited for a taste of the familiar or nostalgic.

We had printed out a coupon (good until August 31) for a free appetizer when you purchase a dinner entrée over $11. This was not, given the menu, a hard amount to top. The restaurant’s menu incorporated German titles, always with translation, and was very focused. That is, they’re not attempting to offer everything under the sun. There were two soup choices, for instance, and about five options for appetizers. There’s a daily menu and the schnitzel changes daily, as well as the options for wursts.

Soup (Suppe)

I started with the Alsatian Sauerkraut soup, which wasn’t “sauer” at all, but faintly sweet. It was brothy and just perfectly flavored to be a light starter. Charlie had a salad which came with a 3-bean salad and blanched carrots, in addition to a more traditional green lettuce salad.

Other people seemed to get a bread basket, but we didn’t. I’m not sure whether I observed this incorrectly, or if there was some reason why we didn’t qualify. I would have liked to compare The Alps Bistro’s breads to German Brot, since breadmaking is one of the areas in which Germans are vast culinary superiors to Americans. German breads are not only staple of their daily meals, but are always fresh, artisanal, with many whole grain varieties to choose from. Wonder Bread is not an option in Deutschland. But bakeries (Bäckerei/Konditorei) are on every corner, offering full loaves, sweet and savory pastries, desserts, and vast varieties of flavorful sandwiches, fresh every day.

Pierogies

Venturing outside of Deutschland for our appetizer, we selected potato pierogies. The Alps Bistro’s self-diagnosis of their gastronomical territory is as follows: “Join us for a culinary adventure through the Alps region of Europe–feature the foods of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France. We’ll even make stops to Poland, Hungary, and Russia to tempt your tastebuds.” So, we figured we’d allow them to take us to Poland with a pierogie. Since we’d only eaten ice cream in that nation (when we barely crossed the border last July) it seemed fitting to try something a little more Polish when we had the opportunity.

The appetizer plate came with three potato pierogies, hot and sprinkled with bacon and onions (which had clearly been cooked with the bacon). Delicious! We definitely ate every last morsel.

Pork Schnitzel

Charlie had chosen the day’s Schnitzel as his meal. It was a pork schnitzel in a dark gravy with mushrooms. He asked for Spätzle as his side and, in addition, it came with carrots. Everything was well-cooked and not overdone. The Schnitzel was really tender, flavorful, and lightly breaded. It certainly rivaled any Schnitzel we had in Europe. Charlie was wholly satisfied.

Being a bit of a Wurst-fan myself (and not being tempted at all by anything with a “Leber” in it—that means “liver”), I ordered the three-Wurst platter. It came with German potato salad and sauerkraut (this was actually sour, not sweet like the soup with the same label). The smaller Wurstchen were the tastiest.

Lots of Wurst

Apfelstrudel

I was too full by the end of the meal to want a dessert, but Charlie thought an Apfelstrudel was in order. I was afraid to chance tarnishing my active memory of amazing Strudel. But I agreed to have a couple bites. The apple strudels are made on-site and it was, itself, quite tasty. One fun ingredient was chopped nuts (maybe walnuts?), which I don’t think I’d had in any of my German or Viennese strudels. As I predicted, I didn’t think it lived up to my memory, but that just means it didn’t ascend to demigod status. So, it was good. I’d recommend it.

All in all, I’m impressed at the new restaurant in town. People are clearly trying hard for Alpine authenticity. It’s a quaint place for a meal and a good alternative to the sea of Italian restaurants that are [Kara scans the horizon] just about all that is available around here. I do want to do a German spell-check of their menu, but Charlie told me to hold off with the red pen until after we’d eaten. Sigh.

True confession: I expected more than a single restaurant could ever truly provide—more than anything short of a plane ticket, Bahn pass, and a fistful of Euros could offer—but I still greatly enjoyed my meal and hope to return.

Peeking into a shop filled with spices in the Spice Bazaar, Istanbul

Although I like to think of myself as unique and, therefore, exceedingly special person, I am glad to be part of a much larger trend in this case:

Americans have become exponentially more adventurous eaters since the 1970s. As I was born in 1980, I certainly must be part of that trend. I should write more about this another time, how my family fostered flavor-curiosity, sampled different ethnic cuisines whenever we could, and–basically–didn’t accept “I don’t like that” as an answer.

THIS July 30, 2010 story from NPR (always better heard than read, by the way) talks about the various ways in which Americans have become more diverse, both demographically and in all things culinary. One way in which this is manifest is we buy more and more varieties of spices.

All of the talk of spices in the radio story made me think of the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul; hence the opening blog-post-picture. I really must go back, mustn’t I? But until I do, it’s good that my palate can wander right here at home.

Avocados (not local, but delicious)

It’s summer. It’s warm and sunny. The fresh, local produce in New Jersey is hard to beat.

Right down the road, there’s a stand that sells the produce they grow in their back yard. So far I’ve had their tomatoes (bucket loads of them), grape tomatoes, corn, summer squash, zucchini, onions, and one peach. All delicious. As I was recently saying to Charlie, I don’t know how I’ll ever be satisfied with store-bought tomatoes again. These just have so much more flavor.

That’s not even to mention the other farms and farmers markets very near me (Russo’s Farm, Trenton Farmers Market, the once-a-week Farmers Market in Hightstown, etc.), where I’ve gotten locally-grown delights.

And, ever since I heard from the Nutrition Diva (whose podcasts I love) that eating two whole tomatoes a day wasn’t being a glutton (I submitted my question via Facebook), I have been trying to turn into a tomato this summer!

Not to mention, there are perfectly ripened avocados that I can find in Whole Foods for $5 a bag. Although they aren’t local, they taste perfect. Until we live in an avocado-growing locale again, I think this is the best I can hope for.

Summertime meals center around fresh produce and, often, consist of that produce either washed and sliced or slightly doctored up:

Our Wednesday (and then also Thursday) night dinner

The above dinner was photographed only on my iPhone (like the avocado above) and in a rather poorly lighted area, which accounts for its poorer quality. I don’t always think to photograph our meals at home, although when I’m particularly proud I do.

This one consisted of a recipe from the Everyday Food magazine, which I love. It was the Spring-Vegetable Couscous with Chicken. I wish I’d made it when we had local asparagus, but we were just moving then and I couldn’t get myself in gear. Another change I made to the recipe was due to the fact that I discovered while making the recipe that I didn’t have any regular couscous (the recipe called for 1 cup). I had about 2/3 a cup Israeli couscous (larger size) left in a container, but that’s all. Hmmm … I decided to add bulgur wheat to fill out the 1-cup measure, so the amount would be similar to what the recipe called for. It worked! So, we got a little more whole grain than the recipe might have intended.

The star of the meal, although the tomato is always a star in my book, was the stuffed squash. I followed a recipe I found for Stuffed Summer Squash. If you scroll to the bottom of the linked blog entry, there’s the recipe. I followed it pretty thoroughly, except I didn’t have any of the recommended cheeses, so I shredded some Fontina we had. The only other “unhealthiness” added were bread crumbs I made from some whole wheat we had on hand and the 2 Tbsp of olive oil used to make the 4 servings of the side dish. Most of the contents of the stuffing were onions and squash guts (technical term, I’m sure). All in all, it was a pretty good-for-you way to dress up this plentiful summertime vegetable. It was quite tasty and you didn’t lose the squash among the other flavors. Baked summer squash is QUITE delicious.

A bad shot of good corn

So, with all these delicious and healthy summer options at my fingertips, WHY did I make reservations tonight for a new German/Swiss/Austrian restaurant that opened up in a small town near us?

Because I’ve been blogging and blogging and blogging about some of the Euro-cuisine I sampled last summer and it’s got me craving the stuff.

Do doughy dumplings and hot, saucy meats sound particularly summery? No.

Is this the stuff real Germans (etc.) eat day-in-day-out during hot summer weather? As far as I observed, no.

Should I eat Wursts just because I can? No.

Am I still looking forward to it nonetheless? Yes!

So, soon I’ll be posting a review of this newly-opened restaurant. I hope it serves good enough food to satiate my nostalgia-craving for awhile. Then I can get back to the very, very good foods that await me at my local farmers markets (and there are many more than I’ve already tried this year).

Right before I went to Germany for two months, I was chatting with a professor of mine. She mentioned that one of her favorite places in Berlin was Einstein Café on the broad thoroughfare Unter den Linden, and she recommended the Apple Strudel. I tucked away that advice and, although I don’t typically pick apple desserts when given other options (like chocolate-anything), I planned to get the stereotypically Austrian/German sweet pastry.

Apfelstrudel in Vanilla sauce (from Einstein)

Thus began my love affair with Apfelstrudeln (apple strudels). A particular German song, which I happen to love, seems apt:

“Lass Mich Nie Mehr Los” by Sportfreunde Stiller

[Note: Below are only two verses and the chorus, the song continues further.]

Wie New York ohne Sinatra
Wie Wien ohne den Prater
Wie ein Herzschlag ohne Blut
Wie Lindenberg ohne Hut
Wie ’ne Eiszeit ohne Schnee
England ohne Tee
So als ob bei Steve McQueen die ganze Coolheit fehlt

Jeder Boxer braucht ’ne Linke,
Kiss braucht viermal Schminke
Tonic braucht Gin.
Wie wär ein Leben ohne Sinn?
Wie ein leeres Paket
Wie ein Rad das sich nicht dreht
So als ob anstatt ’nem Sturm nur ein leichter Wind weht,

So bin ich ohne dich
Du hältst mich; mir fehlt nichts.
Lass mich nie mehr los.
Lass mich, lass mich nie mehr los
Lass mich nie mehr los.
Lass mich, lass mich nie mehr los

English Translation by Kara (it rhymes nicely in the German, not in my translation, though):

Like New York without Sinatra, Like Vienna without the Prater, Like a heartbeat without blood, Like Lindenberg without a hat, Like an Ice Age without snow, England without tea, Like if Steve McQueen existed but without any coolness …

Every boxer needs a left, Kiss needs four times the makeup, Tonic needs gin, How’d life be without meaning? Like an empty package, A bike you don’t pedal, Like if there was a storm but only a faint wind blew …

Chorus – That’s how I am without you. When you hold me, nothing’s missing. Never let me go. Never, never let me go. Never let me go. Never, never let me go.

Romantic black & white photo of APFELSTRUDEL (notice the edge blur? Oh yeah!)

I propose a new lyric that I think would fit perfectly in my food experience: “Wie Deutschland ohne Apfelstrudeln” (“Like Germany without apple strudels”). Germany without my beloved strudel? It’s inconceivable. Such an idea goes against all that is good, right, and real in the world. It cannot be! Like the band Kiss requires makeup and a heartbeat intrinsically requires blood, that’s how German food would feel to me without the sweet Nachspeise of Apfelstrudel. It’s totally love-song-worthy.

(Isn’t that sweet German love song? You’ve got to hear it. So lovely.)

Einstein menu

That's me, all by my lonesome, at Einstein in Berlin

I had a lovely first taste of the dessert at the recommended locale: Einstein Café on the wide boulevard that leads to the Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden. I sat outside, enjoying the sun (like a good German would, I’ve observed). The prices were pushing my budget, for sure. But this is a famous café and, after all my wanderings in Berlin, finding a table gave my feet a chance to relax.

Einstein menu

I had a “Braune” coffee, which meant that along with my dark coffee, I was served a small, warm pitcher of steamed milk to mix as I saw fit.

Kaffee

And I had a piece of Apfelstrudel in vanilla sauce.

My table at Einstein

Mmmm. I ate it slowly to savor the perfectly cooked apples in the crisp, yet buttery, pastry. The creamy sauce added to the sweetness. Heavenly.

The next time I had Apfelstrudel was as a dessert at a dinner in celebration of a fellow student’s birthday. We’d gathered at a somewhat grungy pub, Tiergarten-Quelle, located directly under the Tiergarten S-Bahn station.

Tiergarten-Quelle entrance

The dinner was delicious and I insisted that I couldn’t eat another bite. Until a friend suggested splitting an Apfelstrudel with me. Why not twist my arm a little? Of course, I said yes. And I’m so glad I did.

THE BEST Apfelstrudel (... at least that I tasted)

Tiergarten-Quelle has the best Apfelstrudel I’ve ever stuffed in my mouth. It was piping hot, topped with ice cream and whipped cream, dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Oh gracious! If I hadn’t been so full, I might have resorted to wicked tricks to steal the other half from my friend. But I knew this dessert was not just a line Maria von Trapp/Julie Andrews sings from “My Favorite Things.” This was one of my favorite things!

Charlie's enthusiasm is rightly invested in this dessert

As it turns out, once my husband met up with me in Berlin, this was the first (and then third) Apfelstrudel he tasted. It was, thus, my second, third, and fifth.

So, from whence came the elusive fourth (or Charlie’s second) Apfelstrudel? Where else but in Wien (Vienna, Austria), its purported birthplace!

We had visited a strangely wonderful architectural experiment called Hundertwasser in Wien.

The colorful architecture of Hundertwasser Village

But we were getting hungry and cranky. Charlie was hungry and saw several eating establishments that could easily fit the bill. But we didn’t have much time in Vienna and I didn’t want to waste a dinner at any ol’ place. We noticed a café at the entrance to the village and walked up the stairs to get there. I am so glad we did.

Cafe in Hundertwasser Village

What we had for dinner has since left my memory. But we had, on our last night in Wien, a trinity of strudels as our shared dessert splurge. I can’t remember with precision their contents, but …

The three strudels

I know one was apple (that is, Apfel).

Apfelstrudel

One was custardy.

Filled with a custard of sorts

And one involved berries of some sort.

Berry?

It was all kinds of YUM. And quite fun to try different breeds within the Strudel species.

Variety is the strudel of life

So, in conclusion, here is my Ode to the Strudel:

Ach, Du schöne Apfelstrudel,

Viel besser als einige Nudel,

Wieviel süßer, und leckerer,

Und schneller gegessen.

Ich ess’ Dich am besten.

Speaking of quickly eaten ... Charlie and I must have been racing!

Warning: I’m sure poetry in honor of food should never be written by a non-native speaker, if at all. But here’s my translation:

Oh, you pretty Apple Strudel,

So much better than any noodle,

How much more tasty and sweetened,

And more quickly eaten,

You’re my very favorite to eat.

Schwarzwaldstuben - Mitte, Berlin

Fond nostalgia is the feel Schwarzwaldstuben (translation: Black Forest Lounge) is going for anyway. They have kitschy-cool décor and the food is German-ala-nostalgia in many ways.

A look toward the bar at Schwarzwaldstuben

My German teacher at the Goethe Institut, Detlef, was the one who recommended this place as his favorite for German specialties in Berlin. He seemed to waffle on whether it was truly Schwäbisch or had some other regional loyalties (due to a Fußball jersey he saw hanging there). I, however, have found several online sites calling it either Swabian (the Anglicized name of the German region) or Southern German. So, there you go. I’ll just play the “dumb American” card if I get called on an inaccuracy here.

Menus

Schwarzwaldstuben is quite hip and if you go at the right/wrong times, there can be a wait. There are tables, a bar, and even a nice sofa and stuffed chair section.

Comfy seating available

The place and menu is such that you could order a little pot of coffee (their coffee is quite tasty) and sit and read for awhile (although probably not at dinner time when space is at a premium). But if you’re going there, though, why not make a meal of it?

Meine Kaffee mit Milch

The first time I went, I had Maultaschen (Pronounced: MOWL-tah-shin), large German-raviolis of sorts. The Maultaschen were served with an amazing German potato salad (if I recall correctly) and the flavors were a perfect match.

Maultaschen with potatoes and a great salad

The meal was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! You can’t get Maultaschen just anywhere, so I highly recommend this place. Charlie had them at another restaurant and they were quite different (more fried, I’d say).

Bionade (a naturally carbonated beverage)

I also had Bionade (Pronounced: BEE-oh-nada) to drink, which I recommend for the non-beer inclined (but the beer is reportedly a draw there, too, it’s Rothaus … as the signs outside make abundantly clear).

Schwarzwaldstuben from the outside (the beer-type is advertized more than the restaurant's name!)

I went with a group from my class at lunchtime. There was space for us, but I believe Detlef had called ahead. We sat at a big ol’ booth by the mural. I must report that not all nationalities find Schwäbische Küche as tasty as I did!

Zhishu waves hello

The next (and last – so far) time I went, I decided to try another delectable Southern German dish, Käsespätzle (translation: Cheese Spätzle). Now, I think it cannot be disputed that I like cheese. I really do! This cheese-centric dish was really, really tasty, but almost too greasy even for the most wicked of caloric sinners. The cheeses were of good quality, but there was so much, I lost the Spätzle in the mix.

Käsespätzle (and a listing of what was showing in Berlin outdoor theaters I was flipping through)

For those who are unfamiliar with this classic German side dish (although when combined with cheese, for instance, it can become a centerpiece), Spätzle (Pronounced: SHHPETS-leh) consists of miniature dumplings. Or, like what would happen if a dumpling and a pasta noodle had a baby. They are irregular in shape.

Closer up on the Käsespätzle. The bonus was that it was a big enough serving to make two filling meals.

Another valid reason to visit this restaurant if you’re ever in Berlin is the surrounding neighborhood. It’s in Mitte (City Center), but the streets immediately around Schwarzwaldstuben are very cool and have a different feel from those as you get closer to Museuminsel (Museum Island) further downtown. If you want a walk past some historic locales (and want to peek into a few picturesque Hinterhöfe [courtyards common to Berliner architecture]), take a walk down Auguststraße, for example, which is just a few blocks from the corner of Linienstraße and Tucholskystraße, where Schwarzwaldstuben is located.

A view of the corner

In the meantime, here’s a photo quiz for you:

You’re crossing the street. You see this …

Hmmm, where could this be?

Where are you?

Maybe, instead, you see this and you pause (choosing not to get run down) …

Don't walk!

Any idea where you are now?

Be as specific as you can. Post your guesses in the comments section. I’m predicting it won’t take long for someone to guess correctly.

The Church of St. Elizabeth, or the "Blue Church" in Bratislava

My husband and I spent less than 24 hours in Bratislava, Slovakia. At least 5 of those hours it was pouring. At least 7 of those hours I was sleeping.

So, my experience in the country and its capital is not broad. But I really, really want to go back. And you should want to, too.

Me on the train between Wien and Bratislava

Why, you ask?

Lots of reasons are good ones:

1) It’s an easy and cheap train ride from Vienna.

2) It seems way more “Eastern European” than Austria, for sure, and even more than the Czech Republic, both of which it borders.

A narrow alleyway in old Bratislava

3) It still has a tinge of the Soviet/Eastern Bloc/Old Communist feel to it, which is intriguing.

Bratislava cityscape

4) The old city of Bratislava is enchanting with stone streets (that glisten in the rain).

Nighttime in Bratislava's main square

5) Prices are cheaper than in many of its neighboring countries.

A gelato shop in old Bratislava

But the reason I most want to go back and the reason you need to go at least once is this:

Halušky.

Three Halušky varieties from U Remeselnika

Specifically, the most popular national dish, Bryndzové halušky, which consists of small gnocchi-type dumplings covered in a sharp sheep cheese with bacon on top. Oh. my. goodness.

It’s warm and creamy. The cheese has just enough sour bite to make the bacon a perfect salty complement. The gnocchi are small and firm (sort of like Spätzle, maybe). We had the halušky with other toppings (one was cheese with some sauerkraut-like topping), but the bryndzové is the best we tried.

If there’s a place I can get this in a three-state radius of me, it might tide me over. Otherwise, I’m booking my plane ticket direct to Slovakia the next chance I get. That halušky was some good stuff.

I’d had a tiny sample of it when I was in Prague. Further, my guidebook highly recommended it. So, we had it for lunch as soon as we arrived in Bratislava.

A view into the courtyard of U Remeselnika

That was the best we had, I think. Halušky #1:

Charlie and I shared a trio of Halušky at a folk-craft-center cafe, U Remeselnika

Then I had halušky that night for a late dinner at a great restaurant in a downtown basement. (And Charlie wished he’d ordered it, too!)

We winded down narrow Bratislava streets to reach Prasna Basta, where we had dinner

(We did also try an amazing smoked trout appetizer.) But the star of the meal was Bryndzové Halušky #2:

Lots of traditional Slovak food on the menu at Prasna Basta

Prasna Basta was busy, maybe because of a glowing endorsement of its “charm” in the Lonely Planet guide.

From our table at Prasna Basta

And their halušky was really good, too! But it was too dark to get a clear picture of it.

Then, when we got to the train station an hour early for our departure the next day, we had an early lunch of halušky at the next door eating and drinking establishment.

It sure wasn't fancy, kind of "other side of the tracks"

It wasn’t much to look at, but their Bryndzové Halušky was still great! Bryndzové Halušky #3:

Bryndzové Halušky from the Antic Caffe, next to the train station

It’s just that good. (And the breakfast at our boat-hotel, aka Botel, was just so bad that we were quite famished at 11 a.m.)

Even though seeing all the cheese and bacon drippings I’m no longer wondering how I gained 5 pounds on my trip, I am still begging you: Please tell me where I can get Bryndzové Halušky in these ol’ United States!

Me and my coffee

I am a known coffee enthusiast. Also, I complain about coffee I don’t like.

For this reason, and because of a rash of Facebook status updates regarding coffee pot advice and/or disdain and/or elation, I’ve been asked about coffee pots quite often.

Honestly, though, I’m just the recipient of really good advice.

Well, here’s the story. I’d always been fine with a cheap coffee pot, as long as the coffee wasn’t Maxwell House or something. (Despite catchy jingles, Folgers has never done it for me!) I knew what I’d brewed wasn’t as good as what I could get at a coffee shop, but I considered that on par with my inability to cut my own hair or make proper french fries: I supposed I didn’t have the training nor the equipment to do it.

My first step into the world of “nicer” coffeemakers came when Charlie and I got married.

We had a Cuisinart coffee maker (with some fancy amenities, like a brew-timer and a button to say whether you wanted the coffee “strong” or “regular”) and a thermal carafe, which we purchased with wedding gift cards at Target. We loved it at first. It seemed to make good coffee and the coffee would stay really warm in the carafe.

* cue ominous music *

Slowly, our satisfaction with our coffee pot waned. More often than not, the coffee would come out bitter. We hadn’t been regularly cleaning it with vinegar solutions as a preventative measure, but we did begin to, trying to fix the problem. When this fix failed even after several tries, I suspected the machine had residue deep in its workings. The coffee only got worse, not better. We couldn’t stand it any more and threw out the coffee maker. I still wonder if we could have solved the problem if we’d been more proactive in cleansing the machine.

A French Press in use (Bodum is a good brand)

But I also wonder if the problem was both the machine’s and ours. You see, as we drank coffee more regularly and had nearby access to several good coffee shops, I think our taste in coffee became more and more refined. No longer could any old shop make a latte that I was pleased with. I started being able to distinguish between coffee beans and roasts in ways I hadn’t before. Maybe we had outgrown our pot while it was taking a downward turn into bitterness.

I thought at first we’d just turn to using a French Press. There’s not much to mess up there and I’d noted a lack of the bitterness when I used this method. I talked to my friend Lance, though, and he recounted how his cholesterol had gone up when he’d used the French Press on a daily basis. I looked online and, indeed, if you have any concerns about cholesterol, the French Press needs to only be for occasional usage. Who knows if this would have been a real problem for us, but we do drink coffee daily and I didn’t want to chance it.

This is the point at which I asked for recommendations on Facebook to help us find a new coffeemaker. I got a few happy reviews of an even more elaborate Cuisinart that included a grinder inside the coffee maker. We got a good deal on it at Costco, but I think it still cost around $70. We already had a coffee-grinding appliance, but relegated it to the top shelf of the cupboard. We were upgrading.

* cue thunder crash *

Yuck. Yuck in taste. Yuck in cleaning. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

The combination of coffee grounds and shooting hot water and steam in one close-topped appliance was messy. Wet grounds would get all over the inside of the coffee maker. There were so many crevaces to scrape grounds from with the little brush the machine came equipped with. It was to be cleaned after every use, but the process was tedious and seemingly unnecessary. We soon brought back the regular ol’ coffee grinder, bypassing the “bells” of our “bells and whistles” machine. But the whistle wasn’t that good either.

The coffee was weak. No matter how much or how little grounds you put in the coffee filter, the output was wimpy. And I like my coffee strong. And the wimpy coffee also had a tinge of bitterness.

We were absolutely dissatisfied: grossed out by the messy mechanics of the brewing machine; unimpressed by the weak coffee it put out; frustrated to have paid money for grinding and timing gadgets it turned out we didn’t even like. (We were able to return it for a full refund. We love Costco!)

* the music brightens *

But one day we discussed coffee-making contraptions with friends of ours, Ricky and Janette. They had done all the research. They were true coffee aficionados. They recommended the brewing system from Technivorm called the Moccamaster. We, of course, had never heard of it. But Ricky and Janette swore that it made the best coffee in the world. Better yet, they invited us over for breakfast to taste it.

* orchestration swells *

The coffee was so good. It was piping hot, deep brown, rich, and steaming. It wasn’t bitter. At all. I could drink it without cream and sugar. I wanted to drink it without cream and sugar!

* cymbal crash *

So, we had found our coffee pot. The only problem, as Janette and Ricky had warned us, was that it was expensive. This Dutch system was rare in the U.S. and costly.

(Side note: Janette told me recently that Williams Sonoma now carries Technivorm, but they were more expensive. When I looked back to the site, Boyd Coffee, the place from which we’d received ours, their prices have gone up too! Yikes. Boyd ships theirs very well and includes some coffee and the correct filters, which is very nice.)

* dramatic pause *

But we ended up asking for it for Christmas and my mother-in-law bought it for us and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened in our coffee lives.

Coffee in the foreground, Technivorm in the background

What we learned (from Ricky and Janette – see how dependent we are?) was that most coffee brewing machines have the same basic mechanism for heating the water and dripping it through the ground coffee. Even the fancy pots we bought had the same inner workings, just with more electrical workings around it and shinier exteriors.

The Technivorm, on the other hand, heats the water to a much higher temperature and, quickly, sends it through the filter full of grounds. (Here’s a review.) If you’ve ever had really good commercially brewed coffee, you might have had a similar experience of hot coffee without bitterness.

The machine looks way different than what most American coffee pots look like. I like it aesthetically. And, more importantly, it keeps giving us the best coffee of our lives.

The machine from a different angle

So, should you get a Technivorm Moccamaster?

Let me ask you:

1)   Are you satisfied with coffee from your old coffee pot?

2)   Would paying nearly $300 for a coffeemaker be totally impossible for you? (Even as a gift on a wishlist?)

3)   Are you entirely unconcerned with cholesterol? OR, do you only drink coffee 2-3 times per week?

- If you answer questions #1 with a “yes,” then no, please don’t waste your money.

- If you answer question #1 with a “no,” but #2 with a “yes,” then proceed to question(s) #3.

- If you are dissatisfied with coffee made in a typical coffeemaker, but don’t have the money to buy a Technivorm, you should consider a French Press. They’re way less expensive, but have the cholesterol concerns I mentioned above. If you don’t drink it daily, it could be less of a health concern.

- If you answer all “no”s, don’t despair. Maybe you need to remind yourself of the best ways to make coffee: For instance, if you use substandard coffee beans or if you use pre-ground beans, maybe you just need to upgrade your coffee quality and invest in a grinder. This will at least be a temporary solution for you, I bet. Fresh ground beans (ground by you at home) make better tasting coffee. Arabica beans, the more freshly roasted the better, make the best coffee. I personally dislike Columbian coffee. Ask if you can sample some of Starbucks’s or your local coffee shop’s brews, if you want to develop your coffee tastes and figure out what types of coffee blends you prefer. If you live near a Whole Foods, they roast their coffees onsite and often have beans that have been roasted that very day for sale. Also, the amount of coffee most machines/coffee companies advise you to use is often too little. (Like Pop Tarts thinking a serving size is really one tart. Yeah right. Why pack them together, then? Punks!) Likewise, you really should use nearly 2 Tbs. of ground coffee per “serving” of output (that is not a full cup! 6 oz. I believe). That is a lot of coffee. This site can help. Lastly, are you using filtered water in the coffee making process? That can improve the taste, too. Making these little adjustments may be all the fix your coffee taste buds need.

The name, the power

But if you’re just unhappy with anything you brew at home, drink coffee daily, and buy high quality whole coffee beans (preferably Fair Trade) … and just can’t figure out what’s wrong, think about saving up for the Technivorm Moccamaster. I can testify that it has saved me lots of money on Starbucks; I just don’t have to go out for excellent coffee anymore. If you get a Technivorm, I am guessing you’ll be really glad you did.

* Kara takes a bow and vows that she’s not paid to promote or bad mouth any of these companies. *

Tacos from Los Pinos

Now, don’t get me wrong: Los Pinos was pretty stinking good. But I think the search still continues for the best Mexican food in New Jersey. While I really liked a lot of what we had at Los Pinos, I still had some major complaints. Where are the Mexican restaurants where the chips and salsa are superb and each thing you taste gets even better? I know they exist elsewhere (hello, I’ve been to some in Idaho, New Mexico, California).

I had read some really positive Yelp! reviews about Los Pinos. And ever since I spotted them (and because it’s about the closest sit-down-restaurant to our rural dwelling) I’ve wanted to go.

So, today Charlie and I took a day-cation. (Could this be a Kara-coined synonym for day-trip?) We had Mexican food for lunch, visited Point Pleasant beach and boardwalk (well, technically just the boardwalk, but that’s another New Jersey story for another day), and saw a movie. A nice vacationey day.

Remember how Yelp! reviews work and my problem with over-rating?

This time, I had the opposite problem. I waaaaaaanted to score Los Pinos higher, but I just couldn’t. Here’s my review from Yelp! (with some photos added for fun):

The side plate of rice and beans that came with my tacos

This may just be the best Mexican food in New Jersey. Buuuuuuuuut that’s not saying too much. Sorry! It’s still really good, but I’ll need to go back (and I will!) before I can raise the score above a solid three stars.

The GOOD:

Los Pinos's "Orchata" = delicioso!

Affordability: My tacos were $8.95 for a platter and some were $7.95. My husband’s burrito plate was in the $9 range. More elaborate dishes went above $10, but it was really an inexpensive price range for the good food we received.

Their Horchata (or Orchata as the menu says) was excellent. Perhaps the best we’ve ever had. Try this milky Mexican drink!

I had the tacos Al Pastore (pork, pineapple, with spicy sauce) and they were very good. The meat was certainly of good quality (some Mexican restaurants can try to hide poor quality meat under heavy spices). The “soft” tacos are in corn tortillas, which is delicious and very authentic. I would recommend the soft over the hard shells (which were good, but just not as good) here. My husband, the true Mexican-food-critic, was really pleased with his carnitas burrito. Everything was presented well and the service was impeccable. Our meals came to us piping hot. The beans were tasty and the rice wasn’t dry. They use fresh cilantro and romaine instead of iceberg. Portions are generous without being obscene. All of this is really excellent!

Charlie's Carnitas Burrito plate

The NOT-SO-GOOD:

Maybe the cooks have over-compensated for a previous review (see Yelp! review by C.S.) that said some of Los Pinos’s food was too salty, because I found it to be the opposite: I really had to add salt in order to taste some of the flavors in my tacos. This does a disservice to the good ingredients and spices they’re using; salt is a flavor enhancer and should be used as such.

My only other complaint is the salsa … it tasted kind of like cold tomato soup with cilantro mixed in. The tomato component did not seem fresh and there were almost no chunks at all. That really, really needs to change. I know that people in New Jersey can be wimps when it comes to spice, but PLEASE! I think it is the tastelessness of the salsa that really pushed their score from a 4-star rating to only 3 stars.

Overall, I highly recommend Los Pinos and I plan to go back. I hope it’s soon! And I hope the salsa is better.

Here, Charlie is tasting the chips and salsa. He is neither repulsed nor elated. Things could be better.

A few of my recent trips have given me a better taste of the South than I believe I had previously. I was enchanted by New Orleans’s French Quarter while there for a conference this past November. To get to my 50th U.S. state before I turned 30, Charlie and I traveled down to Charleston, South Carolina for Easter weekend. Boy, the South sure can be grand. But I felt myself conflicted while appreciating the glory and architectural splendor of the South, all the while remembering the history of slavery that brought that kind of affluence, as well as the ongoing struggle to end the disparity between black and white. I didn’t live through the Civil War or the Civil Rights movement, but why did it still haunt me as I visited the pretty parts of southern cities with a long, checkered past?

(I don’t mean to sound ignorant of the great human evils inflicted in any geographical region, North or South or West or Midwest, Stateside or otherwise. A look at the history of any place is a look at triumphs mingled with errors and horrors.)

This book took a long stroll through the kind of questions I had: How might a white person have experienced the tumult of the Civil Rights Movement in the South? How might a black person have? Was there ever good mixed in with the pain?

As I read the book, I thought of Jestine’s Kitchen. It’s an extremely popular (and rightfully so) restaurant in Charleston, famous for its Southern cooking. The restaurant is named after Jestine Matthews, the long-time household cook of the restaurant owner (and the previous generation of that family).

The reflective front window of Jestine's Kitchen

You see, as the story goes, Jestine helped with at least two generations of the family, as she lived to be 112. The restaurant’s Facebook page has a summary of her story. And the food is so good. The fried green tomatoes, the sweet tea, the fried chicken … all delicious. We loved the desserts we tried, Pineapple Bread Pudding and the Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake.

Jestine's famous Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake

But when I learned about Jestine herself and about the apparent love and loyalty between her and her long-time employers, I just couldn’t figure out how a relationship of “unequals” in many ways, socio-economically and in the power structure of employer-employee, could seem (to a total outsider of course) to have been so loving and appreciative.

Of course, I’ll never know about Jestine, but the book The Help gives a variety of examples of the potential both for wickedness and for love, compassion, and bravery that humans possess.

See a predominant brand?

Lonely Planet is the guide I trust for travel. They’re not always right in their praise or nay-saying, but they’re good at finding what’s really worth seeing in a place, and ignoring what turns out to be only touristy hype.

My stack of travel guides in the photo to the left demonstrates that they’ve won my allegiance. I don’t know where my guides for Great Britain, Turkey, Austria, and the Czech and Slovak Republics are … but those are all Lonely Planet too! Quite the stash!

So, when I found out from the linked blog post above that Lonely Planet is posting suggested U.S. Road Trips to their Facebook page, I said, “Yes, please!”

(It’s item #2 of the Intelligent Travel Blog’s Daily Radar. I’ve found great things–like the International Food Festival in Prague, for instance–by subscribing to National Geographic Travel’s blog presence.)

I already looked through the New Jersey Diners road tripping guide and it makes me want to try some of them out. I mean, I’m a bit put out that they entirely scooted by MY AREA of New Jersey (Central Jersey) and just went for North Jersey and the Shore … but it’s also even more helpful that way, since I already know about most of the good diners around here. And if you want to know good diners in Central Jersey, you can just ask me. A win for us and a win for Lonely Planet again, eh?

Cafe Central (Wien/Vienna) - excluded from the running in this post

The Coolest ¹ Coffee Shops ² in the World ³ so far

I love footnoting, so every superscripted number here points to a caveat at the bottom of the post. They’re very important for understanding my rationale in choosing the places I did.

1) The Flying M Coffee Garage – 1314 2nd Street South, Nampa, Idaho

The picture below shows only one of the distinct areas of this roomy Firestone-garage-turned-coffee-shop-heaven. There’s an eccentric gift store area. There’s a couch and tables, more traditional “coffee shop” area, with huge windows all around. There’s a space for bands to perform. There is an area for bigger groups sitting around tables. And, finally, it has a balcony (pictured below) with work stations, complete with plugs. The one time I had the opportunity to use it, I found it incredibly easy to write there.

Flying M - The Study Loft area (in the garage), which is part of why I love it so much.

The space aside, the Flying M Coffee Garage has excellent coffee drinks, competitively priced, and the most consistently good baked goods I’ve ever experienced in a coffee house. It’s constantly alive with activity and draws an eclectic crowd in this mid-sized Idaho town.

2) RIM Café – 1172 S 9th St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

My husband and I stumbled upon this coffee shop when we were looking for a late-night place to wait out a friend’s delayed plane. Most coffee shops were closed between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., which happened to be when we needed them. A Yelp! search alerted me to RIM, so we drove there. It’s in the Italian Market part of town, right down the block from the incredibly famous and popular dueling Cheesesteak franchises, Geno’s and Pat’s (Pat’s is better).

Rene, working his magic.

As my husband said, “You’ll never pay more for a latte, but you’ll never have a better one.” It’s a small, dimly lit shop, run by Rene, a man from Nice in the south of France. He’s the artist of the coffee mixes, and the charismatic heart of the shop. Patrons watch as he mixes drinks, shaves exotic chocolates into the mix, spins the concoctions around while drizzling syrups on them, and turns out potable masterpieces. All the while, he’s shouting, “I’ma gonna make it hap-pen!” and “Oh my God!” (We were quite taken aback the first time we went in, since we had no idea what to expect!) Drinks cost between $7-12, I’d say (I’ll have to check to be more precise). But it’s more of a gourmet dessert experience than a simple latte. His peanut butter hot chocolate (the Nutty Volcano) is, I can assure you, divine.

3) Tea Drops ⁴ – 4111 Pennsylvania Avenue, Westport, Kansas City, Missouri

I’m pretty sure you can’t get any coffee here. But the shop design, menu, and tea/tea-brewing merchandise is pretty fabulous. I’ve had bubble tea elsewhere, but it’s never as good. Of course, I like the milky versions better than the plain teas, but it’s the black tapioca bubbles that are my favorites. I love the look of surprise on a newbie’s face when their large straw shoots a chewy bubble into his or her mouth. Ha!

I cannot find a photo of Tea Drops in all my pictures, even though I’ve been there at least a dozen times. I can find pictures of me grinning with friends in the premises, but they show our faces … not the coolness of the shop.

4) South Street Café – 105 South Street, Bennington, Vermont

This is one of the places I’ve stopped while passing through and I thought, “Oh, I wish we had this. I’d read here all the time. As strangers to town, we walked in and felt comfortable. I moved it so high up the list because it seemingly had something for everyone, and used space really well. The coffee was affordable, with free refills (with their on-site mugs), and good!

The front door of the South Street Cafe - Bennington, Vermont

We stopped here on a frigidly cold day in February on our way back from a weekend in Woodstock, Vermont. We needed lunch – and I usually don’t like coffee shops standard panini or pre-made sandwich lunches. We saw on their chalkboard menu that their soup of the day was African and inquired what that meant. The barista highly recommended it, so we said “sure.” It was a steaming crock of root vegetables and legumes in a thick, richly-spiced broth. It warmed us up wonderfully, along with some tasty bread on the side. We ordered, also, a spinach and feta pastry (I believe). Together they were almost too filling.

5) Caras Gourmet Coffee – Neue Schönhauser Straße 9, Mitte, Berlin, Germany

Berlin has a lot of great cafes and they all serve really stellar coffee. Many are designed beautifully. But many serve lots and lots of different things in the category of food and alcoholic beverages. Caras is a more “American-style” coffee shop. And, because much of their menu was in English, I suspected that it wasn’t not actually German, but I think from their website that it is. Germans do that sort of thing and this was along a popular shopping street, very close to the very-touristy Hackescher Markt area.

Charlie trying out Caras Gourmet Coffee, which was near my school in Berlin.

This shop had a front seating area, as you can see above, with wide windows looking onto the bustling street. There is also a long, more narrow seating area further back where I had success finishing up my daily homework. The most popular place to sit, as I observed in nearly all German cafes, is outside. There were many, street-facing seats where people would come to sip their coffees, smoke, talk, read, and people-watch. Sehr Deutsch.

6)  [The Original] Starbucks – Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington

There’s nothing special about this Starbucks (at least when I last visited), excepting the large gold post in the shop marking it as the flagship store for the worldwide franchise. But if you like Starbucks (and I do) and if you like pilgrimages (and I do) and if you like city markets like the one in which the shop is found (and I so do), then you’ll like visiting the first Starbucks.

7) Coffee & Co. – Laurinská 135/5, Bratislava, Slovakia

We stumbled onto Coffee & Co. in the old city of Bratislava, picturesque, cobblestoned, and very Eastern European looking. Whether we should have been or not, we were surprised at how modern it was. It was very affordable and had all sorts of fun coffee drinks (iced and hot). The bright space was equipped with varied seating areas, including booths, sofas, and chairs.

Coffee & Co. - Bratislava - So good, we went here twice in 24 hours.

I can also state for the record that our Slovakian language skills were very, very poor, but the workers were quite patient and nice to dumb tourists like us. If I recall correctly, we twice heard Lady Gaga playing in the store.

8 ) Claire de Lune – 2906 University Avenue, North Park, San Diego, California

The North Park area is a fun neighborhood in San Diego; and on our recent visit to San Diego, Charlie introduced me to the long University Avenue that runs through quite diverse parts of town. My friend Rob met us at Claire de Lune – his suggestion – and we had some time waiting for him beforehand. We tried a dessert, which was delicious, but I can’t remember what it was. The brewed coffee was quite strong and not bitter — a good sign.

I wish I had better photos of Claire de Lune.

The place had a wonderful ambiance, and its balcony reminded me a little of my favorite coffee shop (Flying M, above). I can see myself sitting in one of these chairs for hours, reading and nursing a mug of hot coffee.

9) Kudu Coffee House – 4 Vanderhorst St, Charleston, South Carolina

Kude Coffee House - I really liked the lion! There was a beautiful courtyard, too.

This coffee house seemed to have a funky crowd. The group sitting in the back corner were, I think, discussing how to use grant money they’d won. There was discussion while we were there about the set-up for a concert that would be held in the evening. We watched groups of friends talking in the courtyard, and even a dog seemed to concur that it was a great place to spend a Spring afternoon.

10) Cupcake ⁵ – 36 Zionskirchstrasse, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany

As the name suggests, this little German shop specialized in cupcakes (of the American sort, which differ from German-style cakes both in density and sweetness). It can be found in the cutest side-street in Prenzlauer Berg (northeast of Berlin’s city center), right across the street from Zionskirche, where Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught Confirmation for a time.

This photo cost me at Cupcake in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin!

The coffee was good, too, although I thought things were overpriced. * Please read the related caveats below. I want to emphasize: this place was amazingly cute, but I hope their staff has changed.

Honorable Mention: Small World Coffee – 14 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton's most popular coffee shop (Photo taken in the breathtaking Spring)

Caveats:

¹ Okay, my taste for coffee has been strongly shaped by Starbucks. So, I often prefer the taste of Starbucks to other coffees. But by saying “coolest” and not “best-tasting,” I’m expanding the category and making up for the fact that the Corporate Beast has won my loyalty.

² This includes the genre of coffee shop where various coffees and pastries are the main focus of the shop (which excludes places where warm drinks may be central, but along with full meals, alcohol, etc.). Specifically, I’m excluding the grandeur of Vienna’s “coffee houses,” many of which also serve gourmet $50 meals. I’ve only been to one of those and it was great, but it’s kind of a genre of its own. That would be an unfair comparison.

³ … the world as I’ve experienced it, that is, what do I know of coffee shops in South Africa or Ukraine? Nothing. And, so, I’m just basing my absolute statements about what I absolutely know and don’t know.

⁴ Okay, it’s not coffee, but it’s so good that I’m including it. What do you wanna do ‘bout it? I can break my own rules. Bubble Tea makes me giddy with delight. Giddy. My favorite is a Red Bean Bubble Freeze.

⁵ I hope against hope that they have better staff now than when I was there. Their cupcakes and décor make a visit worthwhile even if the Evil-Photo-Scrooge ⁶ is still employed.

Cupcake (in Berlin) strikes me as what it would look like if Anthropologie had a cupcake/coffee shop.

⁶ I wanted to say Evil-Photo-Nazi. That would work in the U.S. But when speaking of Germans (although she may not have been a German; she refused to speak to me in German, even though I was pretty good at this point in my stay … See one of the reasons why I was annoyed?!), it’s best to avoid the use of such a historically-real term, even though Americans use it just to be derogatory. She made me pay 20 Euro-cents to take a single lousy photo. After I took it. What a punk. It wasn’t even a good picture. Outside pictures were free.

Charlie's iced caramel latte from Rim Cafe

In summary: I love coffee.

My breakfast at Shades in Ocean Beach

Well, I didn’t name the blog the “Wandering Palate” because I like to stay put …

My last post was about the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., to which I’ve been twice (once in May 2008 and the second time in July 2009). In this post, I’m recollecting a breakfast spot on the opposite coast. In San Diego, to be more precise. When we were in San Diego in March, a family friend took me to breakfast at Shades in Ocean Beach. I think it’s a popular breakfast spot. Admittedly, many people have been to the restaurant more often than I have. Many people have tried more menu items than I have.

But let me recommend the one I had: the Calamari Benedict. The menu described it this way: “Our famous Eggs Benedict with a tender, breaded, grilled Calamari steak in place of the traditional Canadian bacon.” Charlie’s the eggs benedict lover in our family, but I’ve always liked the dish from the tastes off his plate that I’ve had. What sold me on ordering this, however, was the promise of calamari steak.

The texture took some getting used to because there was just so much calamari. I’m not complaining! But the hollandaise was rich and creamy. The coffee was good and the view is wonderful. Try it, if you’re in the area.

Orchids at the National Botanic Garden

Within eyeshot of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., lies a gem that <<I suspect>> is overlooked by its illustrious next door neighbors, Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, as well as the American Indian Museum. But for a rejuvenating break from the race to see it all the U.S. capital, I highly recommend the United States Botanic Garden.

White orchids

For the museum lovers like me, everything is helpfully labeled.

It's kind of like how I used to label every person in my drawings.

The center room with a in-the-trees walkway is rainforesty and humid. But all of the climates in this big country of ours are represented in the garden.

Cactus with built-in bling

It’s a great, picturesque place to visit.

Spotted orchid and its friend

Bleeding Heart Vine

There's so much to see, take time to soak it all in.

This was definitely one of my most favorite sites in Washington, D.C.

I am married to a New Mexican.

And in the interest of family harmony, I’ll just say, not all areas of New Mexico were created equal.

Parts are awesome: Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, Ruidoso.

Other parts are not: ________. (I’ll keep the location names to myself! The same, of course, is true of just about anywhere. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m from one of the homelier parts of Idaho!)

Being in-law to New Mexicans, I’ve learned that not only do they serve some delicious food (Green Chiles!), but there are some dramatically beautiful sights. At the end of June, we took a last minute trip to New Mexico for a family funeral. It was a sad occasion, but a blessing to be with Charlie’s family.

The drives from Albuquerque to Ruidoso (a mountain town) and back, which bookended our trip, were a delightful bonus in a journey like this one. We saw thousands of blooming yucca plants on our way down to Ruidoso. It is awe-inspiring that beautiful stalks of delicate white blossoms have found a way to thrive in the desert.

In New Mexico, however, it’s not only the land–mountains, valleys, vegetation, and plains–that make for lovely scenery. The star attraction is the sky, which is wide and open.

Having lived on the East Coast for four full years now, I don’t see this kind of sky often. There are a lot of trees, a lot of buildings, and most of the land (around here in NJ) is relatively flat.

So, even though all of the above pictures were taken with an iPhone 3G (not the best photo quality) they represent the kind of awesome openness that a place like New Mexico provides.

Land of Enchantment, yes.

I tried Princeton’s House of Cupcakes first, but I think the far, far superior cupcake shop (in taste and welcoming atmosphere) in the area is Sugar + Sunshine Bakery in Plainsboro, NJ.

This review is adapted from the one I posted on Yelp!, which you can find, along with other reviews, here. See the ranking scale in the previous post. As I stated there: I’m an effusive rater.

I want to give this place FIVE STARS.

But, as a coffee drinker (and moderate coffee snob), I must say their coffee warrants a two-star rating. I’ve had far better. Sorry! I suggest the management get someone from Small World (a Princeton coffee house from which Sugar + Sunshine wisely buys their beans) to come teach them how to brew a good strong cup. They’ve got the right coffee materials (good beans), but there’s something amiss when the product comes out quite weak.

EVERYTHING ELSE, however, is so five-worthy. I’ve tried several different flavors (chocolate, coconut), but my favorite are the Red Velvet cupcakes. Love them: the perfect mix of creamy frosting and mid-level-density cupcakes … they’re so good. In fact, I haven’t had a cupcake I didn’t like. I’ve been at least four times and had cupcakes a friend brought another time. They’re awfully gooooood.

Something very interesting about their Red Velvet is that it’s not red, per se. It’s reddish. As they state here, they use only natural ingredients and – apparently – bottles of red food coloring just don’t make the “natural” cut! They rely, rather, on the natural reaction of the cocoa with the other ingredients to lend the cupcake a reddish tinge. The flavor, I assure you, isn’t lacking in the least.

Since coffee shops and bakeries are, for me, academic resources–that is, places in which I can bribe myself with food and caffeine to get writing and reading done–I also need to give Sugar+Sunshine points for study-ability. It’s a very bright, comfortable atmosphere. It’s busy enough to not feel awkward (as though you’re hoping to establish squatters rights by camping out for hours in silence), but quiet enough to not prove a big distraction (they have business off and on, but few people stay for too long). I don’t think they have Wifi, which would be a nice addition.

Plainsboro is close enough to Princeton to make it completely convenient. The bakery is not far off Rt. 1, which means its business could multiply tenfold if the right wind blew. Visit it before it gets overrun!