Tas Firini Uzun - Turkish Pide Restaurant (Mannheim)

Hands down. This is the best Turkish restaurant, I've ever been to. They have the best pide and lamacun of all times. My boyfriend and me usually have a butter cheese pide and a large lamacun together for only about 10€.

The only downfall is that the restaurant just doesn't look too nice. But it's always crowded. So the owners probably don't really care if it looks appealing from the interior design aspect.

But let me tell you something... Most restaurant that look really stylish have a bad chef who can make tasteless stuff but makes it look really beautiful. This restaurant is exactly the opposite. It might not look too special but the food is amazing. The best thing is the stone oven. It is huge! Three men work altogether. Everything is soooo delicious. So if you're in Mannheim, go visit and see for yourself. The dishes are very affordable. Most dishes cost about 5€.

Tas Firini Uzun

G5, 12

68159 Mannheim

 

Galletas de Ajo

This is one of my favorite salty snacks in the Dominican Republic: garlic bread chips. They are way better than German bread chips. Not as hard and also more delicious. Also this brand is better than others I've tried... It's where my boyfriend had a part-time job as a student.

 

Exotic fruits

These are nispero and zapote, exotic fruits from the Dominican Republic.
From the outside they look a bit like kiwi but they taste completely different. Somehow like papaya but sweeter. They taste similar but zapote is much bigger, almost like a honey melon.
They also taste great as juice or batida (milk mix).

Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese franchise restaurant with high-quality food. They are especially famous for their mini dumplings (Xiao Long Bao 小籠包).

Do you see the people outside this restaurant? That's during lunch time and they all wait to be seated. Don't imagine how dinner time looks like...

I've been to one in Beijing with my cousin and his wife and this one is in Taiwan. But they are also located in Australia, USA, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other cities in China. I can't wait for them to come to Europe.

It's also easy for foreigners because their menu has pictures and is written in several languages including English.

Anyway a must-eat is the dim sum dish Xiao Long Bao 小籠包

 

 

Vienna, Austria

My first visit to Vienna was for a job interview last year. It was 2 days after my job interview in Switzerland. I drove all the way to both interviews on my own. It took forever - 3 hours to Switzerland and almost a day to Vienna. And I most certainly won't ever drive that much in a day anymore. My nerves were shattered, I was tired and I needed more and more breaks on my way...

The job interview in Vienna wasn't bad but I wasn't at my best state of mind. Take my word for it... Don't ever drive a whole day to have a job interview. Flying would have saved me so much nerves.

If I didn't accept the Swiss offer first, this would have been my second choice. The job would have been interesting as well as I would have traveled a lot all over the world. Even more than I do now. But it would also be more difficult to see my boyfriend. I'm sure I made the right choice.

Vienna has all these amazing huge buildings. Isn't it beautiful?

It is a huge city but it doesn't feel too big.

The food is made for meat lovers. It's great for a couple days but maybe not for every day. Otherwise it's even more difficult to stay in shape...

New wine is called "Sturm" btw. I'm a big fan of it, so fresh and sweet.

 

Miyako - Japanese Restaurant in Geneva

I made a business trip to Geneva a couple months ago. Since my colleague and me were early, we decided to have sushi.

This is seriously the best sushi I've had in Europe. But the price is ridiculous. We paid about 70 CHF each for a little bit of sushi - I got one roll of six pieces, a tea and a tofu.

The menu is amazing. I haven't seen that many dishes in a long time. This guy above did my fried tofu.

Sorry I didn't take many pictures because I was hungry and wanted to eat it immediate.

Since everything is expensive in Geneva it probably wasn't all that expensive but coming from Germany it definitely is.

If you've got too much money and appreciate great Japanese food, you can take a look. It got great reviews on trip advisor.

http://www.miyako.ch/

Restaurant Japonais Miyako
Rue de Chantepoulet 11
1201 Genève
Switzerland

 

Beijing - The Imperial Mansion

My first business trip got me to this fabulous hotel in Beijing - The Imperial Mansion Beijing, Marriott Executive Apartments << click >>. It is a 5-Star hotel with excellent service.

My hotel room was three times as big as my appartment. There was a walk-in closet including a safe, iron and iron board... I had a whirlpool that I didn't use because it was too warm and I was too busy.

There was a kitchen, two flat screens, a living room area and some office area... I seriously didn't use half of my room.

Since most guests are international, there were also international plugs. I love these... I've bought quite a few products abroad and everything is so chunky using an adapter. Where can I get these plugs?

The breakfast was the only meal that we took in the hotel. So I can't comment on the restaurants. I liked the breakfast - it is mostly international standard... So there are eggs - freshly prepared in any style you want - scrambled, sunny side up, boiled, etc. I had omelette on both mornings, which is not on the picture because the chef was still preparing it for me. As you can see, there was also bacon, fresh fruits, and sweet potatoe. You could also have cereals, lots of juice, cooked and fried vegetables, ham, cheese, bread, etc. Coffee in China is horrible! Drink tea, if possible.

I didn't go to the gym or the pool. So I don't know about that either...
Anyway, I only stayed for a couple nights and didn't quite need such a huge hotel room but it was excellent and I enjoyed the whole trip.

Besides...
Unfortunately, I didn't get the job because it was coupled to the deal with the Chinese company. They don't produce everything themselves which the German company needs, thus it is more expensive than what the Germans expected, leading to the failure of the whole deal. It is too bad. Now, I'm back where I began...

 

Palms Garden - Chinese Restaurant

I love traditional Chinese food. It's really quite difficult to find a good place in Germany as most Chinese restaurants have adapted dishes that sometimes don't even exist in Asia. I hate all-you-can-eat buffets normally because usually there aren't enough customers so the food stays in the trays for hours which changes its flavor... Besides, Chinese food can be cooked within minutes. Whenever I'm hungry and tell my dad (he's a chef), he'll have the food done in no time. Unfortunately, I don't live that close that I could visit him every week. So I'm always looking out for new locations...

 

I live an hour away from Frankfurt but I still go to that restaurant Palms Garden because it is THAT insanely GREAT... Even though it is all-you-can-eat... but the Chinese Hot Pot is to die for... There are so many customers every day, not only on special occasions. Every time we need to wait for a table to be cleared. There are a bunch of Asian people every time. That's a very easy indication of great traditional Chinese food btw ;-) not only in Germany.

We always choose the half-spicy-half-non-spicy broth. But be careful - spicy really is spicy...

The incredible amount of ingredients for the hot pot is cooled in the open fridge (left picture). You can take small plates to carry them to your table. On the right-hand side, you can see the main ingredients for the dips. You can mix whatever you like. I mostly go with satay sauce (not saté as peanut butter but a Chinese BBQ sauce), some garlic and spring onions... There's nothing like great satay sauce... Yummy :)

On the lower pictures, you can see the normal buffet. I'm not a big fan of that but if you only choose the normal buffet, it's cheaper.

I mostly take a lot of seafood and spinach... There are also some weird looking mushrooms which aren't on the picture - I think they are called Miso in Japanese.

 

The dessert consists of ice cream, fruits (seasonal and canned), sesame rolls, cream puffs, fried bananas, coconut pearls, etc.

For dinner, we usually pay around 17€ per person (including 1€ for all-you-can-drink soft drinks). One little hot pot stove costs around 5€, which is enough for four people. So depending on the amount of people, it might be a little more than 17€... If you come during lunch time, it is cheaper but there's also less variety. If you don't chose the hot pot, it'll be less as well.

 

Japanese Gifts

Thank you, Yoko! I love to get gift boxes from my friends, especially from far away... My friend Yoko sent me some Japanese sweets, a little pouch, and a postcard from Kyoto.

 

I use the pouch for my external hard drive now. It's so cute!

Do you remember my green tea posts? I love green tea matcha latte products from Japan. Taiwan has some products as well but they don't taste quite as good. Now, Yoko sent me these matcha latte langues du chat.

 

She also gave me these cute looking candy. I was a little afraid to eat them because I wasn't sure, if it was indeed candy. I've seen some soap shaped as pralines some weeks ago... Also it's quite a shame to eat anything that looks so adorable...

 

I liked the green tea langues du chat a lot better ^.^ I'm such a fan of green tea products.

 

Recipe: Donauwelle Cupcake Version

Since my apartment doesn't have an oven and it's quite small, I bought a microwave-oven combination to save some space. Unfortunately, I can't bake any cakes anymore because the center won't become solid, while I have to be really careful with the top because it can burn easily. It's a mess!

Well, but I still like baking, so I switched to making muffins and cupcakes instead. This is how I make Donauwelle, a very famous German cake, as cupcake version.

Ingredients for the dough

• 150g of butter
• 150g of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g of flour
• 1/2 pck of baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1-2 tbsp cocoa
• 2/3 glass of morello cherries

Ingredients for the Buttercream

• 400g of sweetened condensed milk
• 250g of butter

200g of chocolate coating

 

Instructions

1. Stir the butter and sugar until it's foamy.
2. Add one egg after the other.
3. Mix the baking soda, the flour, and the salt.
4. Add it to the dough. Stir everything.
5. Divide the dough into two parts.
6. Add the cocoa to one part.
7. Drain the cherries.
8. Make the buttercream by mixing the sweetened condensed milk and the butter.
9. For each cupcake, add 1 tbsp of dark dough to your muffin cup, then 1 tbsp of light dough, and some cherries (about 5).
10. Bake them in your oven. 30min on 175°C. For my microwave-oven combination it takes 2x20 min on 150°C but it should be a lot faster in a normal oven. The second time it goes inside, I need to cover it up with aluminum foil.
11. Let your cupcakes cool down before the next step.
12. Pipe your buttercream with a pastry bag on top of the cupcake. If you can, you could form roses, but I'm not gifted enough...
13. When you're done with the buttercream, melt the chocolate coating in a water bath.
14. Coat each cupcake with 1 tbsp of chocolate.

Hope you like my cupcake version of the famous Donauwelle!

 

Sushi Party

Yesterday we went to a Sushi Party. Everybody brought some ingredients and we made sushi together. Look at all the deliciousness of last night...

 

 

The might not look as great as from real sushi masters but it was still great... Wouldn't you want to go to a sushi party as well?

The only thing I'm a little picky about is the handling of the food... I mean, I know everyone washed their hands before touching the food but I really prefer using tools like chopsticks and spoons. There's just too much hands involved. I don't know... The other thing is the dipping. I really like having my own dipping bowl, except for family or really close friends.

 

Taiwanese Snacks

Lays is my favorite Chips brand. Whenever I find some new sorts, I need to try it out. In Taiwan, they have Lays Kyushu Seaweed, which is quite delicious. Can't compete with my favorite Barbeque (US) or Thai Sweet Chili (Germany) but it's still pretty great.

That noodle snack next to it isn't my favorite. It doesn't have enough spices to keep me interested. I wouldn't repurchase it. Actually, eating instant noodles before cooking is quite a great snack. Probably isn't healthy though.

 

Talking about healthy, seaweed is a great substitute for chips! It has only few calories (3kcal per g) and it weighs like nothing. That's like one of these little plastic packages which contain about 5 seaweed papers. There's also no fat. Of course, there's a lot of iodine salt so it's not healthy to eat the whole box but a couple of these little packages are great...

 

Dried fish or dried meat is also a very famous snack in Taiwan. There are lots of different styles and spices around them... It's typical for Asian food to be both salty, a little sweet and spicy.

If you find a Carrefour in Taiwan, you can go to the snack bar and try out each of them. There are little cups in front or next to the stuff, so don't be shy... Unless you're vegetarian ;-)

 

The next snack is sweet and sour... These are dried plums, Suanmei. There are also quite a lot of types... They vary in their intensity of sourness or saltiness, depending on their purpose: eating or cooking...

You can also pour hot water on top of them to get Suanmei Tea. It's popular as well but I'm not a big fan of the beverage but the plums themselves I love...

My mom said, they're also great for pregnant women because of their weird cravings for sour and sweet food.

 

The next snack is made of peanuts and roasted black sesame. It's coated in sugar like almonds at the Christmas market... I love these nutty snacks.

 

Another sweet but somehow salty snack is this little cake. They taste a little like moon cakes because they also contain egg yolk in the middle. This isn't a light snack though... I think one of these little cakes has about 300kcal. It's quite filling. I wouldn't be able to eat more than one at once...

 

At last, I found Hello Kitty chewing gum with strawberry flavor from Wrigleys. I'm not a big fan of the gum because it's too artificial and sweet but I love the packaging... Isn't it cute ^.^

 

 

So what do you say? Would you try out some snacks?

 

Happy New Snake Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, my lovely fellow bloggers! I wish you all the best in the world for the new snake year! It's supposed to be a year of many changes. That's true for me at least.

Anyway, I'm back in Germany again. Everything had been so busy in Taiwan. We've visited so many relatives and friends that I've had absolutely no time for blogging while I was gone...

 

Tonight we went to a great Chinese restaurant in Heidelberg: the Hot Pot House.

 

They serve authentic Chinese cuisine. It's quite rare as many China restaurants tend to serve western style Chinese food... If you're at least six people, it's worth ordering hot pot. All you can eat for 15€. There are six different broths to chose from: cabbage, seafood, mushroom, curry, spicy, and non-spicy bone marrow soup. There are several dips and several plates of meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles, etc. Very delicious and filling... The soups are excellent. We've tried bone marrow and curry soup so far...

 

Chimichurri

The best burgers in the world can be found in the streets of Santo Domingo. They are called Chimichurri. (Btw. Chimichuri in Argentinia is a sauce for steaks.)
As long as you have a firm stomach, you know, one that can handle food from the streets of developing countries, I would highly recommend eating this! Of course this is nothing for vegetarians...

It contains bun, cabbage, carrots, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, meat, cheddar cheese, bacon, and lots of ketchup and mayo... There's also some undefined sauce. It's definitely an explosion for the senses of taste and smell.

Every time, I come to the Dominican Republic, I need to eat this. My stomach has been trained by the night markets of Taiwan since childhood. But even I have standards. I only buy from people that look relatively clean and who have some kind of organization. Cooling boxes are a big plus, while flies and cockroaches ar a big no go... Pretty self-explanatory, right?

I would say, this is better than what some gourmets offer in their high class restaurants. Btw, it's something Anthony Bourdain missed out, when he filmed in the Dominican Republic. I love his tv serie, although it always makes me hungry (for food and travel)... ;-)

Beer

The Dominican beer to go is "Presidente". There are normal 0.3l sized bottles but also really large 1l beer bottles like the one I hold in this picture. Since I don't really like beer, I can't tell you if it's good. It's not as bitter as Becks but that's about it... It's beer...

 

The Bavarian "Löwenbräu" beer is also sold in the Dominican Republic. Just that Dominicans think it's from Hamburg.

 

The information about Bavaria is hidden inside the pink circle...