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On the subject of dinner…

Another quick recipe from the house of Glasser:

Snapper with Pepperonata

250 Grams of fresh angel hair or taglierini pasta

400 grams red snapper (in four 100gr pieces)
1 Red Bell Pepper, sliced into big strips
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, cut the same way
1 Large Yellow Onion, again, cut the same way
4 Roma Tomatos, cut into 1/8ths
1 head of fresh garlic, roughly chopped
The Juice of 1 Lemon
Red Pepper Flakes
Butter
White wine
olive oil

Prepare the pasta and then coat with a little olive oil.

Take a large sautee pan and put in a good amount of butter and some olive oil. Add peppers and onions, cook until a little soft. Add tomatos. Add about a cup of wine, some hot pepper flakes, and the chopped fresh dill. Add the lemon juice. Taste and ad salt and pepper if needed. Place the fish fillets on top of vegetables and cover so that it steams for about 8 minutes.

Serve in a shallow bowl with the broth over the pasta. Serves 2 – 4.

Posted in Food.

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By Avery – January 9, 2005

A shot of Wheatgrass and a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie, please…

For anyone who has lived in California, you realize that there are three elements, that when in the proper ratio, determines you are in a city.

The first element is take out/delivery food. Not just Pizza, and certainly not just cheap shit, at a real city, you can get take out food from almost every restaurant, and you have a wide range of good delivery food.

Density of Starbucks is point two. Sorry, not just any coffee shop, but Starbucks. I know, they aren’t my favorite by a long shot (though I do like their hot chocolate) either, but you need at least three Starbucks in the downtown area to really qualify as being a city.

Finally, we come to the third and final qualification for being considered a city, juice bars/smoothie shops. Extra credit for the establishment of local chains of smoothie shops. Half credit for juice shops that are part of organic grocery stores or co-op stores. Triple credit for juice shops that offer nutritional add-ins (energy powder, vitamin powder, etc…).

With these three qualifications in mind, let’s walk through the places where we have lived…

Slippery Rock, PA: Delivery Food – pizza. Starbucks – Not even on their top 1000 destinations. Juice stores – nope. Determination: Not a city.

Morgantown, WV: Delivery Food – pizza. Starbucks – probably have one now, but not when we were living there. Juice bars – in the student union of the university. Determination: Not a city when we were living there.

Boston: Delivery Food – very varied. Takeout available from lots of places. Starbucks – yep – they even bought out a beloved local coffee chain. Juice bars – yes. Determination: Definitely a city.

San Francisco: Delivery Food – practically everywhere had takeout or delivery, plus two competing companies that did delivery from major restaurants. Starbucks – outside my office, there were Starbucks on three of the four corners outside my building. Juice Bars – you couldn’t swing a dead hippie without hitting a Jamba Juice. Determination: City.

Hartford, CT: Takeout/Delivery – Non Existant aside from pizza and sandwiches. Starbucks – One downtown. Juice stores – nope. Determination: Not a city.

Munich: Takeout/Delivery – Very limited. You could get pizza and the occasional delivery from a Chinese or Indian place. Takeaway was a little more common. Starbucks – just got their first one, not downtown but near the university. Juice – lots of fruit stands that sold juice at the Viktualienmarkt, but no real juice shops. Determination: Not really a city.

And finally, that brings us to Cologne, Germany. Takeout/Delivery: Lots of takeout and delivery. Bonus for a company that delivers from about a dozen really good restaurants. Starbucks – Three in the inner city. Juice bars – two downtown at Appelhofplatz, including the founding location of a new regional chain, Jay’s Juice which makes a damned good strawberry-banana smoothie. Determination: Definitely a real city.

There you have it. With the new Jay’s Juice that just opened on Saturday, Cologne is significantly more of a city than Munich could ever claim to be.

Next time – city ratings based on the Subway (underground train) vs. Subway (the sandwich shop) ratio…

Posted in General Ramblings.

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By Avery – January 9, 2005

Indian Food in Cologne

As we reported earlier, there is pretty damned good Indian food in Cologne… but the first place we found, Tandoor Palace was a bit pricey for every day eating. Sure, I am not against paying 65€ for a good meal, but it’s not the sort of money I want to spend every day.

So, on New Year’s Day, after coming back from Antwerp, we were in search of sustinance. Falling on the logic taught to us by great moves such as “A Christmas Story” – look towards ethnic restaurants when you want food on the holidays. Unfortunately, United Kitchens, the major delivery company here in Cologne, was on the end-of-year break. Calls to an Indian restaurant well recommended by Douglas, our hair stylist, went to an answering machine. About a minute away from giving up and ordering a pizza, I stumbled upon a review of Clay Oven in the 2005 Prinz Guide for Cologne.

Ok, four stars, same as the highly recommended place from Douglas and the Tandoor Palace. Decent website. Wait… what is this… they deliver???

A quick call confirmed it, and 45 minutes later, we were sitting down (ok, squatting on the floor) to a nice Indian meal.

Quality wise, the food was very good. The Chicken Vindaloo was quite spicy, but didn’t sacrifice flavor for heat. Janet’s Chicken Tikka Masala was more flavorful than most… and the rice – flavored with cardamom pods – fantastic. The real killer was the price… Half of what we paid for Tandoor Palace.

Needless to say, we have a new regular delivery Indian Restaurant.

Posted in Cologne Life, Food.

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By Avery – January 4, 2005

A Gourmet Meal in Antwerp

For New Year’s Eve, we decided to head west to Antwerp to visit with friends and to ring in the new year with a good conversation, many nice drinks and, of course, a gourmet meal.

Or, in particular, a meal called “Gourmet”.

Gourmet, according to our Belgian hosts, is a typical meal that you have with friends or family when time is not a factor. The centerpiece of a Gourmet, is a specialized grill. You put the grill in the center of the table, take the little pans and put in a little butter, then either grill pieces of meat or vegetables directly on the grill top, sautee the meat (or vegetables) in the pans on top of the grill or bake/broil in the pans in the space under the grill. It’s not fast, but it’s the perfect way to while away the evening.

We ate and drank and had a fabulous time, and then early in the morning, we headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep before taking the two hour drive back to Köln.

Posted in Food, General Ramblings.

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By Avery – January 2, 2005

When the hell did this happen???

Honestly, I am not one of those people who makes picture smilies. In fact, I absolutely loathe them. Yet, on writing this last entry, I noticed that a combination of a : and a ) symbol is translated into a graphical smilie ( 🙂 ) in WordPress.

Time to hunt down and destroy this little feature right now…

Posted in General Ramblings.

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By Avery – December 30, 2004

A little off the top…

Just a quick note here. If you’re looking for a good hairstylist in Cologne, try Jag’s Hair. Janet had her hair re-styled there about 2 months ago when we were on an apartment-hunting trip and I just had mine done there. The results? Fantastic. Plus, Douglas (the owner) is a Brit (here since ’78), so it makes it a little easier for us non-Natives 🙂

Posted in Cologne Life.

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By Avery – December 30, 2004