I think we might have found a better ice cream than the famous Sarcletti Eis on Rotkreuzplatz. The winner? Sarcletti Eis on Max-Weber Platz.

See, back a couple of generations ago, Grandpa Sarcletti had a couple of Ice Cream shops in Munich – but then the family sort of broke apart, leaving two ice cream producing factions: the Sarclettis of Rotkreutplatz and the Sarclettis of Max-Weber Platz.

The verdict?

Both are amazing, but the Sarcletti of Max-Weber Platz was a little creamier – and the stracciatella with rum (rum flavored chocolate chip)? Amazing.

Sarcletti. You can’t go wrong at either of them.

Not much to say tonight… we went to Hofbräukeller, right now our favorite biergarden. See the pics. 20 degrees and it was still packed!

One wouldn’t think that in the middle of Haidhausen you could actually find a traditional izaka-ya, but lo and behold, there is… and it’s great!

Nomiya, at the Wörthstraße tram stop, is the closest thing that I have ever seen to a real izaka-ya. Izaka-ya are drinking establishments in Japan, with good beer and usually an assortment of yakitori, or grilled skewers of various meats (usually chicken) and vegetables – and that’s pretty much all you can get there. Your choices for food are a couple of sushi rolls, miso soup, and yakitori ranging from tsukune (chicken meat balls) to negi (green onions) to Rebaa (liver) along with grilled ika (squid), beef, and other traditional skewers. But Nomiya considers themselves to be a fusion restaurant – co-owned by a Japanese and a Bavarian – so along with these, they also offer a sausage skewer, a cheese skewer and a couple of other options for those not interested in immersing themselves 100% in the izaka-ya experience.

The other thing that the Bavarian half brings is the beer.

Served in stone mugs, the Altöttinger Naturtrüb is one of my favorite beers. It’s crisp, drinkable, and since it is unfiltered it has a good amount of live yeast, which means that you can have a few liters and still be in good enough shape for the tram ride home.

Nomiya. Very good, very fun. Reservations required. Give it a try and see why a Bavarian-Japanese drinking place is the best of both worlds.

If you grew up in New York or New England, you know there is nothing like a good bagel – chewy, dense and even a little crunchy on the outside. Once you have had a great bagel, there is nothing really like it, especially those donut-shaped sponges that you can find dribbled all over the west coast at places like Noah’s Bagels. Nope, the only real bages are from the East Coast. The best, in my most humble of opinion, come from H and H in New York.

Unfortunately, if you are not near New York City, it means that either you’re stuck with inferior bagels or none at all, which is usually the better option if given the choice.

As expected, in Munich, the bagel situation is pretty bleak. Some of the bakeries have something that they call the bagel, but it isn’t – and sometimes you can find these partially-cooked bagels at the grocery stores, but they just aren’t the same.

So, 8 hours by plane away from New York, I was extraordinarily suprised to find out on Toytown Munich that there is a new place in Schwabing that has Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, muffins, and bagels.

And not just bagels, H and H bagels.

How does it work?

H and H is trying to rid the world of bagels, one store at a time. How can they do this? The secret has to do with how real bagels are made.

A real bagel is made from a yeast-leavened dough which is first boiled (not steamed) and then baked. If done properly, you can deep freeze a bagel once it has boiled but before it has been baked. The result is not as good as a freshly boiled and baked bagel as the insides get the slightest bit crumbly, but if defrosted properly, the result is still worlds better than most of the bagels out there.

H and H has been doing this now for years, supplying the bagel eating communities all the world with ready-to-bake pre-frozen bagels. I have seen them at grocery stores in Connecticut, delis in Florida and even once in the Sunshine State of California. But I never would have thought that I would see these in Munich.

Enough already… tell me about the place in Munich!

So, enter Fresh Bagels and Muffins – on Schellingstraße and Barerstraße. Owned by an expat American, Fresh Bagels seems to be bringing a little taste of the East Coast out to Germany – an admirable task since they couldn’t even bring a decent bagel or muffin to San Francisco.

Fresh Bagels is a small coffee shop with fresh bagels and muffins – but that isn’t all. Fresh Bagels also has Celestial Seasonings teas (not my favorite, but hard to find anyway), Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, whipped cream cheeses (ok, not as good as normal cream cheese, but still great) and a selection of packaged cookies.

The muffins, probably the best so far in Munich: dense, moist, springy with a good flavor and texture. THe chocolate chip was good, the lemon poppyseed was great. And the bagels? As good as I remember – nice texture and great texture. Pass me a copy of the New York Times and a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and I could have been having brunch back in Connecticut.

But then again, why would I want to be back there?

Fresh Bagels and Muffins. HIghly recommended if you want to introduce a local Münchner to the pleasure of a true bagel or want to be transported back to the Manhattan for an hour.

Canton Menu, Front Canton Menu, Back

Well, it is official – Munich really does have a good Chinese restaurant!

Ok, it’s nothing new. In fact, the restaurant is almost 30 years old… but after searching around for a good Chinese restaurant for almost a year, we have finally hit paydirt.

Don’t get me wrong. China Garden is a nice restaurant (corner of Schleissheimerstr and Heßstr), but nothing really special – with very nice decor and very nice staff, but Canton is the place if you want really good Chinese in Munich.

And before you mention Kam Yi, it isn’t really Chinese in my book. It’s Vietnamese, with a selection of Chinese food and Sushi. In my opinion, they do lots of things, but none of it very well.
Canton is Chinese. Only Chinese. No Thai, Vietnamese, Korean or Japanese, just standard Cantonese cuisine – not extremely hot, but very flavorful and the best potsticker dumplings in town (choe tse, fried). We’ve tried a number of dishes there, but I always gravitate to the Canton Duck, crispy duck breast with a 5 spice sauce on the side, even though Janet’s Gungboci (kung-pao chicken in a red chili oil sauce) is really great.

Just watch out for the rice wine – at 62% alcohol, it’ll strip the varnish off of your car – but the flavor is worth it after you make it through the burn.

Next week, I’ll try Zum Koreaner and see if we can finally wrap up the missing link in Munich’s Asian cuisine.