Isar Cookout

Munich is such a special place and I can never quite figure out my favorite season here. Summer means hanging out with friends along the river and grilling or visiting biergartens, which is the perfect way to spend a lazy weekend day.

Since we love rules here in Germany, there is a city ordinance of where grilling is permitted in Munich. They even created a great map, which is useful so you don't end up getting fined.

Son of Hibatchi - Our friend Roman introduced us to this grill and it is genius. It heats up in 15 minutes and actually gets warm enough to grill on. It's compact and portable, too. We absolutely love it. 

We use Weck jars to transport and store things, but for dish wear it's sometimes cumbersome to bring actual plates, so paper plates, biodegradable dishes made from palm leaves, or even edible dish wear are a good alternative. 

Here are some food ideas to bring:

- Insalata Caprese

- Potato Salad

- Olives

- Cheese cubes
- Bacon wrapped dates

- Crackers + dip

- Crudité

- Fruit Salad
- Chocolate chip cookies
- S'mores - My Americanness is coming through, but s'mores and cookouts go hand in hand. The best place I've found good marshmallows is actually the home goods store Butlers. As for the graham crackers we use the Vollkorn Leibniz.
(I like to add some knister/pop rocks chocolate to add something unexpected.)
- pre-made cocktails if you're feeling luxurious. The smaller weck tulip glasses are perfect for this.

One more tip: If you like Bon Appétit magazine and have an ipad, you can send a subscription to someone in the US and they can give you the digital version, which is what I did with my mom. It has plenty of great recipes and food stories at your finger tips. 

biergarten

My favorite season is here again: biergarten! 

The Muffathalle biergarten has an opening weekend special on March 30th: each Maß is just 4.50€! 

Which biergarten is your favorite? 

This is Munich

mei ist des schee!

M. Sasek's wonderful book, This is Munich, has just been re-released this month. 

It's a wonderful gift for anyone who loves Minga. 

Fei Scho

We decided to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Dragon at Munich's new dim sum restaurant Fei Scho.

If you're looking for a fun and offbeat little place with great food and a Bavarian slant - this is it. The menu is small, but everything we sampled was delicious.

The schweinekrustbraten dim sum with dunklebiersauce and apfelblaukraut is a fun twist on melding Bairisch and Asian. They have quite a few vegetarian options, too.

恭喜发财 - Gung hee fat choy!

Autumn & the Isar

This is why I wish Autumn never ended...gorgeous blankets of golden leaves at the glowing Isar are just magical.

Munich in September + October

Rather than writing about everything we've been up to I figure people enjoy photos more anyway.

Here's some of the fun September and October brought our way...

September

visitors decked out in their Bavarian best at the Oktoberfest

brotzeit

plenty of pretzels and beer

Münchener Kind'l street art

October

views from the Gaisberg

Auer dult

Autumn leaves

incredible weather

... as for November, we were once again traveling and trying to decide where to spend Christmas. 

Augustiner Oktoberfest Beer Ice Cream

The natural choice for beer ice cream is Munich's Beer: Augustiner.

Augustiner Oktoberfest Ice Cream (adapted from Antoine Westermann's recipe) has the sweetness of ice cream with the lingering hops and beer flavor. The difficult part is putting enough sugar in to make it scoopable, yet not so much that it overwhelms the beer. My friends Jeremy and Emily have the tip to blend it up before putting it in the ice cream maker to add some air.

If I was in Ohio I think it would pair perfectly with a pretzel cone from Graeter's, but for now I just have to eat it with pretzel sticks. I'll have to bring some cones back on my next visit home.

Paulaner Biergarten Radler Sorbet

In honor of Oktoberfest, and my love for ice cream making, I thought I'd attempt a couple inspired flavors: Radler Sorbet for the end of summer and Beer Ice Cream.

First up is the sorbet...

For this sorbet I created a recipe and illustration inspired by Paulaner's Nockherberg where we often bike for a lazy biergarten afternoon.

A Radler, or 'cyclist', is a biergarten favorite that is a mix of lemon soda and a helles (light) beer. They are refreshing and light.

Here's the recipe I used if you'd like to try it yourself...  

Radler Sorbet:

1 bottle of beer (12 oz.) chilled
2/3 cup lemon-lime soda / sprite
1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp lime juice
lemon zest

Boil the sugar + soda into a simple syrup
Pour the beer into the sugar syrup mix
Add lime juice + zest
Continue boiling for several minutes
Sieve out the zest + chill
Put into the ice cream maker for ~ 30 minutes.

Prost! 

New food options in Munich

Munich has a few newish food places that are worth checking out...

Wir machen Cupcakes - Cupcakes... American style cupcakes that are creative and not too sweet. (I bought the same zucceroo sprinkles in Hamburg.)

The Bubble T Store - Bubble Tea... The Asian pearl milk tea has finally made it's way to Munich with many options to choose from.

Condessa Gourmet Tacos - Mexican... a new restaurant opening this month with fresh + inexpensive tacos.

Zum Goldenen Kalb - Steak + Burgers... I probably eat beef once a year maximum, but the waygu burger here is really delicious and the atmosphere is beautiful. I'd even go as far as saying it's one of the best burgers you can get in Munich. Now if only I could get a black bean burger...

Frühlingsfest in Munich

The Frühlingsfest isn't as popular as Oktoberfest. With only 2 beer tents it's a much smaller scale, but it's still a lot of fun.

We visited with our friends Emily and Jeremy, who sadly are moving back to San Francisco soon. They will be greatly missed! It's still nice to pack in a bit more Bavarian fun before they say goodbye to Munich.

If you head to the Hippodrom, I highly recommend the spätzle with pears on it, but it's definitely enough to share.

The fest runs until May 15th.

Rosemary Ginger Lemonade

One of my very favorite restaurants in all of Munich is Daylesford Organic. The food is fresh, seasonal, and organic. I also believe they have the best chocolate cake in the city.

Nearly every time I visit I get the Rosemary Ginger Lemonade. It's spectacular.

Here's how I make it at home: It's easy to use fresh ginger since the blender takes care of it and sieving it removes the fibery bits or stop by the Asian grocery for some in a jar that is great to have on hand for cooking and baking, too.

The restaurant doubles as a shop with various spices, sauces, wines, and seasonal products. Additionally they have rosemary scented cleaning products, which are biodegradable and make my kitchen smell lovely.

Paulaner Brewery Tour + Free Beer

I've always thought the breweries here should offer tours akin to those offered at the champagne houses in Reims. Last year I read about the sightseeing beer tour, which pays a visit to Spatenbräu.

We're bigger Augustiner and Paulaner consumers, so I filed it away as something that might be fun when we have visitors.

Today I booked a Paulaner tour, which includes a tour of the brewery, beer taping course, tasting of 3 beers, a brotzeit, and a 2 course meal. The discounted offer is good for the next week with random dates from May through October.

Is it sad that I will be proud to hang my beer taping course certificate?

Another date to mark in your calendar, if you're in Munich, is 23 April. This is the day of the Reinheitsgebot anniversary for the purity law that went into effect back in 1516. The city celebrates with 1000 liters (Maß) of beer for free.

To be part of the celebrations make sure you're at the beer fountain at Oskar-von-Miller-Ring 1. It will probably be a little chaotic since it's on a Saturday this year. Prost!

Bunnies

These Lindt chocolate displays always make me happy to see all of those metallic bunnies in a row. This year I've even seen white and dark chocolate available.

Ethnic Restaurants

It's been way too long since I've written about places in Munich. These are a few restaurants worth checking out if you live here or are passing through. They all have a great ambiance and unique, but delicious food.

Milagros • Pavesi Picnic • Nomiya

Looks like I'll have to take Stefan out for a date night! It's difficult to decide if we should visit something new or a familiar favorite.

jamie

Stefan and I love to cook together on the weekends. For my birthday I received a subscription to Jamie Oliver's magazine, which is phenomenal. From the recipes to the fonts, stories, photos, and city guides - it's hands down one of the nicest publications out there. I love it even more because we get to spend time together and enjoy the delicious results.

The great news is that it's also now available in German.

Oddly the first issue they translated is a year old.

Both issues have Italian themes and next month's English issue will be about Marrakech, which he's also previously done. There are so many other types of cuisine that I'm hoping he covers, too - like Indian, Asian, Mexican, French, German...

Maybe next month I'll find some more recipes to use my Moroccan spices.

[images courtesy of: Jamie Magazine Ltd. and Gruner + Jahr AG & Co.]

Spring

These are a few of the things I really can't wait for... thank heavens Spring is around the corner! I know I'm not alone in thinking the gray and dreary days can get extremely depressing. We've had a few sporadic sunny days, but I will be thrilled once they are consecutive.

Hopefully the weather is nice wherever you are!

Munich globe

It's been a while since I've even written about life here in Munich. We're trying to get through the Winter, which has been pretty mellow, but it's still pretty incredible how fast the gray days can take over and really be mood drainers.

Thankfully there are small things bringing smiles to our faces.

I spotted this globe of Munich while Stefan and I were out and decided it would be great to add a pretty little glow to our apartment. It's the perfect place to survey the city and map some of those new restaurants we've been meaning to try.

Christmas Spirit

Getting into the Christmas spirit seems to take more work than it used to, although that's probably because I'm now the one responsible for creating the magic. It also takes some work to figure out ways to incorporate my traditions while living abroad, as well as learning more about the Bavarian ways of celebrating. I'm certain much of it is self induced, because I love traditions and making things just so.

We've also worked at creating our own family traditions, like simple gift giving with 4 principles: want, need, wear, and read. It's pretty incredible how encompassing those 4 things can be and how much thought goes into finding 4 gifts that suit the categories.

In the recent weeks Munich has been blanketed with snow, which helps with the Wintery feeling. We've been trying to visit as many of the Christmas markets as possible, although my favorites are at the Rindermarkt + Chinese Tower.

The smell of spiced nuts and glühwein waft through the air and the lights seem to glow while people huddle around and complain about their numb toes. This is one aspect that is quintessentially German and absolutely delightful at this time of year. I also appreciate that eating lebkuchen and pomegranates for breakfast is acceptable.

Here are a few of the pretty scenes around town:

The Chinese Tower Christmas Market

Sledding in the English Garden...

How many cities have such a charming downtown park that people can use to cross country ski or go sledding?

Rindermarkt + Haidhausen

The Krampus Run

Tollwood

Ice Skating at Karlsplatz

Hope you're also feeling the holiday glow!

1933 Christmas

I was looking through some of my vintage photos and came across this Christmas tree from 1933.

Notice the German details - real candles as opposed to lights and the bushy shape, which I had never seen before moving here. I'm curious what types of gifts were given during this time.

Hopefully we'll get our tree up in the next week or so, but we won't be going so traditional with real candles.

Nürnberg Christkindlmarkt

Day 5 of the advent calendar meant a short trip to Nürnberg to check out one of the most famous Christmas Markets.

There were plenty of bratwürsts, lebkuchen, and glühweins consumed. The variety of glühwein was immense and included blueberry, elderberry, and white wine. The consensus was elderberry was the best, because it wasn't so sweet.

We brought back some of the 'bruch' (broken) lebkuchen, which actually aren't broken at all, but the package presentation isn't as nice as those that are giftable. We also picked up some white glühwein that was named after Albrecht Dürer - the famed printmaker and painter from Nürnberg.

I love the markets, however there are a few things I would improve upon - adding a soup stand for a food option and those outdoor restaurant heaters or fire pits. Spending a few hours outside in the snow means even with several layers the elements begin to really take their toll. We were all frozen to the bone as we ventured back to the train station.

The Christmas season always passes too quickly, but I'm looking forward to visiting more christmas markets before we have to miss them for another year. I'll post photos soon!