Let’s start with the batter. I pretty much wholesale mooched this one from the Food Network.

175g all purpose flour
15g white sugar (omit the sugar if you’re doing a savory filling)
pinch of salt
300ml milk
1 egg
15g melted butter
more butter to grease the pan

Nothing exotic here — just stuff you’re likely to have on hand anyway. The original recipe called for some lemon zest, and I made it with that the first time, and it was yummy. But I’m sure I won’t need that in my basic crepes recipe. I’m sure I’ll throw it back in when I’m doing blueberry crepes or some other flavor which benefits from lemon zing.

Anyway, mix the dry ingredients. Start heating the pan (we use setting 2 of 9 on our stove and that’s plenty). Whisk the wets together, and then whisk them slowly into the dries. Get all the lumps out (if you’re using a Kitchen Aid mixer, you’ll know that the whisk attachment will leave some dry stuff at the bottom unless you swirl it up by hand at least once).

Get all your stuff ready. It’s important to have it all within easy reach. When your pan is hot, drop a pat of butter onto the pan and smear it around. Then immediately dump a ladlefull onto the center of the pan and spread it around as thinly as possible. I recommend one of those cheapo wooden T-bar thingies; I’ve tried without (gravity, other spatulas) and nothing worked as well as that.

Let it sit in the pan for about a minute; when you start to smell a burnt smell, slide your spatula in and all the way across under the crepe, freeing it from the pan. It should be pretty easy to separate. If you encounter resistance, it’s too early to flip.

Flip the crepe (try to get it in back into the pan — mostly at least) and then you’ll only need to cook it another 45 seconds at most. Same deal with the flipping. It doesn’t need to have any browning on it at all; you only need it to be cooked enough as to be dry.

Here’s the video demonstration:

Don’t worry – I’m not wearing short shorts. Unless you need nightmare fuel, then visualize away.

If you’re a female and were aware in the late 70s to the whole of the 80s, then you most likely do. And if you ever used it, it is very likely a difficult-to-shake memory. Imagine a pile of singed hair marinating in ammonia. That was the smell of the stuff, and you had to sit around with this cream slathered on for about 10-15 minutes, trying desperately not to touch anything with your beNaired limbs. Then came the rinse-off. You’d think this would be a relief, but actually, it just introduced a new set of problems. The dissolving hair pudding wasn’t particularly kind to drains and the remaining slick film coated both your legs (or other areas; I’m not judging) and the tub/shower surface, making for an unpleasant feeling on the skin and a treacherous shower floor.

Extra added bonus: if you have thick, dark hair, you still had to razor shave afterwards.

So Nair didn’t seem to be a product that delivered on the promised results. I used it once or twice, but the benefits didn’t really outweigh the drawbacks. And that was a long time ago.

Fast forward at least 13 years from my last use of depilatory cream. It’s been a long winter and I needed the extra hair for warmth, but Spring is here now and I had to wear a dress last week. No, seriously, there was a concert with a dress code. So I was off to the Drogerie for razor blades, when I spied this product:

Click the image and read the reviews - maybe not at work, though. Thanks, Tammy & Penny!

Normally, my eyes would slide right past it, but for two things. It had a plastic, vaguely razor-shaped scraper packaged with the tube. I could have used one of those back in the day. Plus, it claimed it only needed 4 to 6 minutes to work. Given that it was being marketed to fellas, who ostensibly have large amounts of hair to remove, I found this a bold claim. So I grabbed the tube and ran to the checkout before I could change my mind.

Folks, Science has been busy on hair removal in the last 13 years!

It WORKED. Gangbusters. No acrid chemical smell, no skin irritation and the scraper is shockingly effective. The 6-minute maximum worked exactly as promised. There is still a bit of a hair vs. drain issue, but that was quickly alleviated with a liter of boiling water from the electric kettle. And our drains are a little wonky at the best of times, so I wasn’t too bothered by it.

Have any other expats out there found drugstore, hygiene or cosmetic products over here that exceed the ones from home? I’m kind of drugstore (chemist, for non-North Americans) junkie, so I love suggestions!

I’m not sure what the deal with the Zombie Bride & Groom was, or what their association with Regensburg’s Youth Wind Ensemble was.

All ages of Trachten-wearers were represented.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Ever seen muskets like these?

A horse-drawn carriage rounded the corner, and its passengers started flinging stuff at the observers on the street. The woman next to us caught a fish of some sort.

That made us hungry, so we continued on for dinner, enjoying the ambience.

Yesterday evening was just about perfect: about 75°F, with a light breeze to keep the heat from the sun from building up. Today, however, is a completely different story: cold, rainy, blustery. Take advantage of good beer garden days whenever you can!

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/12/let-the-beer-gardening-begin/feed/ 7 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/09/obama-supports-same-sex-marriage/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/09/obama-supports-same-sex-marriage/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 20:12:16 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5429 Continue reading →]]> Holy wow!

I wish they’d done the editing a little more cleanly here.

“Same-sex couples should be able to get…”

…what? WHAT?

I want him to say “married.” I want to hear it. I want everyone to hear it!

And then I want it to come true.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/09/obama-supports-same-sex-marriage/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/05/breaking-news-good-customer-service-and-secrets-revealed-at-the-zollamt1/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/05/breaking-news-good-customer-service-and-secrets-revealed-at-the-zollamt1/#comments Sat, 05 May 2012 16:15:28 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5419 Continue reading →]]> My mom sent me a package a couple of weeks ago that got snatched by the customs office (Zollamt). This isn’t the fault of the Deutsche Post – they have their issues, as does the USPS (see The Generic Nutty Bar Incident). It happens occasionally and is always a frustrating turn of events. The Zollamt is conveniently located (for truckers, their main customers) on the edge of town next to many scenic warehouses, staffed by delightfully indifferent (if not outright surly) customs officials and served by a bus that only comes once an hour. So it’s an ideal place to go and schlep an unwieldy package while on foot.

Like this, but without the style or charm.

Imagine my surprise at getting there and being helped by a civil, informative individual! We had to go through the typical dog-and-pony-show of opening the box and telling little stories about the contents (which were clearly listed in excruciating detail on the manifest), but the Sachbearbeiterin volunteered to tape it back up for me. Plus, she showed me the exact equations they use for assessing a custom charge. Then she let slip a tantalizing little factoid.

The limit for packages marked as gifts to be delivered customs-free is 45€!

I had no idea there was an actual rule about this. I figured the Zollamt snatched personal packages at random to put the fear of Ordnung into us. Now that I know, we will never receive a package with more than 45€ worth of goods in it. Because, as nice as the woman who helped me was, I’d like to avoid ever having to go out to the Zollamt again.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/05/05/breaking-news-good-customer-service-and-secrets-revealed-at-the-zollamt1/feed/ 9 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/28/volkshochschule-regensburg-cooking-course-indisch/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/28/volkshochschule-regensburg-cooking-course-indisch/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:48:42 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5384 Continue reading →]]> A local friend of ours and novice cook drummed up some interest in a cooking course, and we managed to fill up the Volkshochschule Regensburg‘s classroom kitchen on a recent Tuesday evening. Sarah and I attended with some new friends and some old ones to get our Indian cuisine on.

All of the ingredients are available locally in Regensburg, if you know where to look. I liked finding out pure German words for food items I’d only ever used in English. Examples:

German	English
Gelbwurzel (Kurkuma?)	Turmeric
Lorbeerblätter	Bay Leaves
Hartweizen Grieß	Semolina
Bockshornklee	Fenugreek

It was a very relaxed, low-pressure evening. Our docent was very mild-mannered — perhaps even a bit too much so for typical German groupwork tastes. It seemed she knew what she was doing, but we sometimes needed to repeat our questions to her to decide how to proceed in a preparation step. But it was all low-stress and low-risk. We made Vorspeisen (chai, chapatis and parathas with cilantro chutney), Hauptspeisen (Mater Paneer, Aloo Gobhi, Cumin Rice with Cashews and a Raita) and a Nachspeise (Halva).

The paneer took the longest, so that had to get started right away.

Sarah and I took over the chutney task. It came out well. Turns out there’s no big secret to getting fresh cilantro in Regensburg: only a couple stores stock it, and it’s flown in from exotic places typically just once per week.

There was time for a short chai break.

I was in charge of the chapatis, and I was particularly keen to get the texture right. I needed our docent to demonstrate the kneading technique a couple times, but it all worked out in the end.

Paratha = chapati + dried fenugreek leaves + salt + oil

We went through a lot of ginger that evening: in the chai, in the halva dessert, and in the main courses. I love ginger, so that was fine with me! I am kind of proud that other students saw me peeling it quickly and efficiently with nothing more complicated than a teaspoon and said “whoa, I didn’t know you could do it that way!”

Kurkuma Peas

Finished products, ready to eat!

Not everybody was completely jazzed about all the flavors, but nobody went home hungry. Or empty-handed: we all brought Vorratsdosen. The halva was particularly good the next morning for breakfast. The main dishes’ flavors intensified over night.

We were impressed with the classroom’s equipment (barring the knives, but perhaps that’s to be expected) and roominess. Clean-up was the students’ responsibility as well, but with so many hands available, it didn’t seem to take long at all. It was a great way to spend an evening and the cost was very reasonable. We’re looking forward to another session some time.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/28/volkshochschule-regensburg-cooking-course-indisch/feed/ 2 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/23/bom-dia-lisboa/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/23/bom-dia-lisboa/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:43:17 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5312 Continue reading →]]> In March 2012, we finally managed to scratch another European country off our list — or at least its capital. We flew to Lisbon for a long weekend, hoping to soak up a little more sun than was possible in Hong Kong in February.

Arrival

We flew in late one Wednesday night from Munich. Getting out of the airport and smack in the middle of the Baixa district was no trouble via taxi, provided you’re willing to part with 20€, but we learned later that we probably could have taken the airport express bus into town for about a third of the price.

Accomodations

Sarah got us a fantastic deal on a room at Brown’s Downtown. We snapped up a limited-time deal and paid up front, getting a better rate on a medium double room than you can get today for the same time of year in 2013 for a small double room. Our room had a tiny kitchenette (which we didn’t use, but could have), a fantastic shower, and (my favorite) a 27″ iMac at our disposal, connected to the free WiFi throughout the hotel (and we were able to use our own devices on it,too). Note well: those machines apparently are not purged or reset or ghosted or something after every guest. Without looking too hard, I found all kinds of files and browser history left over by previous guests. I made sure to clean up after us. I recommend “Private Browsing” in whatever modern browser you use when you’re not on a machine you own, plus deleting the .bash_history file if you do anything on the command line (like SSH to other machines you control, for example).

Food & Drink

We enjoyed the food in Lisbon; we never once ordered something we regretted. It reminded us a lot of what we ate in Seville (no surprises there), but with plenty of local specialities.

Breakfast & Coffee

First things first: we needed coffee the first morning. We walked up the hillside from Baixa to Bairro Alto and ducked into the first coffee/pastry shop we found. Jackpot: a Cafe Moka, two Pasteís de Nata, and some kind of Portuguese Einspänner-type-thing. I think they referred to it as a “Capuccino Chantilly” or similar. If you normally take sugar with your coffee, give it a taste before you dump in the sweet stuff. We found the coffee drinks to be plenty sweet as served with little to no adjustment necessary at the table. And that pudding-looking matter beneath the dark brown liquid in the little cup? It’s sweetened condensed milk. Yowza.

Then we noticed there are pastry shops offering pasteís de nata all over the place. Alas, not all pastéis are created igual, but we liked the Casa Brasileira so much that we went back to it several times. You can stand at the counter inside like a local, or bask out in the sun like a tourist. We did a little of both.

Lunch & Dinner

If you eat seafood, try the bacalhau. You pretty much can’t avoid it, and why should you? I had codfish cakes with boiled fresh spinach, and they were lovely.

If you don’t eat seafood, give the alheira a try. It’s a rustic poultry sausage variety, originally used by supposedly-converted Jews to give the appearance of eating pork products. Christians found it tasty too, and added pork to the recipe.

We found plenty of hard and soft goat and sheep cheeses and bread as appetizers and loved them all.

Wine

You know what goes great with the aforementioned cheeses? Wine! Particularly a nice cool “green” white wine, as in “vinho verde.” I thought it referred to the color of the wine (and the white we tried did seem to have a greenish tinge), but Wikipedia explains that it’s a statement about the wine’s (lack of age). As such, there are also red and rosé “green” wines, too. We drank much more than is typical for us — probably about a bottle a day on average over the 4 days we were there — and never bought anything extravagant or came across anything less than delightful.

We also picked out a bottle of port from the wine shop across from the Casa Brasileira as we headed out to the main square to catch our bus to the airport. Prices can vary wildly. Ask the shopkeeper for a recommendation in your budget. Ours was helpful and patient with our questions. We’ll post a follow-up comment when we’ve tapped into the bottle we brought home with us.

City Scenes

There’s plenty of Lisbon we didn’t explore at all. We were only in town for 4 days, didn’t want to rent a car or spend time traveling to other parts of the country (though we’ve heard good things about Porto and bad things about travel times and traffic congestion in and out of Lisbon). Our exploration was mostly on foot with a little teaser via open-top bus tour and a couple of short cuts on buses and trams thanks to our Lisbon card.

Taking in the Sights

Belém

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

This church and monastery were fascinating. The church was very accessible and the lighting inside made for surprisingly photographer-friendly conditions. We really liked Vasco da Gama’s tomb. Then we strolled outside into monastery courtyard under broad daylight and were flabbergasted at the intricacies of the structure.

Riverbank

There’s a monument to Portugal’s explorers and the Tower of Belém. We didn’t check this out more closely (these shots are from the open-top bus), but we would if we’d had more time. Instead, we headed for the Museu do Oriente to get out of the sun and into a dark, cool place for a few hours. We found a fascinating temporary exhibit of antique and traditional toys and the permanent collection of decorative arts from from all over the Orient: Japan, China, Korea, India, East Timor, etc. It was a bargain at 5€ each admission for adults.

Castelo São Jorge

We took a little tiny bus — more like a hollowed-out minivan, really — from Rossio Square up the side of the hill to the local castle grounds. We spent a couple hours walking the perimeter, the gardens, and tracing paths up and down and along the walls, and even observing an active archeological dig site on the castle grounds. At 12:30 there was an English-language viewing in a darkened tower of the cityscape zoomed in via a periscope projection disc. That was neat — since the tower of the castle is pretty much the highest thing in Lisbon, we took a live-yet-virtual tour around town that way.

Stray Observations

Drugs

Three different times I was approached and offered drugs for sale — both JV (pot, hash) and varsity level (cocaine). All three incidents were in very public pedestrian zones, not far from our hotel, in late afternoon or early evening, when just by chance not too many people were around, but still in full daylight. One dude even opened up his overcoat to show me the goods. In all three cases I politely declined, we kept moving, and nothing came of it. We’ve never been approached like that before. Nothing else about the neighborhoods we visited seemed unsafe, so it was surprising to receive such bold offers three times in two days like that.

Crime

Several friends who had been to Lisbon before warned us about pickpocketers, and we saw some signs on the trams giving warning. In general we tend to be fairly conscious about where we are, who is near us, and what’s happening with our stuff (except for that time on the Zugspitzbahn). On our last full day in Lisbon, while inquiring about ginja and port at a wine shop, a somewhat scruffy-looking (and obviously non-native — she might have been German or Dutch or something) woman was standing a little too close behind me for the shopkeeper’s tastes. The shopkeeper advised me immediately to check my backpack for missing belongings (I detected no problems). Being quite used to Germans crowding each other out in queues (and especially outside of them), I thought nothing of it, but it seemed odd enough to the shopkeeper that she made sure we understood the risk immediately.

Pricing & Costs

We’ve heard that Portugal (and Lisbon along with it) is no longer the cheapo paradise it once was (ahh, pre-Euro Europe — Mensch, das waren Zeiten!). Nevertheless, it didn’t seem overly expensive or like anyone was trying to gouge the tourists. A sweet deal on a hotel and a bargain on airfare, makes us feel better about constant restaurant patronage, and even that didn’t break the bank. And local transit options were reasonable enough on their own or definitely fair on the Lisbon card. In fact, that’s probably the only expenditure we’d do differently next time: with so much to do and see in those four days on foot or via occasional bus/tram, I’d skip the Lisbon card next time for a similar visit. It’s certainly a better deal if your explorations take you out of the Baixa/Chiado areas more frequently.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/23/bom-dia-lisboa/feed/ 4 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/14/donaumarkt-regensburgs-farmers-market/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/14/donaumarkt-regensburgs-farmers-market/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:18:29 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5350 Continue reading →]]> One of my weekly joys is a Saturday morning stroll along our island and over a bridge to the south bank of the Danube to scout for groceries. There are lots of local producers represented there: family-run dairies, butchers, bakers, and vegetable farmers, along with a few beekeepers and herbmongers. Some of them are pure-organic producers, too. It took us a couple years of living in Regensburg’s Altstadt before we stumbled upon it. I don’t think that’s because it’s any sort of a well-kept secret (indeed, there are murmurs of uprooting this market and moving it elsewhere in town), but rather because there’s not trace of it come Saturday afternoon.

To help you warm up, or wake up (whatever the case may be), Moccafee has a tiny mobile outdoor coffee shop set up.

And if you’re very good at the butcher stand, you might even get a little reward for your behavior.

For now, at least, you can find it (nearly?) every Saturday morning on the south bank of the Danube just east of the Eiserne Brücke. The rest of the week, it’s plain old parking lot on Hunnenplatz. Get there early for the widest selection and best ease of browsing. It gets crowded pretty quickly after 9:30 and could well be deserted by noon.

View Donaumarkt in a larger map

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/14/donaumarkt-regensburgs-farmers-market/feed/ 7 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/08/kubuntu-dell-vostro-wireless-networking-headdesk/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/08/kubuntu-dell-vostro-wireless-networking-headdesk/#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:47:15 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5300 Continue reading →]]> I bought a new, old computer — a Dell Vostro 1310 — on which to play around with Linux today. Here are the things I’ve learned:

• I am not sure the processor in this notebook is a 64-bit processor (it’s an Intel Core 2 Duo…but I don’t know which series, or whether that matters. I am not a hardware person). I eventually gave up after the installer crashed a couple times at critical junctures and I am having better results with the 32-bit version of Kubuntu.
• Telling the BIOS to boot from CD/DVD or SD card reader or USB device in order to start the installation process really didn’t work all that well. Google was my friend on this one; someone out there reported better results after a cold boot. I think that’s what finally worked for me, too.
• There’s a dreaded Broadcom wireless card in here. I’ve struggled with those for so many years now, and I’m not alone in that, so I am kind of surprised that it’s still such a big hassle to get wireless networking actually working in this day and age. In the end, I gave up, too. I couldn’t make the WLAN in my apartment work on Channel 13 with this network card. I kept seeing other networks in and near our building, but never ours. Some Googling revealed that others had similar symptoms, and that you can use sudo iwlist chan at a command prompt to see what channels are available. I tried proprietary drivers. I tried generic drivers. I didn’t mess with any kernel modules (like I used to have to do, the last time I had Linux running on a laptop). So since I could only get the card to acknowledge Channels 1 through 11, I just switched our network over to one of those instead of fighting with it any longer, and I guess it’s all hunkey-dorey now.

Still don’t know what I’d do, however, if there were a compelling reason to use Channel 12 or 13. I wonder if this is the same problem other guests were having with their smartphones last summer while visiting us.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/04/08/kubuntu-dell-vostro-wireless-networking-headdesk/feed/ 3 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/31/stove-top-macaroni-cheese-with-broccoli/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/31/stove-top-macaroni-cheese-with-broccoli/#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:35:01 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5286 Continue reading →]]> This was a weird one. I was pretty doubtful about the method, but the result was unquestionably fabulous. We’ve been on a bit of a broccoli kick of late – I would go so far as to double the broccoli and halve the pasta. I found the original here by way of Tastespotting, but I lightly steamed my broccoli, making my version use more than one pot. The recipe below details what I did.

4 1/2 c/1.125 l water, plus more as needed
1 lb/500 g broccoli, cut into small florets
3 T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz/350 ml evaporated milk
1/2 t salt
1 lb/500 g short tube pasta
3/4 t cornstarch
1/2 t smoked paprika (pimentón)
1/2 t dry mustard
12 oz/350 g shredded cheddar cheese

Pour 1 cup/250 ml water into a small saucepan and set a steamer basket filled with broccoli in it. Cover with tight lid and steam over medium low heat for 5 minutes or until broccoli is bright green. Set aside when finished (if you like, shock the broccoli by pouring it into an icebath slightly before the desired texture is achieved).

In a large dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook until translucent and fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Turn heat to medium and add the remaining 3 1/2 cups/875 ml of water, 1 cup/8 oz/250 ml of the milk, salt and pasta. Stirring frequently, bring to a rapid boil. Turn heat down to simmer and cook pasta for 7-9 minutes, always stirring, until pasta is barely undercooked and liquid thickens slightly.

Whisk remaining 1/2 cup/125 ml of milk with cornstarch, paprika and mustard. Stir into pasta and continue to simmer until sauce is well thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Remove pasta from heat and stir in shredded cheese, a handful at a time, until completely melted. Add broccoli and stir until well coated. Serve immediately or allow to sit for 5 minutes for sauce to thicken.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/31/stove-top-macaroni-cheese-with-broccoli/feed/ 1 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/30/rhubarb-sour-cream-cake/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/30/rhubarb-sour-cream-cake/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:00:49 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5265 Continue reading →]]> I am reminded yearly of how much I love rhubarb when I see that long pinky-red celery show up in the spring. While shopping for groceries last week, I saw the rhubarb and bought it. With no plan. This is not something I do. A storage-challenged kitchen means that nothing comes in without a plan for consumption. But the rhubarb is in, which means all descends into chaos.

The recipe is here and I didn’t change anything. I would bake it for the longer amount of time. The finished product was a little too moist in the middle, and that might be due to rhubarb’s tendency to be juicy as all get-out. This is gorgeous as a coffee cake. And don’t skip the topping: it makes a wonderful texture for the top crust.

1/4 c room temperature butter
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 1/3 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 c sour cream
4 c rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 c white sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg

In a bowl, blend butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture alternately with the sour cream. Stir in rhubarb. Spoon into a buttered 9×13″ pan. Sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350° F/175° C for 50-60 minutes.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/30/rhubarb-sour-cream-cake/feed/ 1 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/29/blasted-broccoli-with-polenta-and-smoked-paprika-dressing/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/29/blasted-broccoli-with-polenta-and-smoked-paprika-dressing/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:30:56 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5261 Continue reading →]]> So, there hasn’t been a whole lot of action on the ol’ Regensblog of late. Daily life has been consuming, yet not interesting enough to blog about. Speaking of consuming though, we’re on a new recipe hot-streak. In the interest of not losing track of these, I’m going to start posting them. Because while you all are welcome to the recipe database, it’s basically there for me to keep track of things.

This one is ridiculously easy and fast. I am a very slow cook and I managed to prepare both the dressing and polenta fully while the broccoli was roasting. Plus, it can go fully vegetarian if you use vegetable broth and vegan if you cut out the butter and cheese. You don’t have to make the dressing, but the tang of the vinegar and deep smokiness of the paprika really adds something special! The inspiration came from this recipe. If you’re eating the broccoli alone or as a side, use the almonds (regular blanched almonds are fine).

1 pound fresh broccoli florets
2 T olive oil
pinch salt
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t sweet smoked paprika
2 T sherry vinegar
pinch salt
4 c chicken broth
1 T butter
1 1/2 c polenta
1/2 t ground pepper
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425° F/218° C. Toss the broccoli with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Spread broccoli florets on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.

While the broccoli is going, make the dressing. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil over low heat until well warmed, then add garlic and paprika (garlic should not sizzle), stir well, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. With vinegar and salt in a small bowl, add infused oil through a fine sieve to remove solids and whisk lightly.

For the polenta, bring the broth and butter to a gentle simmer over medium low heat. Whisk in the polenta, stirring constantly and turn heat to low. Add pepper and cheese, stir well for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand for three minutes. Serve a couple of scoops of polenta topped with broccoli and a drizzle of dressing.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/29/blasted-broccoli-with-polenta-and-smoked-paprika-dressing/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/28/webmu-2012-berlin-or-munster/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/28/webmu-2012-berlin-or-munster/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:51:46 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5257 Continue reading →]]> Well, we sort checked out of the blogging game, didn’t we? Sorry about that.

We have a good excuse, though. All blogging energy has gone toward getting the WEBMU city selection up and running. This year’s candidates are Berlin and Münster, so two very different flavors of meetup are on the table. Do you live in Germany and blog in English? Come on over to the discussion board and sign up. If you already have a login (even from the old board), make your voice heard! There’s room for questions or discussion if you’re on the fence. Be sure to sign in to see the planning and voting topics. Voting will run until Sunday, April 1 (not even kidding), so get your vote in soon. And please, spread the word!

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/28/webmu-2012-berlin-or-munster/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/13/webmu-2012-location-selection/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/13/webmu-2012-location-selection/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:06:00 +0000 Sarah http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5211 Continue reading →]]> Over on the new meetup board, some discussion is already happening about where this year’s WEBMU should take place. So far, Berlin is the only city in the running. Do you want to show off your adopted hometown? Propose a different location? Or just add more support to the Berlin team? Whatever your proclivity, visit

http://forum.expatbloggersingermany.com/

You should be able to use your login and password from the old board. If that doesn’t work, let us know. We’ll try to fix it.

No idea what we’re talking about? This link explains it all!

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/13/webmu-2012-location-selection/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/11/psa-dst-went-into-effect-in-the-usa-this-morning/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/11/psa-dst-went-into-effect-in-the-usa-this-morning/#comments Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:11:23 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5199 Continue reading →]]> Hey y’all expatriates with peeps in the States and Canada — don’t forget that they’re an hour closer to you in time now, thanks to Daylight Savings Time.

Take advantage of the extra hour and get an earlier call in to your friends and family. Or just recognize that they just lost an hour and might be cranky about it (for the next seven months or so).

Either way, don’t forget!

And, if you’re in Europe (except Belarus, Iceland, and Russia), we spring forward on the last Sunday in March, so don’t go changing your clocks just yet. And if you’re a Linux user, run your package manager (if you don’t roll your own) to make sure you’ve got the latest tzdata package installed, too.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/11/psa-dst-went-into-effect-in-the-usa-this-morning/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/09/homemade-chocolate-ice-cream/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/09/homemade-chocolate-ice-cream/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:50:26 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5125 Continue reading →]]> Yield: slightly less than one 1 quart

Adapted from: David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Ice Cream

Result: Excellent!

This is a milk chocolate flavor. I love that there’s no “don’t let it boil” admonishment and no eggs involved (which you have to cook, but not cook into scrambled eggs while shooting for custard). Go for a nice 50%-70% cocoa content in the chocolate bar. It doesn’t have to be richer than that.

We did the variation that David Lebovitz mentions on his site (resulting from a typo in the book, originally) and are sticking with that because of the extra smooth and dense texture, and a more intense chocolate flavor (owing to the reduced sugar) — more like a chocolate gelato than homemade chocolate ice cream.

Extra trickiness for European kitchens: you need ice (yeah, frozen water) around to make an ice bath near the end of the batter preparation. I’m not sure what other methods you could use to lower your batter temperature while keeping it pourable, but if you have some ideas, please share them in the comments! Before we got our stand-up chest freezer, we never had room in our two midget fridges to keep ice cubes around at the ready. But now we do.

Ingredients

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
4 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream — we used whipping cream (Schlagsahne)
1 cup (250 ml) evaporated milk
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
2 tablespoons (60 gr) light corn syrup
1/3 cup (35 gr) unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process
3 ounces (85 gr) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Make a slurry by mixing a few tablespoons of the milk with the corn starch in a small bowl, until smooth.
2. In a 4-quart (4l) saucepan, heat the rest of the milk, cream, evaporated milk, sugar, and corn syrup. When the mixture comes to a moderate boil, whisk in the cocoa powder, then let it cook at a modest boil for 4 minutes.
3. After four minutes, whisk in the corn starch slurry then continue to cook for one minute, stirring constantly with a spatula, until slightly thickened.
4. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate and salt, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla.

5. Make an ice bath: Find a smaller metal bowl that will fit into a larger metal bowl. Add ice, along with some cold water, to the larger bowl then set the smaller bowl into the ice. Pour the ice cream mixture into the smaller bowl and stir until completely cool.

   The original recipe suggests pouring the batter into a zip-top bag and then submerging the bag in an ice bath for 30 minutes, and we tried this, but it was a PITA to get the batter out of the bag and into the ice cream dasher. And you waste a zip-top plastic bag in the process (either because you cut the corner to squeeze it out, like a pastry bag, or because it’s impossible to get all the batter out of the bag for any possible reuse).

   Next time, we’ll use the alternative method with the two metal bowls he mentions (above).

6. Pour the now-cooled batter into the canister of an ice cream maker, then freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a shallow container. This is a good time to sprinkle stuff on top. We used chocolate shavings, but I think we’ll go with slivered almonds next time for a contrasting flavor. Freeze it for a few hours. Portions will be necessarily small (we’re talking about less than a quart here), but that’s OK given the richness.

]]> http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/09/homemade-chocolate-ice-cream/feed/ 0 http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/07/hong-kong-trip-part-5-only-in-hong-kong/ http://www.regensblog.com/2012/03/07/hong-kong-trip-part-5-only-in-hong-kong/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:50:06 +0000 cliff1976 http://www.regensblog.com/?p=5121 Continue reading →]]> In February 2012, we flew to Hong Kong for about a week. This was our first (non-business) trip to Asia. You can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 to catch up.

Right after we took the plunge to try a vacation in Asia, we asked for your tips. Thanks — those were all very helpful.

Owing to seasonal, weather-related, or interest constraints, we didn’t

• go to Ocean Park
• go to Hong Kong Disneyland
• spend much time in Kowloon
• go to Macau
• go to Lamma Island
• walk the circular path around the Peak
• hike around in the mountains
• sail in the harbor
• take in the view from any skyscrapers
• check out other regions of Hong Kong Island like Stanley and Aberdeen

But we did

• check out the Wan Chai wet market
• visit the Peak via a tram trip
• walk around Central at noon on a weekday just to get lost in the crowd.
• try out the Mid-Levels Escalators to watch the demographics change on our way up and down the hill.
• stay a week and say “Whew!” at the end of it.

We managed to take in a couple of sights available only in Hong Kong.

Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha Is Watching You

We took a ferry from the Central Piers to Lantau Island, and from there we took the bus about 35 minutes up the mountainside. Getting out at the top, we walked past a bunch of touristy junk stands and a few street food stands and a saddening number of feral dogs on our way to the stairway leading up to the world’s largest, outdoor, seated Buddha statue.

It’s not a particularly old monument. In fact, arriving in Hong Kong from a town founded in A.D. 179, nothing seems particularly old. But inside the statue, we found some much older tapestries and scrolls on display in the museum, and commemorations of the brotherhood between the local monastery mainland Chinese and Indian Buddhists. Almost everything written there was in Chinese, so not a lot of insight for us. But it was pleasant enough to be walking around in Buddha’s lap.

Purchasing entry to do the museum inside the statue also entitles you to a monk’s lunch. This was a vegan sampling of soup, oily vegetables and rice. A little on the bland side, but nearly free, and the dining hall was nearly empty, as not many visitors bothered to make the trip at all given the foggy weather. Contributing to the cloudy conditions in my shots below were the largest incense sticks I’ve ever seen (check the last photo).

Yuen Po Street Bird Garden

Our Frommer’s guide recommended a stroll through the flower market for the sights and then the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden for the sounds. We found many hundreds — probably thousands, actually — of caged birds for sale or just out for a stroll with their little old men owners. Apparently song birds need to socialize, too. And eat, which explains the abundance of live bird food also available for sale.

Our Favorite Shots

And thus wraps up our Hong Kong Trip series. There was plenty to see, and while we’re grateful for the lack of rain the entire time we were there, it would have been nice to get some more sun in our Big Buddha or harbor scenes. Hong Kong was supposed to be our tip-toeing into Asia, and for that it worked very well. I’m sure it’s not very representative of the rest of the region — how could it be? — but even in its own right, the mixture of British Colonial leftovers, modern metropolitan infrastructure, and Cantonese culture certainly stands out as worthy of exploration. It wore us out (I’m sure we never really got over the jetlag), but we are very glad to have made the trip.

Here are some of our favorite shots from the trip. Some of these are repeats from earlier posts and some are shown only here.

3 T olive oil
soup meat, beef or pork, one large chunk (250 g/0.5 lb)
soup bone, at least one with a good amount of marrow
1 lb (500 g) ground beef and pork
onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 large or two small carrots, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, put through garlic press
4 T tomato paste
pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground black pepper
1/2 t dried thyme
1 c full-bodied red wine (Montepulciano, Valpolicella, etc.)
1 bottle crushed tomatoes (680 g)
2 c chicken or beef stock
3/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 Parmesan cheese rind
pinch salt (optional)
pinch sugar (optional)
1 c cream or whole milk (optional)

In a large, heavy pot, heat oil to medium high. When it just starts smoking, add soup meat and bones, until you get a good sear on all sides of the meat. Turn heat down to medium and add ground meat, cooking until no longer pink, but not browned. Be sure to break up any large chunks.

Add onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Cook mixture, stirring frequently for 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables have softened and shrunk considerably. Stir in tomato paste, distributing well, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add nutmeg, pepper, thyme and wine, stir well and allow to cook down until 3/4 reduced.

Add tomatoes, chicken stock and parsley, stir well and bring to a gentle boil. Drop in cheese rind, turn heat down to medium low and allow sauce to simmer and thicken for at least one hour, stirring occasionally. While simmering, check the marrow bone – when the marrow is softened all the way through, push it out and stir into the sauce. Taste sauce after one hour and add salt or sugar (to taste). If using, stir in milk or cream and continue simmering for 30 minutes to an hour more. When finished, discard cheese rind, soup meat (it will be very tough) and bones. Serve over pasta or use as lasagna filling.

*Most recipes start with pancetta. I thought I had enough meat already, but I imagine it would taste great if you really want to go crazy. The milk/cream is a texture thing. Some people feel it blunts the meaty flavor of the sauce. Nothing could blunt the meatiness of this stuff. I blame the marrow.

Hong Kong is a shopper’s paradise. Produce, seafood, meat (including meat that is still clucking and quacking), electronics, knock-offs, fancy boutique stuff, touristy trinkets, you name it, and someone will be willing to haggle with you for it.

Wan Chai Wet Markets

Wikipedia informs us that a wet market is a traditional market for produce, meat and fish in which the emphasis is on freshness. Therefore, a lot of water is used to keep products fresh, and ostensibly clean. Despite having a guidebook and the quite substantial size of the market area in Wan Chai, we had a hard time finding this place, and were about to give up and head back to our hotel when we stumbled upon it. Lots of meats and produce to peruse here.

Shopping in Causeway Bay

We started out looking for “Island Beverly”, but gave up (even though it’s supposed to be easy to find). Instead we found “Windsor House.” This was a different take on a shopping mall — it was 16 stories high, but maybe a sixteenth of the horizontal surface we’d normally associate with a mall. This seems fairly representative of Hong Kong, given that they’ve essentially crammed the Boston metro area’s population into an area with a tenth of the surface area. In Windsor House there are two floors (currently one of them is under construction and off-limits) dedicated to electronics. There were some big brand names and/or product lines well-represented there:

• Lenovo
• Leica
• Apple resellers
• Gaming
• Photography gear bags & tripods

… and lots more. There are plenty of shops outside of Windsor House as well. I was on a mission to buy a new portable external hard drive, and I had certain specs in mind: 1TB capacity, USB 3.0, 2.5″ form factor. Prices didn’t vary wildly, but they did some, so I gave the friendliest shopkeeper the chance to undercut the cheapest shop — which he gladly took. I found the pricing to be cheaper than at amazon.de, but not drastically so, and that makes me wonder if I should have haggled more, or come prepared for buying more stuff to leverage my total price down. I used the same approach with some photo gear in a couple of camera shops just outside the Causeway Bay MTR stop: give them a chance to compete against each other and then go with the best combination of cheap and friendly.

Temple Street Night Market

We had fun perusing here, but were very, very careful not to show any interest whatsoever in the obvious knock-off clothing and accessories, knowing that those would quite well get us into trouble upon return to the E.U. The browsing itself was the best part. This night market must be well-known among tourists (indeed, our Frommer’s guide pointed us there) because there were quite a lot of our lot out for a stroll among the hawkers. A small stand offering laser pointers attracted me, and I was ready to plunk down for a green one (c’mon, everyone and their cousin has a red one already) when my expert haggler wife stepped and dropped the price by 30% just by asking for it. And man, that thing is powerful. Can’t wait to show it off in my next meeting.

There was also plenty of street food available, and locals enjoying it. That might have been a bit beyond our adventurous eating threshold, but we enjoyed observing it nonetheless.

Department Stores

The vast majority of what was available in most department stores were high-end international brands, i.e. Burberry, Gucci, Prada, et cetera. But we did find a couple of special and unusual places. Chinese Arts & Crafts is chiefly art, traditional garments (padded jackets, cheongsams and the like) and collectibles, but with the guarantee that they are made in China with traditional methods. A nice place for careful souvenir shopping. Unfortunately, we were exhausted and carrying backpacks, killing time until we could go to the airport, so upscale shopping wasn’t a good fit.

Shanghai Tang is a small department store selling men’s, women’s and children’s clothes, jewelry, handbags, accessories, fabric and home decor. Also somewhat upscale, the offerings in this store were entirely unique and the staff very friendly and helpful. It’s a decidedly chic, boutique type of department store and you stand a good chance of coming away with something modern yet deeply Chinese in style.

SoHo

Maybe every trendy English-language destination needs to have a district called “Soho” or some variation thereof. Hong Kong’s SoHo seems to be the yuppy hang-out, with much more diversity of bars and restaurants than elsewhere. We found little boutiquey shops, vegan(-friendly) lunch counters, and coffee bars as we rode the escalators from Central up the side of the mountain.

The higher up you go, the less Chinese you’ll find, until the last escalator, at which point you’re in luxury apartment land. About half way up, there’s a mosque and some enthusiastic greeters outside it, really trying hard to entice the tourists to come in for a look around. And just past the mosque greeters, a guy representing a Christian church (honestly I’ve forgotten which variety) was also handing out leaflets and trying his luck.

The walk down wasn’t as easy as we’d thought, despite being fully paved and populated — it’s quite steep, and I would not have liked to do that in the rain. We broke up the knee-flexing stomp down the hill with shopping intervals and lunch at Café O and enjoyed their free WiFi.

Flower Market

This was a fun diversion. The Mong Kok Flower Market is a district of 3-4 blocks of nothing but flower shops. The incredible abundance of flowers and diversity of arrangements led to some sensory overload. Of course, we were there the day before Valentine’s Day, so the stock and displays might have been kicked into high gear.

ifc Mall

The ifc (I hate that it appears to have branded itself with lower-case letters) is a huge part of Hong Kong’s Central district. It’s got pedestrian bridges to the Central Piers. It’s got direct access to the Central MTR station (and the Airport Express stop). Not to mention its skyscrapers and Four Seasons hotel. And then there’s the Mall. I didn’t recognize most of the nameplates we saw there, but Sarah did: very upscale internataional brands. My favorite aspect: the bathrooms were nice (and convenient). If you’re into the high-class browsing scene, this is your place.

Dried Seafood Street

View Larger Map

I much prefer the street-level shopping to the fancy mall boutiquey stuff. Every day on our way into the city, we rode along some portion of Des Voeux Rd, proudly and officially nicknamed “Dried Seafood St.” Shop upon shop with large, transparent, cylindrical storage containers filled to the top with…you guessed it: dried seafood products. Sarah even spotted a sign for Fish Lip Jerky.

Personalized Chopsticks Guy in the mall at the Peak

On Victoria Peak, while killing some time, waiting for the sun to come and give us a brilliant view of the harbor area between Hong Kong and Kowloon, we ducked into a mall. We found a little shop with a wide selection of chopsticks, and smiling older gentlemen who personalizes them for you in Western and Chinese characters. It was a great souvenir idea — inexpensive but very personalized.

On our first day after the 25+ hours of getting there, we consulted our Frommer’s book and decided to hop on a tram to catch an MTR train across the harbor into Kowloon to get a glimpse of a Taoist temple. Hong Kong’s trams are shaped like its double-decker buses, but they move more slowly and predictably (since they run on a track). All tram fares cost the same, no matter where you get on or how many stops you ride. Enter at the back of the tram and pay (with exact change, or your Octopus card) upon exiting at the front.

It was at this point that we discovered we’d misinterpreted the terms of our Airport Express purchase. We thought it covered three days’ of unlimited public transit, but in fact it only covers three days of unlimited MTR transit. So we had to quickly cough up some HK$ coins to pay our fare upon exiting. We felt like schmoes, but the tram driver was more than gracious about us holding up his tram.

We got on the Island line at Sheung Wan, changed to a line to take us into Kowloon, changed again and continued for several more stops to Wong Tai Sin, on our way to the Taoist temple of the same name.

We could tell we were close by the smell of the incense burning and the rattling sounds of something unknown. First we took a walk through the Good Wish Garden, admiring how peaceful it was while set in the middle of a 7-million-person city, surrounded by skyscraping apartment buildings.

After making our rounds through the garden, we approached the temple’s main altar and discovered the source of the rattling sounds. Hundreds of people were practicing kau cim, and then getting their results analyzed by the professionals.

This was our first full day in Hong Kong (or anywhere in Asia, for that matter), and as such we were still pretty flabbergasted by its density (population, architecture, commerce) and drastically different scene as an observer at ground-level.

It took over 25 hours get from our apartment in Regensburg to the hotel in Hong Kong. Several of those hours wasted away groggily in the Dubai Airport in the middle of the night. After walking (what seemed like) a couple of miles, we made it to the departure hall. I was kind of surprised at how dead it looked; only one fast-food restaurant was open. I guess all the rest of the passengers were upstairs in the business lounge (I know that’s where I’d be). We scarfed some pita sandwiches and made our way deeper into the departure hall, and that’s where we found life again: duty-free store upon duty-free store, jewelry counters and trinket souvenir hawkers. Only at 2:30 in the morning, local time, nobody seemed too enthusiastic about anything. We felt like zombies, too, but the alarming turbulence around Ahmedabad did us a favor by keeping us up even longer, thereby ensuring that we’d crash zonk out for the remainder of the flight.

Exiting the plane and claiming our baggage was trouble-free. Immediately upon exiting the baggage claim, the friendly staff from Airport Express was there to inform us about the packages available. Our Frommer’s Hong Kong guide was right on the money. We snagged a few maps and brochures for later use and made our way down to the Airport Express station, boarded a train (most hours of the day they run every ten minutes), and one of us zonked out some more until arriving at Hong Kong station.

A note on the terminology here: “Hong Kong” is one of the Special Administrative Regions (SAR) of the PRC — just like Macau. It’s comprised of many islands in the region, one of which is called “Hong Kong.” One of the stops on the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system is “Hong Kong” (and thankfully, it’s also on the island of Hong Kong).

We’d almost forgotten to clarify our hotel’s shuttle pickup in advance, but just before getting into our taxi to Regensburg’s Hauptbahnhof, Sarah called and got the instructions from the hotel (working that 7-time-zone offset to our advantage). We met the schedule right on time, took in the Central, Sheung Wah and Kennedy Town neighborhoods at street level, and checked into our hotel, the Dorsett Regency Hong Kong.

The staff there was happy to upgrade our reservation from a standard double to a king-sized room on the 28th floor (why? not sure). We were impressed with the staff’s efficiency and welcoming demeanor. We tried to admire the view of the harbor from our vantage point, but due to the fog we could hardly see it at all. The night views from our hotel room proved a little more attractive.

The front desk was kind enough to make us a recommendation for dinner that same evening, but in the end we fell back to our Frommer’s book, since they recommended a place right at the end of our street. It was just slightly hidden around the corner, and it was a good thing it wasn’t harder to find — we’d have given up on it quickly. After watching us struggle with chopsticks and bok choi a bit, someone in charge offered us a spoon. We used it for serving, but remained stubborn about eating with the chopsticks. And we got better over time.

Photo credit: Quentin Douchet

Our departure from Regensburg was almost a disaster in itself: we’d planned on taking a taxi from our apartment to the train station, but

overnight snow fall + morning rush hour = cutting it close

In the end, our taxi driver took pity on us and snuck through a few places he shouldn’t have and we boarded the train just fine, and we arrived at Munich Airport in Freising without incident. It was pretty cool watching our A380 pull up at the gate, and there was a crowd of German senior citizens all gathered ’round to take video/snapshots of it.

Sarah chose our seats via online check-in. The cattle-class configuration is 3-4-3, and the best she could do was get a couple seats together in a 4-person block. Turns out the seat next to her was vacant all the way to Dubai! We were thrilled to find full 110/220V AC power (suitable outlets for Euro and U.S. plugs!) in the armrest of our seats, and a 5V USB charging port next to each (rather large) personal video screen. The food on the flight met with our favor. Indeed, the lamb curry option must have been popular, because it had sold out by the time the flight attendant asked me my preference (Sarah got the last one). But the Chicken Parmigiana surprised me anyway. Or maybe it was the metal cutlery. I haven’t had that in Economy Class since…maybe ever?

We watched something like three movies each — and they were pretty good! Our only complaint (and this is a small thing): with such a modern, on-demand nifty inflight infotainment system, why do they still use those antiquanted 2-prong headphone jacks, which force you bring an adapter if you want to use your own headphones instead of the cheapo-freebie ones? Here are some explanations.

In Part 2, we arrive in Dubai in the middle of the night.

Dropbox needs to get paid for any significant storage capacity, however, and I’ve got a very nice virtual computer in a high-powered data center somewhere mostly sitting around idle, waiting to do some boring stuff like make this content hit your eyeballs. And even Dropbox is not immune to security flaws and breaches.

Why not leverage that extra storage and bandwidth capacity by storing stuff for safe-keeping or sharing more than what you get for free from Dropbox on your own server via SparkleShare? It’s free (beer, gratis) and free (freedom, libre) and doesn’t limit you to a certain number of users/clients/files/bytes of storage. I’ve been playing around with it for about a week, and I like what I see so far.

It’s available for several platforms:

• Mac OS X
• Linux
• Android

… and iOS and Windows clients are in the works. Setting up a server on Linux was pretty easy if you are comfortable with package managers and user administration (and if you have a Linux machine running server software of any kind at your disposal, you better be). SparkleShare runs on top of Git and OpenSSH, so you need to have those packages installed and running. I’m not much of a coder, especially not in a group setting, so I had no need for Git prior to setting up SparkleShare.

The Mac client Just Works™. The Linux client was more of a challenge for me. The Ubuntu package was pretty far out of date, so I gave it a shot building from source. That was kind of an adventure, but in the end I got it running by combining some files from the 0.8 version and some from the 0.8.1 version. When it comes to compiling software, I’m mostly just fumbling around in the dark, so I’m sure it took me much longer than someone who actually has a clue.

So, what’s keeping SparkleShare from taking over the world of redundant backups and file sharing? A few things:

1. quick setup à la Dropbox
2. a web interface for administration (also supposedly in the works)
3. the aforementioned Windows & iOS clients
4. being based on Git, you need about double the storage space that your files themselves take up

That last one there confused me, since I’m not a Git user. According to Wikipedia, Git stores all the history of changes to the files being shared in every local copy. This is great if you want to look back in time at previous versions of the files, but not so great if you’re low on storage space already. SparkleShare’s programmers are looking into opening their software up to other methods of replication as well. With those, you might lose the versioning history but save on disk space.

I think it’ll really take off when it’s as easy to install on the client side as Dropbox. The only downside at the moment is that I don’t have enough friends on Mac/Linux computers with whom I regularly share files to really give it a proper field test, but it’s working great on our LAN here at the apartment. I’m using it to keep a couple hundred MB of my favorite desktop wallpaper photos in sync between a couple of Macs, and that’s working out great.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

We wanted to stick to the recipes in the ice cream maker’s instructions, but quickly discovered (remembered?) that Germany’s dairy products hierarchy don’t match up to the U.S. or British ones. If we can get Light, Heavy, Single or Double cream here in Germany, we haven’t yet found where. Thus we are limited to recipes requiring Whipping Cream (or Half-and-Half, which we can simulate through a conversion Sarah found online).

So Sarah dug up this one, requiring only whipping cream. It’s kind of hard to pour ice cream batter into the freeze bowl with the moving dasher WITHOUT glooping over the side of the bowl a little.

Fresh out of the freeze bowl after about 20 minutes of dashing, it had a lovely soft-serve-like consistency. 6 hours later at pal Matt’s house, it had the firmer texture — better for scooping — I prefer. The flavor was outstanding — this is what I want my pumpkin pies to taste like, except it was ice cream. Therefore: make and freeze enough pumpkin puree so that you can get your pumpkinny dessert on in the summer, when you can’t be bothered to turn on the oven.

We often skip steps in recipes calling for mesh straining, but it was a good idea in this case, to make sure no accidental egg bits (though I think we tempered the eggs better this time than in earlier attempts) or spice chunks from the custard made their way into the final product.

Semolina Fettucine

Having finished off that batch of goodness, it was time for us to tackle our first semolina pasta. Sarah acquired our primary ingredient from the local fancy market (Sarik, am Kassiansplatz, if you know your way around Regensburg’s Altstadt).

The standard recipe included with our pasta-making attachments was surprisingly easy. Basically: throw eggs, oil, water, flour and salt into the mixer bowl and mix for 30 seconds with the paddle on the lowest speed setting.

Switch out the paddle for the kneading hook and let it knead for 2 minutes for you on the lowest speed setting. Our mixer struggled a bit at times; I think the lowest speed is a little too low for that mass of dough.

Then knead by hand a few minutes.

Next, cut your kneaded dough ball into more manageable pieces. The instructions say 8 lumps, which made for some pretty long flat sheets of noodles.

16 lumps (on a spaghetti attempt the same day) made for shorter sheets, which were much easier to handle, but shorter noodles after running through the cutter. 12 lumps is probably the ideal compromise between flat sheet handle-ability and noodle length. We’ll try that on the next batch.

Sarah was really smart and laid out an old (clean, of course!) towel right at the start on our table. On that surface we can sprinkle flour and clean up the mess quickly.

The instructions (included with the attachments and in tutorial videos on the web) suggest sprinkling with flour between the flattening and cutting stages to prevent sticking, but we didn’t need to do that at all. If you’re going to cut them by hand (say, for your pappardelle), it’s probably a good idea to sprinkle the sheets with flour so you can roll and cut them without sticking.

We did sprinkle the cut noodles with flour to keep them from sticking while in storage.

The big test was the same evening at Matt’s place, where he whipped up a decadent gorgonzola-mozzarella-pancetta-rocket sauce. Our noodles behaved admirably: no sticking, clumping, or tangling.

Can’t wait to get that batch of spaghetti out of the freezer and give them a whirl, too…

4 strips bacon, roughly chopped
12-18 green onions, sliced (white and light green parts only)
3-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 inch knob ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 T soy sauce
4 T white wine (Shao Xing is great here)
1 T Hoisin sauce
2 pinches red pepper flakes
1/2 t rice vinegar
4 c cooked rice, cold
1 t sesame oil
2 eggs, beaten

In a large deep skillet or pot (or wok, if you have one), fry the bacon over medium-high heat. When the edges are just starting to get crisp, remove all but one tablespoon of the drippings and add the onions, garlic and ginger, stirring constantly, until just beginning to get tender and fragrant. Whisk together the soy, wine, Hoisin, pepper flakes and vinegar and set aside.

Add the rice to the bacon mixture, breaking up any lumps and reduce heat to medium-low. Sprinkle the sesame oil over the rice and add the sauce mixture, stirring until well distributed. Let the rice mixture stand undisturbed for one minute. After a minute, lift the layer of rice from them bottom – it should be lightly browned and crisp. Stir the rice so another layer has the chance to crisp and repeat until you’ve almost achieved your desired texture.

Push the rice to the side of the skillet and make room for the eggs. Pour the beaten eggs directly on to the surface of the pan and allow to cook undisturbed for 2 minutes. Once a good skin of cooked egg has formed on the surface of the pan, briskly stir the egg, scrambling it in the small space available for it, until you’ve reached your preferred scrambly-egg texture. Remove pan from heat, stir well to distribute the egg and crisped rice bits and serve immediately.

So we thought we’d give it a go making our own ice cream. Sis & BIL were kind enough to provide the necessary equipment (accordingly, they got some sausage-making attachments from us)… or so they thought! The box and instructions inside it both state that the KICA model Ice Cream Maker Stand Mixer attachment is compatible with all [emphasis mine] KitchenAid brand stand mixer models.

Lo and behold, after returning to Regensburg from Michigan, it was not so. Obviously there are different stand mixer versions (owing to different electrical systems around the world), but they don’t all have the same planetary drive hardware, which is critical to the design of the KICA “dasher” (the paddle which churns the ice cream batter for you).

We weren’t the only ones to have discovered this. Google searches quickly brought us to mobileliving.info‘s post on exactly this topic. We didn’t really want to shell out for replacement parts without an assurance from KitchenAid that we wouldn’t be voiding the warranty, so we tried our luck contacting KitchenAid through three avenues:

• Live customer service chat, and
• Twitter, and
• via Email as the mobileliving.info blog suggested (KitchenAid_Digital@kitchenaid.com)

Live customer chat with KitchenAid USA was a bust; since we live in Germany, we were referred to the support avenues on kitchenaid.de. I gave it an honest try, but the only contact method was via telephone, and I was not willing to call them. Fortunately, we got answers back both via Twitter and email, and Cheryl C., KitchenAid’s Digital Detective, was immediately on the case. Just twelve days later the replacement parts we needed to make our cool, creamy dreams come true arrived, and everything worked just as (originally intended).

Today was the testing of the first batch. Absolutely yummy! Big, big thanks to the Schwester+BIL and Cheryl C. for making that customer reputation well-deserved!

No Jahninsel visible anymore:

The Weenie Shack^® has its protective barrier up:

Almost on a whim last week I decided to sign up for a day trip down to Austria with the ski club at work, since some local pals were going, and it had been a while since I’d hit the slopes (can it really have been six years already?!). It was sponsored by Radio Charivari and Reisebüro Venus here in Regensburg. The price was €40,50 for transportation down to the mountains and back and an all-day lift ticket. Not bad, I thought. Then when we arrived at the gondola to take us up the hill, I saw that the going rate for an all-day lift ticket was €37. Meaning, essentially I got a ride down to the mountains and back for €3,50 — can’t beat that!

I took a few pictures while there. Still digging that Olympus E-PL2 (and its art filters) and the f/1.7 aperture lens I bought for it. Renewed thanks to Herr J of Ye Olde Schnitzelbahn.com for both those recommendations.

4 slices bacon, chopped (about 75 g)
3 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T tomato paste
1/4 c white wine
1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid (use the best tomatoes you can get – the texture will benefit)
1 t oregano
1/2 t thyme
1/4 t salt
1/2 t sugar or honey
1/2 t ground pepper
10-12 fresh basil leaves, torn

Heat a medium saucepan to medium high. Add bacon to saucepan, stirring frequently, until edges of bacon crisp. Lower heat to medium low and drain all but one tablespoon of bacon grease (or drain bacon grease and add one T olive oil). Add shallots and garlic and sauté until tender and translucent. Stir in tomato paste and cook for one minute, then add wine. Stir in and cook until half reduced.

Add tomatoes and liquid, breaking them up with your spoon. Once you’ve got the tomatoes at the desired texture, add the oregano, thyme, salt, sugar/honey and pepper. Stir well and bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. Add torn basil leaves and cook until wilted. Toss half the sauce with pasta (whatever type you like, but we prefer it with thick pasta), then top with another spoonful of sauce and grated parmesan.