When Rob and I bike tour we leave a lot to chance, while trying, at the same time, to make sure we always have enough sustenance to be able to get on our bikes and pedal to our next destination. Our meals can range from Ramen noodles to a rotisserie chicken with a bottle of wine. With our stove and pots and pans we usually do pretty well. But this trip we were traveling light and left our cooking gear at home.
Our first morning, after a night camped in a public park in Tuttlingen, we packed up our tent and sleeping bags and wheeled our bikes outside the camping enclosure to sit on one of the benches overlooking the playing fields of the community park. It was a quiet Saturday morning, the dew still on the grass, no one else out and about.
We had no way to cook up a pot of oatmeal or brew a cup of tea for breakfast. But we had a couple croissants bought the previous day. Croissants must be eaten fresh and these were not, but they weren't too bad with the nutella we spread on them, nutella in those little one-serving plastic containers we'd taken from our hotel in Munich. We also had an apple we shared, also from the hotel in Munich, and a couple oranges, the last of the food we'd brought with us from home in New Hampshire. And that was enough to get us on our bikes and on our way.
Our first morning, after a night camped in a public park in Tuttlingen, we packed up our tent and sleeping bags and wheeled our bikes outside the camping enclosure to sit on one of the benches overlooking the playing fields of the community park. It was a quiet Saturday morning, the dew still on the grass, no one else out and about.
We had no way to cook up a pot of oatmeal or brew a cup of tea for breakfast. But we had a couple croissants bought the previous day. Croissants must be eaten fresh and these were not, but they weren't too bad with the nutella we spread on them, nutella in those little one-serving plastic containers we'd taken from our hotel in Munich. We also had an apple we shared, also from the hotel in Munich, and a couple oranges, the last of the food we'd brought with us from home in New Hampshire. And that was enough to get us on our bikes and on our way.
Breakfast after a night at a hotel or gasthaus, included in the price of the room, was a bit more extravagant. There was cold cereal and yogurt, hard-boiled eggs and assorted breads. And then there was always a platter that I called lunch. It held several types of cheeses and a selection of deli meats - salami and several types of bologna that were reminiscent of the many pork varieties that my mother's cousin sold in his pork store in Queens, New York.
My heritage is 100% German. This trip brought back memories of the food my mother and aunts would serve on special occasions, for Sunday dinners, or just a regular weekday meal. Always some sort of meat - it could be pot roast or goulash, Aunt Harriet made a delicious sauerbraten - served with bread balls, potato pancakes, egg noodles, spaetzle, potato dumplings, everything smothered in as much gravy as you could stand. I loved it all, then.
We were at a picnic held in New York City for our ethnic group recently and the wife of one of my cousins asked, "Did you eat any vegetables?" After some thought I said, "Well, we always had cole slaw. And maybe green beans." But, no, vegetables were never the main feature on our dinner plates.
I don't eat like that anymore. Occasionally I have made goulash, but I have leaned toward mostly vegetarian meals even when my son would insist that he needed more protein in his diet. Now both my kids are vegan.
But when I sat down to dinners in Germany, I had to give a nod to my upbringing and tried to order those dishes that were reminiscent of my childhood.
After our lunch we encountered this lovely view of the river. |
In Munich many of the restaurants had menus with English translations. Not so much along the Danube. And even with our Rick Steves' German Phrase Book & Dictionary figuring out what to order could take a long time. There were just so many words, and lots that we couldn't find in the book. One night, with the help of the proprietor, I knew I was ordering fish, but not really sure what kind. It came out as a full fish, head included.
Every time I am served a fish that comes with its head I think of my mother. We were brought up Catholic which meant Friday night dinners were fish, usually swordfish or some type of fillet. But at one point in my childhood my mother decided to get daring and started cooking trout. But she couldn't deal with the head, so we always had decapitated trout. I enjoyed the challenge of pulling the meat away from the spine, leaving the bones behind. I didn't mind the missing head.
The fish I had that night in Germany wasn't trout but it was moist and tasty, served with a side of potatoes. It's never bothered me to look at a fish head, eyes staring up at me, while I pick away at the body.
Rob didn't do too badly either, although the egg was a surprise. Who has eggs for dinner? I guess if you are going to have lunch for breakfast then why not breakfast for dinner. |
Yep, I gained 10 pounds or more the first time I lived in Germany!
ReplyDeleteNow this made me hungry!
ReplyDeleteSeems like your trips are always eating away at you :)
ReplyDelete