We wanted since a while to go out and eat some romanian food but until recently we didn’t get to it somehow. We don’t usually go to restaurants, most of the food you get there is worse than what we make at home so it makes no sense. But there are things you can’t easily cook at hime, like chinese and so on.
As it turns out, it’s not so easy to find a romanian restaurant around Stuttgart. Most of the things I found on the internet either had a non-existent website, or the numbers were wrong, or the information was old. I did find a place in Ludwigsburg eventually, “Restaurant Zum Rad” they call it, so we went there on Sunday.
The food was really good. Since I haven’t ate this in a really long time, I had some meatball soup and then some stuffed cabbage rolls with polenta, which is typical romanian food. We also had some grilled meat with potatoes (natur and baked with garlic sauce). It was really tasty and the portions were really big, didn’t manage to eat all of it.
Too bad I forgot to make pictures, even though I had the camera with me. Oh well, next time because we plan going there again sometime.
Clicking the image takes you to its Deviantart page. There you can see the full view or hit the Download link for a big version.
Usually when I am in Munich during the week, I don’t really go out after work. I don’t feel like going somewhere alone and with the guys from work not much is happening. But this week my father had some kind of thing with his work in Munich so they both came and we went yesterday evening out to eat something.
I don’t know the city that well (even though I come here since some time now) but I searched the Internets and I found some good recommendations for a place called “Gasthof zur Festwiese” somewhere near the central train station so we said we should give it a try.
It was very nice. It’s a rather small place, with a typical german atmosphere (chairs and tables out of massive wood, etc). The food was not exactly like the kind Freya is spoiling me with but for a restaurant, it was not bad at all. Some pictures (click for a bigger version and a small description):
I was very surprised to find out you can actually smoke inside. And not only at one or two tables in some backroom but in the whole place. As far as I know that’s kinda illegal but who were we to complain ? We all smoke.
Yummy!
Several times a week, there is this woman who comes to our building in the morning with some sort of portable snack-bar, if you want. Sometimes I see her in the morning when she parks her car and how she carries her 3-4 boxes to our floor. She arranges them on a table in the room we use as a kitchen, takes her bell and goes to all floors, letting people know they can come get their snack.
And that’s what people do, the come and buy all kind of stuff she has: many varieties of sandwiches, salads, bakery products, Leberkäse (food specific to the southern part of Germany), etc. And what’s amazing is that this woman seems happy all the time, or at least in a good mood. She does not have that forced smile typical to sales people who just want to sell their shit and nothing more. I have no idea if this is her dream job, if she has no other choice, maybe she actually likes it, I don’t know. But she does it with pleasure, that much is clear.
With the exception of some things, I do like the job that I have now. But even so, I am unable to have her enthusiasm in the morning. In the end, I assume that in order to keep yourself from going nuts at work, you have to like what you are doing at least a little bit and to be able to somewhat enjoy the little things.
Well, enough with the philosophical ramblings for today. I am staying here for 30 more minutes than I am gonna drive for 4 hours or so to Frankfurt, where I will have a training with Cisco until thursday. And then, weekend!
Well, not really, it’s not happening each day. There is here this thing germans call Brotzeit, it’s a kind of snack you take at work between breakfast and lunch. This “snack” consists of Weisswurst, a kind of white sausage specific to Munich, or from Bavaria in general, Brezel and Wheat beer. This is one of the few ocasions when you can drink at work so people here are quick to participate.
“This is brilliant, you can drink at work!” – an approximate quote of my british colleague. I think it’s safe to say this does not happen in England.
I have to mention that while the plate above is mine, the beer is not. I just borrowed it for the picture ;-)
Related to the previous post and to the one on Ciupercutza’s blog, I present you the recipe for Spaghetti à la Freya ;-) So, we need the following ingredients:
- 150-200g normal ham
- 100-150g sliced mushrooms. I buy them canned but fresh are even better
- one hot red pepper
- 100ml wine (red or white, does not matter)
- 100g tomato paste
- spices (chillies, garlic, onions, oregano, basil, parsley)
- 500g thin spaghetti
- 1-2 spoons Knorr powder gravy
All this will yield about 3-4 portions. If you want to cook for less persons then use the ingredients accordingly. Cut the ham in stripes and cook them at high heat in a pan together with 1 spoon of oil, don’t make it too brown. After couple of minutes, add the sliced mushrooms, spices and the red pepper cut in tiny pieces.
I use a mix of dried spices called Arabiata, it’s hot and it’s meant to be used for spaghetti. If you can’t find something like this you can use the individual spices.
After another couple of minutes of cooking at high heat, add the wine and the tomato paste and let it boil once. Then you can add a bit of water and, as desired, 1-2 spoons of Knorr poweder gravy. The final gravy must not be too liquid and the Knorr powder (as well as more tomato paste) helps to thicken it. Taste every now and than and add more wine, spices, etc as desired.
Let everything cook at low heat now and boil some water for the spaghetti. When the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and let it cook at medium heat for 11 minutes (at least that’s the case for the spaghetti I use, might differ for yours). Stir them every now and then so they don’t get stuck together
[singlepic id="37" w="320" h="240" mode="" float="center" ]
Take the pan off the oven, add a spoon of cream and mix it together with the gravy
That’s it ;-) Put the spaghetti through a strainer to get rid of the water, put them on the plate, add the gravy. Guten Appetit!
For the lack of a better name, I will call them Spagetti à la Freya because it’s her own recipe. I can’t say my cooking skills are stellar but I learned this recipe quite well and here is how it turned out tonight:
And since I saw today a post on Ciupercutza’s blog, here are the steps (pictures are made some weeks ago):
The gravy is delicious ;-)
Daily stuff | Stefan | 
March 2, 2010 6:45 am | 
Comments (7) 
