Here Piggy Piggy Piggy!

(please click on pictures for hi-res format)

Let’s talk food. Actually, let’s talk about the hardship I have been going through with food in this part of Europe. I am a foodie. I love trying new foods and cuisines, be it fine dining or budget eats. I don’t have a food I dislike. I have been served dishes that I dislike, but that is the cook’s doing, because I always give the same dish a second chance elsewhere, and I end up enjoying it.

Lory dropped me off at the base my first day, I went to a German restaurant in the mall. It was over-priced, but delicious. I ordered a cheese noodle dish, the name I cannot remember, with a side salad, and a 1 liter of German beer. I under-estimated how much a liter is. I could only drink half of it, especially with my carb heavy meal. That night we went to downtown Frankfurt to meet with her friends, but we had some time to kill, so we stopped at a Turkish Donner place, Ye Babam Ye Grill House. Donner sandwiches are a little similar to Mediterranean gyros or Mid-East shawarmas. I don’t know how authentic they are in Germany, but Turkish people are the largest minority in Germany, so it has to be close. Why Turks? Because of WW2, there was a massive decline in Germany’s population, especially of men. The government after Nazi rule reached out to Turkey (the only country they had not pissed off) for skilled workers to help rebuild the country. Three generations later, you will see a Turkish place to eat at almost every street. And let me tell you, Turkish food is LEGENDARY! I am going to eat it a couple times more when I am in Munich today and before I board the plane in Frankfurt. Mmm mmm mm!

In Berlin, I didn’t have anything mind-blowing. I got some street corner pizza slices, which are always good. Oh, hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurants are everywhere too. When my college buddy Josh got in, we went to an Irish Pub. I don’t know why I chose that, but I was hungry and it was convenient. The next day, we ate at this German restaurant where I ordered this cold pickled fish with cream on top and fried seasoned-potatoes. Sounds gross, right? The potatoes were fantabulous! Funny… my spell-check recognized ‘fantabulous’. Anyways. The fish was good to, but I wouldn’t order it again, as I just wanted to try it.
We did go to Burger King the next day, regretfully, only because they have some bizarre burgers on the menu. I ordered this double meat burger with a third layer being a fried mozzarella patty!! Well they are called Mountain burgers, and in the pics they look huge, but they were smaller than a Whopper Jr. So it was disappointing, but my heart was probably happy about it being small ;) By the way, Cokes taste amazing in Europe. The real cane sugar is god-sent. What doesn’t taste good? Twix, surprisingly. Yeah, I thought German chocolate would enhance the already splendid candy of the US. Side note, Kindereggs are DELICIOUS still. I am bringing back a bunch.

I had a great food experience in Prague though. First night, I ate a dine in Italian restaurant. I had the best Cream of Spinach soup EVER!
With that I had 4-cheese Gnochi (gn-yo-kee) which was superb as well.
Those little potato pastas are heaven in my mouth. With my meal, I had the Pilsner Urquell, and Gambrinus. I met up with Lory and her man the following day, and I asked them to take me to a Czech/Bohemian restaurant. They took me to Pivnice Pub & Restaurant in Old Town Square, where I ordered Beef Goulash with this spongy bread and fried potato balls. All of it was one of the highlight eats of the trip so far. I had a couple dark Kozel beers, highly recommended.

People are going ask me, why didn’t you eat German cold cuts, Schnitzels, Wursts that Germany has to offer? There are very few things I will NOT eat. I will not eat eyes, testicles or penis of any animal. I will definitely NEVER eat bugs. And I can’t fathom eating something that eats flesh (fish doesn’t count), ie: dogs, cats, bears…. humans (!)…. and pigs. Pigs will eat anything, if they are hungry enough. It’s vile. It’s not because I was raised Muslim either (come on, I drink and have a live-in girlfriend). I decided before the trip that I was going to open my mind, and try authentic foods of where ever I go. Germans and Czechs use a lot of pork. They are known to be legendary, so I wanted to try some stuff.

Well this is where I failed (or won, depending on whose point of view). It came down to ordering one of these processed pork dishes, and the idea grossed me out before ordering. I couldn’t fathom eating such dishes. I can’t do it. It smells good, it looks good, and it probably tastes good, but it’s still gross to me. I chose to take the limited menu options almost everywhere I went. Let’s see how it goes in Munich today. I will sign off with the logo and name of this "soon to be famous for its awesome name" cafe. Juvenile humor = 1, Adulthood = 0.