Second City: Lindau, Germany

The bodensee from Lindau.

 

 City center Lindau.

Our Lunch that day.

Roadtrip around Bodensee..First City: Meersburg

Finally mamak got some time off from work this week and we don't actually 'have' to go anywhere. Usually, bila cuti, we either have to balik kampung or kampung comes to us. Not that we minded, but it's kind of cool when he takes cuti, just to stay at home and relax. After a few days moping about at home, we decided to go for a quick two day road trip around the bodensee.

The tiny dots were our route. We visited the cities marked with stars. The doted cities, we just passed through. All in all, we visited 4 cities in 3 different countries, Germany, Austria and Lichtenstein.

Meersburg, Germany

The 'Oberstadt' or uptown.

We ♥love♥ these miniature furnitures!! 

We then had breakfast at the 'Unterstadt' by the lake. Unfortunately, early autumn morning at Bodensee means endless veils of fog. We couldn't even see the ships coming in the ports.

To be continued....

Dinner at Tatsumi

We were recomended a new Japanese restaurant by malaysian friends a while ago and naturally we had to check out the place. : D. It is rather difficult to find a decent Japanese restaurant around we live and by decent I mean, a large assortment of dishes at a relatively cheap price. To find out about this restaurant was a real treat. So today, we had dinner there.

Let's check out Tatsumi!

This was our gratis appetizer. A salmon salad with a dressing that taste almost like kuah rojak. No kidding.

This one is our 'second appetizer'. We ordered appetizer since we didn't know that we were getting any the first one for free. It's called Nuta Ae, slices of raw fish with a rich sour miso dressing. Oh heavenly.

Our main course was the Osaka platter with a set of Shake Uramaki.

Very pretty presentation.

This is how the sushi bar looks like.

Mamak ordered Matcha ice-cream for desert.

I was so happy that I get to order Daifuku. All this while, I have only seen mochi on videos and pictures. These are my first Daifuku ever and I loved it. They tasted like an oversized buah melaka with kacang merah fillings. Yum!

At the end of our course we were offered free digestives of Calpis.

All in all, it is pretty good. Ambience was cosy. I love the pretty Japanese deco they had. They made me forget for a while that I was in Germany. 

Next time we'd like to try the tempura!

♥ I call this art ♥

Krümel Torte

Krümel means crumbs and Torte means cake. We saw a pack of instant Krümel Torte mix and my husband straight away asked me if I could make it. I am always ready for new things or in this case new cake..haha, so I said, why not. We looked roughly at the ingredients and threw the package almost instantly into our shopping cart. You know, shopping in ramadhan is very dangerous. You tend to put everything in your cart and come home with more than you actually need.

Wah, today dah hari keempat raya. Our rendang and gulai nasi dagang pun dah licin. Kuih raya Amy Schwenke dah tinggal dua tiga biji saja. Haha. So I decided to bake the cake yesterday evening. I looked again roughly at the instructions on the box. The cake base was easy enough.

I baked the cake and let it cool.

Then I scooped the cake to create a crater, where it should be filled with its cream fillings.

I sliced 3 medium bananas and arranged them in the crater. Next comes the fillings.

There was a packet of powder in the cake box, which I had to mix with cold water. As the mixture cools down, I saw that it starts to gel-up. Hmm. Note that I read the ingredients only roughly as we bought it. 

What do you know, there's gelatine in it. Ooops! Lucky that I haven't mix everything in yet. So I had to use agar-agar powder, sugar and chocolate chips to replace the mix. I whipped the cream, fold in the agar mixture and dollop onto the cake. And then the crumbs comes on top of the cake. Very messy work, I tell you. Please note that I am a clumsy.

After hours chilling in the fridge, this is how it looks like. It sets up pretty nicely. 

The taste? YUM! Mind you, this isn't for those with strict diet, even if there are slices of healthy bananas in it. :D. It wasn't sweet enough, probably because of my improvision. It was nevertheless very lecker.

Aildilfitri 2010

Mee goreng mamak sebagai hidangan berbuka puasa ramadhan terakhir. 

Mamak & Mami menyambut Syawal kali ini ditemani Amy dan Janna. Mamak & Mami sangat berterima kasih atas kunjungan mereka ke teratak kecil kami.

Kami bersolat Aidilfitri di Mevlana Moschee di Konstanz.

Rezeki di pagi Syawal. Kami dijemput menyambut Aidilfitri di rumah Imam Masjid. Disambut mesra bagaikan dah lama berkenalan. Juadah sederhana tetapi sangat menyelerakan kerana berpeluang makan bersama-sama. 

Gambar kenangan bersama keluarga Imam@Hojjah Hayati (gambar bawah, paling kanan).

That's it folks!

Salam Aidilfitri

image courtesy www.syoksyok.com

RAYA!RAYA!RAYA!

Kami berdua, Mamak & Mami mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua blog readers yang dihormati. Terima Kasih atas sokongan kalian. Kami juga memohon maaf zahir dan batin, jika ada tersilap atau terkasar bahasa. Semoga Aidilfitri kali ini diberkati Allah.

ps: Berhati-hati di jalan raya, ingat yang tersayang.

Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten kepada orang jerman, seperti rendang daging kepada orang Malaysia. It's something special. Something very typical german.  

Sauer means sour or in this sense pickled and Braten is a term to describe roast beef. Pickled beef? How could that be tasty? Mind you, I have wondered long and hard about the taste for I have never tasted Sauerbraten. I was curious.

So after buying a big chunk of beef that day, I told mamak if he knew how to make Sauerbraten. He usually buys the ready pickled beef from the store and roast it with Ms. Maggi or Mr. Knorr. I was determined to make it from scratch so I visited my best friend the Internet. After reading through a few recipes, I was confident that I could make it from scratch. Well actually anyone could.  So to those interested to know how it is made, here it is. I translated this recipe from a german website.

First the pickling.

For about a kilo chunk of beef, you'll need : 

• 4 cloves 
• 5 allspice
• 8 juniper berries
• 10 peppercorns
• 2 bayleaves
• 300ml redwine vinegar (I use balsamic vinegar, you may use normal vinegar, but the sauce will be lighter in colour)
• 2 onions, largely diced
• 1 carrot, largely diced
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 750ml water or grapejuice (I use water since I use the balsamic vinegar)

Put everything in a small pot and add water. Bring the broth to a quick boil and let it cool thoroughly. Clean and dry the beef chunk and put it in a deep dish. Pour in the cold vinegar broth and make sure the whole beef is immersed in the broth. Add more water or vinegar as needed. Cover with plastic foil and place in the fridge for 3 days, turning the beef each day ( I pickled for 48 hrs only).  This is after 24hours pickling. The Braten: Take the beef chunk out of the broth and pat with kitchen towel to dry. Season with pepper on all sides. Prepare a large frying pan with a little bit oil. Fry the beef chunk on all sides till crispy. After this is done, let the beef rest on a cutting board. The same frying pan will be used for making the bratensauce. 2 tablespoons tomato puree Sieve the broth. Sort out the condiments from the veggies. Reheat the frying pan and fry the veggies from the broth. Add half of the sieved broth and add tomato puree. The Braising: a piece of wholewheat bread, you can also use ginger biscuits. It is to thicken the sauce. Preheat oven at 180°C. In a roasting pan, place the beef in the middle. Pour the bratensauce on it and cover the roasting pan. Braise in the oven for all together 3 hours at 180°C, adding a little broth at a time. After the second hour, place chunks of bread around the beef, cover and braise for another hour.  The sauce: 2 tablespoon sour cream Remove the beef from the bratensauce. Sieve the bratensauce in a saucepan. At the time, the veggies and the bread chunks will be so soft that you can press them through the metal sieve. Add leftover broth and warm through on a medium heat. Fold in the sour cream or cremé fraiché. What do you eat with Sauerbraten? Traditionally it is served with potato dumplings and pickled red cabbage. But it is versatile. Noodles, boiled potatoes and maybe with a side of roasted veggies may also do the trick. When the beef is done, it should be so soft that you wont need a knife to cut it.:D  We had ours traditional with pickled red cabbage and potato dumplings. Verdict:  Well as the name says, it is sour. Sour braised beef.  The beef was very soft. Surprisingly tasty, savoury and aromatic. For me maybe a little too sour, but Mamak told me he usually likes it very sour. Hah..What do I know, this was my first ever Sauerbraten :D. He also told me my Sauerbraten tasted original, so it is a good recipe, if anybody is interested in typical german cuisine. I am happy with the results and hoping I can bribe my in laws with it someday..muaahahahha...(udang sebalik mee?) ps: Kami raya hari Khamis..jgn mara aaa...

Know Thy Neighbour

I woke up today greeted with a soft singing and birds chirping. Serious tak tipu. FYI it is not mamak who sings pepagi buto, but my neighbour. I have a neighbour who sings. Sometimes we hear her sing and plays the guitar. She could be an local opera singer or a hippie. I do not know which. Unlike malaysia, those who lives here don't really care about their neighbour. I for once, have never even seen the opera singer /hippie. Sad really. Should I go and send a plate of kuih loyang for a friendship offering? We are afraid that we will come of as nutcases.

Anyway, I just want to update that my kuih loyang yesterday, tasted like kuih loyang. They tasted original apart from its crooked appearance. So the recipe is legit, it is hard to get it wrong. 

Should I bake kuih raya? Malassss..I was thinking that I should be buying ready made biscuits from the store ja..

Kuih Loyang

Alahai nampak sangat terpengaruh dengan cerita Shafiq Goyang tu, sbb hari ni ada la sorang tu bergoyang sensorang kat dapur. Tapi kat rumah kami, tak panggil kuih Goyang, kami panggil kuih ni kuih Loyang, tak pun kuih Ros.

Kuih ni selalunya kalau raya kami beli ja. Tapi ada sekali tu, teruja sangat nak buat sendiri so ada la sekali tu buat time bulan puasa kat Malaysia. Terus order loyang tembaga nak bawak balik Jerman. So hari ni dapatla merasmikan loyang bertuah itu.

Tak le cun sangat, tapi boleh la..

rasanya?..ntah..kami at this time belum berbuka..nanti kami update na...

Kuih Loyang:

100g tepung beras

100g tepung gandum

85g gula putih

1/4 sudu kecil garam

1 biji telur

200ml santan

100ml air

Minyak untuk menggoreng

1. Campurkan semua bahan dan gaul hingga sebati. Tapis jika perlu. Sediakan adunan ini dalam bekas yang tahan panas, jangan guna bekas plastik.

2. Sediakan kuali dan isikan dengan minyak hingga lebih kurang 3-4 cm.

3. Panaskan minyak dengan api sederhana

4. Bila minyak dah agak panas, rendamkan loyang dalam masa 1-2 minit.

5. Celupkan loyang dalam adunan, tapi jangan sampai adunan tadi menyaluti bahagian atas loyang.

6. Rendam loyang dalam minyak panas tadi dan 'goyang' loyang tadi sehingga kuih terpisah dari loyang.

7. Goreng hingga perang keemasan.

8. Ulang sehingga adunan habis.

Senang jerr...

TV3 penyeri hidupku

As I told you before, we are SOOOO homesick especially because of ramadhan. Biggest reason is because I miss the whole ramadhan feeling.

Paling saya rindu, ialah suasana petang ramadhan, bila susun kuih atas pinggan dan pergi hantar kat jiran-jiran. Lepas tu jiran pulak hulur lauk/kuih ikut tingkap dapor rumah kami. Bila dah banyak-banyak pinggan tu pulak, kenal pulak pinggan mana dari rumah siapa. Subhanallah, betapa cantiknya adat resam kita orang melayu kan. Seronok!

Masa tu dapatla merasa kuih atau hidangan jiran-jiran. Saya rindu mee kuah jiran saya, kami panggil dia mak neni (bukan neny blogger tu ye..hehe). Dari saya kecik sampai sekarang ni dah lewat 20s, saya masih berharap mak neni hantar mee kuah dia bila ramadhan. Ingat lagi rasa mee kuah mak neni. Kuah yang manis udang dan daging, topping pulak dengan telur rebus, bawang goreng dan daun bawang. Perghh..undescribable..

Aaaanyway, since kami (mostly me) homesick sangat, saya ni selalu la bukak website tv3. Pengobat rindu betul la. Tapi layan cerita yang ringan-ringan saja. Favourite at the moment ni "masam-manis ramadhan", ala yang sheila rusli berlakon tu. Pastu semalam baru perasan ada cerita "goyang shafiq", si nabil berlakon. Kelakar la nabil tu, sebab lawak dia tak lebih-lebih, just nice. Satu ja nak comment, loghat utara tu tak brapa nak menjadi la. Kecuali loghat rozita che wan tu, loghat dia agak real, dengar kata dia memang orang utara ek (hehe..tetiba jadi blog artis plak). Other than that, Shamsul Ghau-Ghau di pasar ramadhan pun kami tgk jugak. Yang ni dengan mamak sekali layan..haha..walaupun tak paham. Tak dapat pergi pasar ramadhan, dpt tgk jadilah.

Itulah nasib orang di perantauan..kesiaaannnnn...