Nakládaný hermelín (Cheese marinated in chilli and garlic oil)

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Hermelín is the Czech version of Camembert cheese, and can be eaten as is or marinated in oil (nakládaný), fried in breadcrumbs (smažený) or grilled (grilovaný). When he came across a pile of cheap Camemberts in Rewe, J was inspired to make the marinated version. That was one and a half weeks ago:  today we dined on delicious, spicy, herby cheese served with bread to mop up the flavoursome oil, and a glass of our favourite new drink from Spain, tinto de verrano. Here is how he made it (of course, he never measures anything, but it’s not really necessary with this):

Ingredients for an average sized jar:

Hermelin or Camembert cheese (he used three – take as many as you can stuff into your jar)

canola oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped into small pieces

about 8 garlic cloves, cut into quarters or pieces

chillies, chopped into pieces (the amount and type depends on how much heat you like)

bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice (pimento)

Method:

Cut the cheese into chunks and put into a clean jar. (For tips on sterilizing jars, see here). Add the onions, garlic, chilli and spices, then top up the jar with oil. Close the jar and leave to marinate for about 2 weeks (not more than 6 weeks). We put ours in the fridge, but apparently this is not necessary. Serve with nice big slices of crusty bread to mop up the oil.

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Weekly photo challenge – Symbol

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This week’s photo challenge theme is Symbol. For me the ultimate symbol of freedom is a bird flying high in the skies. I always think of this most when I’m at the beach, there is a gusty, slightly salty breeze, the hot sun reflects off the sand, the waves crash down on the shore, and the seagulls are soaring up above. Then you can fill your lungs with fresh sea air and feel free from all the stresses of daily life!

In German class we were talking about freedom in a few lessons, for example as it related to East and West Berlin, and to the communist bloc. Our German teacher always takes the more controversial side of the argument so that we can practice our German in discussion, and said that after the wall fell, unemployment rose in former East Germany, so what was so great about the wall falling and the reunification? Weren’t people better off before? People answered that the important thing was freedom, that now people had the choice where to live, what to buy, what to learn, freedom of speech. Nobody likes to be dictated to, to have their own free will taken away. Somehow, it is universally important to people to have freedom.

 

 

Travel memories and trinkets #1 Spanish souvenirs

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Whichever travel destination you go to, you are bound to come across souvenirs for sale. Why are souvenirs so popular? Well, after a great trip, it doesn’t take long until the realities of everyday life make the holiday seem like just a lovely dream. That’s when it’s nice to look at or hold your souvenir and remember: I was really there. The word souvenir itself comes from the French word for memory. Looking at the souvenirs triggers memories of the place where you found them. And of course, some people like it when you bring back some little presents!

Leanne, author of the blog Nihongojapongo about life in Japan and other travels, has come up with a blog challenge: the Travel Trinkets and Memories challenge. J and I just got back from a 4 day trip to Spain, so I thought I’d write a bit about my Spanish souvenir and some of the other Spanish souvenirs on offer.

I guess not many women could resist coming home from Spain without a fan. They are both beautiful and functional! We visited Seville (Sevilla) in Andalusia, the home of flamenco, where the fan is used artistically by flamenco dancers. Seville is also in the hottest area in Spain, where a fan seems almost a necessity (we were there in a cooler spell – 38 degrees every day rather than the 41 degrees they had on either side of our visit!). Fans were first pictured in ancient Greek art from around the 4th century BC, and in China there is still a fan in existence that was made in the 2nd century BC. The European fans used to be rigid fans, until the folding fan was introduced from Asia in the 17th century via the travels of explorers, and became very popular.

My friend living in Spain said that fans are usually cheaper there because they are a specialty of that area. It’s true that they were cheaper than in Granada. There’s many different kinds of fans, made of different materials and with different paintings and decorations. I came across mine within an hour of arriving in Seville, as my friend had mentioned that there was a market on Feria street near to her apartment, so we stopped there on our way through the narrow cobblestone streets from the train station. At the market were lots of interesting secondhand toys, books, ornaments, music, stamps and so on. A lady sold me this beautiful blue fan for only 1,50 euros.

Other souvenirs we saw for sale in Andalusia included summery colourful skirts and dresses in Granada, orange, bergamot and jasmine scented soaps and perfumes in Seville, little bull and flamenco dancer figurines, bottles of Spanish olive oil, and books about the different towns, as well as Andalusian and Spanish history. The library in Granada was especially good for picking up some Spanish history books, and because of the heritage of Islamic architecture in the area, they also had colouring books of Islamic geometric patterns, which are very tempting once you have seen the beautiful designs at Alhambra and feel like decorating your own house. In fact many souvenirs for sale (notebooks, pencils) were decorated with Islamic patterns, and they also sold tiles in some places, although these were more expensive. And in case you wanted to remember Spain by preparing some local dishes back at home, they also had many books of tapas recipes for sale!

What interesting souvenirs have you seen in Spain, and do you have any favourite Spanish trinket or memory?

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Door

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Door on church in Prague, Czech Republic

This week’s photo challenge theme was Door.

I was looking for one photo of a door in particular, but it’s an old photo and my photos are on various hard drives both in Berlin and South Africa, so I couldn’t find it. But on browsing some very old photos (taken with a very old point and shoot camera) I realized that a) I really have a lot of photos of doors and b) there is a remarkable variety of styles of door. So here are some photos of some doors around the world (click on the photos to view them larger).

Doors in Greece

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Colourful doors in Mexico

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Doors of Asia (Japan, Malaysia, Thailand)

Doors that echo the structure of the building (Thailand, Italy)

Doors that blend in with nature (Japan)

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Arabic doors (mosque in Malaysia)

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Doors of Portugal (Lisbon)

Old and ancient doors (Vietnam, Ireland, Turkey, Greece)

Doors to the underworld (Turkey, Greece)

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Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #6 – Summer days

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On the beach in Boltenhagen

This week a heatwave struck Europe, and the summer we had been longing for suddenly struck full force! We’d booked tickets in advance to go and visit my uncle and aunt who were on a three week holiday by the Baltic sea (Ostsee) in  Boltenhagen, but had a three hour travail trying to catch the train out of Berlin because so many people had flooded to the station to escape to the coast that we could not get on the train with our bicycles. However, after a long wait and a detour, we finally made it to the coast and countryside of the Bundesland (province) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and enjoyed a weekend there catching up with family, cycling, swimming and walking around. More about that later, but in the meanwhile here are a few of the highlights of the week. Join the blog event Weekly Small Pleasures to share your own!

1) It’s been drier than usual for this time of year, in fact, many farms in Brandenburg have been suffering from lack of rain. In Czech, the rivers are also very low at the moment. During the weekend after the extremely high temperatures there were thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday evening, so at least that brought some rain. I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence or if it was related to the dryness and then the two weeks of cool weather we had before the heat, but I found a beautiful leaf in Berlin last Monday morning – maybe from a confused tree!

2) A friend organized a BBQ in the park on Thursday evening. It was so relaxing to spend a summer’s night outdoors that it felt almost like a Friday.

3) On Friday we went to Prater biergarten with some friends. i really like it there – it’s full so it has a good atmosphere but there always seems to be somewhere to sit. My friend B and I both had a classic Berlin drink: Berliner Weisse (wheat beer) mixed with  red (raspberry) or green (Waldmeister) syrup. It’s great and refreshing for those who prefer something sweet to a more bitter beer!

4) The strawberries on our balcony are still yielding fruit!

5) I didn’t know this before I moved to Berlin, but there is a big Turkish community here. In many neighbourhoods you can find shops selling delicious Turkish sweets, including baklava. I don’t know the names of all of the different varieties, but they are all variants of sweet pastries containing nuts such as pistachio or walnuts.

6) And to the seaside! About 4 hours from Berlin on the train, but so worth it.

Have a good week!

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Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #5 – Food and more food

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Anyone reading this blog might get the idea that my life revolves around food! (I can see my mother nodding vigorously). But hey, if you are ever in Berlin, now you will know where to find good food! Here are my week’s highlights. Join Mani’s blog event to share yours!

 

1) Rain! My least favourite weather is hanging grey skies without rain, especially in summer. And apparently the crops of Brandenburg were not enjoying the dry spell. Luckily it finally rained, and of course, after the clouds had rained themselves out, we finally had some blue skies again.

2) We’ve run out of Dr Who episodes on Netflix for the moment and have now started watching Heroes. I’ve seen it before, but  J hasn’t, and I’m enjoying watching it again.

3) Our first tayberry (growing on the balcony) was ready to eat! (apparently it’s a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry).

4) “Sein oder nicht sein, das ist hier die Frage…” We went to see Hamlet in German at Monbijou park theatre. I really liked the theatre, which is wooden and built in the traditional style of Shakespeare’s era. Sometime the German was too fast to follow (for a non-native speaker), but you could get the general story and it followed the original quite well – amazing, considering there were only 3 actors playing all of the roles! Watching them juggle between roles was also entertaining. The mysterious Ophelia was always talked about but never seen…

5) Cheese fondue at Ars Vini! Followed by chocolate fondue at Ars Vini! Do I need to say more?

6) A friend of ours told us that Tommi’s burgers (in Berlin) has great sweet potato fries, which we didn’t notice before (usually we arrive so hungry that we just automatically order cheese burger and fries without even reading the menu). This time we went for lunch with aforementioned friend on a rainy Saturday and I noticed they also have a “Burger of the month” (I didn’t order this month’s one as I’m not a huge fan of sauerkraut on burgers, but our friend enjoyed it). The sweet potato fries were amazing. I would go there just for that. I also had a thick, coffee milkshake – delicious.

7) Pizza on Sunday night at Il Giradischi in Prenzlauerberg, Berlin. Everyone prefers a different style of pizza – this place and Pomodorino in Friedrichschain are my two favourite pizza places in Berlin. Normally I can never finish a whole pizza and take leftovers for breakfast, but in Il Giradischi I always finish it (so unfortunately…no leftovers!). At Pomodorino they serve it sold in squares, so you can mix and match or take away.

8) Biking on a Sunday. We did a 60km bike ride from Oranienburg to Eberswalder, through forests, past rivers and canals, lovely villages, farms and fields, and old stone roads. The scenery was amazing. I’ll write a separate blog post about that with some photos.

9) Our bike path led us through a small village where they were selling fish brötchen and renting canoes. The Backfisch (fish in batter) option I tried was absolutely delicious – crispy batter and good fish. Of course, food always tastes good after exercise, but so far it’s the best fish I’ve eaten in Germany and I’d happily cycle 60km to get there again!

PS – In case it seems as if I live on pizza and burgers, I should add for the record that I also had lots of huge salads in the cafeteria this week (but they were not included in my weekly pleasures 😉 )

Weekly Photo Challenge – Muse

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Since I love taking photos (and looking at other people’s photos!), I thought I’d join the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week the topic is “Muse”: what subject frequently inspires you to take out your camera?  For me, my muse is Nature, and especially flowers. I really can’t walk past a good flower specimen without reaching for my camera! Insects and other animals also inspire me. This is one of my favourite flower photos, a poppy, taken at the beginning of summer 2013 in Brandenburg, Germany.

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A Walk in the World (1)

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Often when we are on our way to somewhere or just walking around somewhat randomly (as we do sometimes just to get some fresh air or stretch our legs), we spot many interesting things. And somehow if we could gather all these little things together, that’s what would form our impressions of a place. But normally when I post a blog, it’s about some specific destination or event. So today I decided to start a new blog event called “A Walk in the World”, where the idea is to post a few pictures (or even one) from a walk that you’ve taken, whether in a city, town, village or countryside location. Looking back in a decade or two, it will be interesting just to see how daily life looked in 2015! And for someone living on the other side of the world, that ordinary street you walk down every day might be really interesting.

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Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #4 – beer, food and sports

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This week was pretty busy at work and the weather was not so great (this Berlin summer weather is similar to early Cape Town winter weather at the moment!). So the fun this week was in the food. During the week we visited two of our favourite restaurants in Berlin, Babel (a Lebanese restaurant on Kastanienallee) and Tommi’s Burger Joint, on Invalidenstrasse, which is a frequent pit-stop en route home from my bi-weekly German class. Also, it was Berlin Beer week, and several places around the city were showcasing various craft beers. I tried some new beers including a coffee cream beer, a sour rye beer and – my favourites – whiskey and bourbon barrel matured beers! I’m not sure if it’s just the Irish in me, but Wow, it tasted good.  I’d be happy if they put whiskey in all beers!

We also had a lovely bobotie (traditional South African dish) and peppermint tart (a favourite South African fridge tart) prepared for us by a South African friend also living in Berlin with her British husband, and made a stop next to the Cape Times cafe/shop, right next door to a friend’s apartment, for a coffee and a quiche. Although the household items sold in the shop are definitely “designer”, since the prices are pretty high, it’s a beautiful room to sit in and have a coffee.

Another good thing this week is that they finally opened a Decathlon in Berlin, on Alexanderplatz. In case you haven’t heard of it already, Decathlon is a sports store selling well-priced gear for a wide range of sports. A Romanian friend of ours used to take a group of us to Poland to pick up cheap sports gear when we were planning skiing or other adventures. Glad a Decathlon store has finally arrived in Berlin!

Join the blog event at A New Life Wandering to read what others have been up to this week!

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