In My Kitchen: August 2023

Where did July go? It's only when the first of each month rolls around and it's time for IMK that I realise time is just flying past.. We are back in Paris now after spending most of July in Bonn, Germany. Let's have a look at my food adventures for July... 

Sausage and potatoes. How much more German does German food get? 

Love the little rectangular slices of cake from the local Konditorei. This one was an apple cake, light and fluffy with a beautiful almond topping. The bakeries in Germany are quite different to those in France and I enjoyed trying all the different things on offer. 

When I found a wombok at the local supermarket we knew we had to make dumplings!

Spicy fried noodles from the Tibet Imbiss - it was crazy how many Tibetan places there were in Bonn. 

The gelato is excellent and cheap in Germany, average of 1.50 euros per scoop. I tried quite a lot of flavours and this was one of my favourites - blueberry kefir. 

While in Germany I became quite obsessed with ratatouille, no idea why. Here I made it with quite a lot of kohlrabi, which was plentiful and delicious in Germany!

I went to Vienna for a few days to visit my music friend and of course had to try all the Austrian delicacies like this käsekrainer, oozy with cheese and served with copious amounts of mustard and tomato sauce. 

Her partner is quite the cook, so here he whipped up a southern German dish of Dampfnüdeln, a kind of spongy bun not unlike the Chinese Bao but made with butter and milk. We ate it with a side of gooseberries and blueberries. 

Apple strudel! This was truly delicious served warm, the pastry flaking at the slightest touch and the rich cinnamon-y filling studded with plump juicy sultanas and bits of walnuts. 

Here is the "original" schnitzel from Figlmüller, which claims to be the "Home of the Schnitzel" since 1905. It was pounded extremely thin and you can see here it was bigger than the plate! 

Continuing with all the S- foods (sausage, strudel, schnitzel..) I finished off the food tour of Vienna at the Sacher cafe, where the Sachertorte was allegedly invented. It was a rare decadent treat!

I would have loved to stay in Austria longer but I came back to Bonn just for my birthday and it was a big milestone one! S picked up this slice of cake for us to enjoy on video chat with my dad in Australia, a delicious light cheesecake with a topping of beautiful ripe raspberries. He is a sweetheart. 

Our last night in Germany we spent with new music friends! We had met through the ACMP directory a professional violinist who organised for us to play the Brahms sextet no. 1 in mid July at her friends' place. They were a lovely couple that we met again just before we left to play Mozart's Dissonance quartet, Beethoven's Op 95 quartet (really, I think the best string quartet of Beethoven) and two movements of the Ravel. It was challenging but also very satisfying to play with such excellent players! After our music we had these little laugenbrot with herbed creamed butter.

The curveball this month is also food related! Did you know that gummi bears were an invention of Bonn? The name "Haribo" is actually an abbreviation formed from Hans Riegel Bonn. There was the most unimaginably enormous gummi bear store selling everything you could possibly imagine!

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly IMK event, thanks Sherry and have a great month everyone!