Bremen, Germany: the best wurst, Knipp, and the Town Musicians

This past weekend, we traveled to Bremen, Germany to visit our friend, Felix. His family let us stay in his house and his mom even gave us an insider's tour of the city. The city is in the countryside of Northern Germany. The town has a blend of old historic sites with new modern buildings. I posted about the trip on my travel blog.

His mom showed us their favorite places to get the best wurst (sausage). The bratwurst was perfectly cooked and steaming hot. The sausage was really meaty and full of herbs. This was a great starter to German food.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Friesenhof. I ordered the FriesenJager Schnitzel which was a breaded pork cutlet, and salt pork fried potatoes. The meat was still juicy and went well with the creamy mushroom sauce.

My friend, Kevin, order the Bermer Knipp which is a local dish with sausages. It is made of ground pork from the belly, head, and rind mixed with barley, and spices. The sausage is then smoked, sliced and fried on both sides to get a golden brown and delicious crust. The knipp was laid upon a mound of fried potatoes and there were gerkins to add acidity to the overall dish. Without the grains in the sausage, the flavor would have been to rich. This dish tasted very similar to haggis.

These dishes were both tasty and we were overwhelmed with food. Sadly, we couldn't even finish our plates - we thought that Americans have huge portions. We also got Beck's beer which is made in the town of Bremen. Let's just say I'm not a huge beer fan.

Then we saw the Town Musicians Statue which comes from a story written by the Brothers Grim.

In the tale, a Donkey, a Dog, a Cat and a Rooster are getting old and are retired from their work on a farm. They realize that they will soon be killed by the farmer and they decide to run away and becomes musicians. What else would these animals be? During the night, they make their way to Bremen and see a cottage with thieves inside.  They hop on eachothers' backs and play music in hopes of getting the thieves approval and perhaps a meal. The music is so "great" that it scares the robbers and they run from the house. The animals rush inside and enjoy a meal together as free animals. Later, one of the robbers return so see what that has taken over their house. The animals act quickly: the Cat scratches the thief's face with her claws, the Dog bites his leg, the Donkey kicks him in the gut and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door. The robber retells his story to his fellow evil doers. He tells them of the witch that scratched him (the Cat), the ogre with the knife (the Dog), the giant who clubbed him (the Donkey) and the finally the dragon who chased him away and screamed from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers decide to never return and like good fairy tales, the animals live happily ever after.

After walking around the city, we decided to get a pretzel from the local bakery. It had that chewy outside, bready inside and the amount of salt crystals was perfect.

I forgot to mention that I started a new tradition - every time I visit a city in Europe, I find a kitchen supply store and buy a cooking utensil. In Paris, I bought a whisk and in Germany, I bought a silicon mixing spoon from Henckels. Henckels? Why didn't I buy I knife? I couldn't really bring it on the plane and we didn't have time for me to ship it home. I will find a knife somewhere. Anyways, I really enjoyed my time in the countryside of Germany and I hope that one day you can visit too.

Paris: the land of brasseries, macarons, and crepes

This past weekend, we went to Paris to celebrate Kevin's 21st birthday. There are so many things to do, see and eat in Paris.

We went all around seeing the Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triomph, Jardin di Tuileries, Eiffel Tower, Saint Chapelle, Marche au puces (world's largest outdoor market) and Montmartre. There are just so many places and monuments to see around Paris. I would recommend getting the metro pass, for students its only 3.40 euro for the whole day. Also, bring your student IDs if your are studying in Europe. We were able to get into museums for free because of them.

Sacre Coeur

The weather was great as well; the leaves were just starting to change.

I wish I had several extra stomachs to fit more food in. Here are some of my favorite places that we ate at. If you are ever in Paris, please give these a go. Also, be sure to get as many crepes, pain de chocolats and baguettes as you can. I don't have any particular places but crepe stands and bakeries are practically on every corner.


L'as Du Falafel (34 Rue des Rosiers, Paris, France. Near Saint Paul Metro)

Ok, I know. It's not really French, it's middle eastern. But this place was written about on practically every food blog about Paris. The fried chickpea spheres were layered perfectly with the pickled cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, and grilled eggplant. They were all tucked into a pita and topped with a creamy tahini sauce and hot sauce. The long line was well worth the wait.The whole thing was only 5 euro. There will be a guy asking how many falafels you want, pay him and he'll hand you a ticket and then you get in the line. It moves faster than you think. There is another falafel place benefiting from the popularity of L'as du Falafels and I'm sure they're good but you did come all this way. We came here twice on our 3 day journey in Paris.


Amorino Gelato (4 Rue di Buci, Paris, France. Near Metro Saint Paul)

This is only a couple of streets over from L'as du Falafels. Their all-natural gelato is refreshing, creamy, and the perfect place for a stop after walking around Paris all day. If you order a cone, they put the gelato in the shape of a flower for the same price as a cup. 

Another cool thing is that you can choose as many flavors as you want. I suggest the Amaretto and the Passion Fruit.

Chez Janou (2 Rue Roger Verlomme, Paris, France. Near Metro Chemin Vert)

If there one place that I had to make a recommendation for it would definitely be for Chez Janou. It is a local bistro place and it was pretty hard to find. Thank goodness for the lady at the dry cleaners; even she got excited that we were going. Try and make reservations before going, it does fill up. So the main problem. No one in our group speaks French, not even a little bit. So the menu looked the same. I did know a few foods. I saw margret de carnard aux baies de cassis and I knew I wanted it. It was duck of some kind and that's all that mattered.

 My friend, Angela, asked about the foie de veau aux pommes; I advised her not to because I think it was veal liver with potatoes...turns out I was right. Those hours of watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin as a kid finally paid off. Our very patient waiter was able to explain all the dishes for us in English. Kevin got the cuisse de lapin confit a huile d' olive which was rabbit leg confit. Janice got risotto d'epeautre et ses Saint-Jacques, seared sea scallops on a bed of risotto. I got the seared duck breast with mushrooms and potatoes which was cooked perfectly and Angela got the espadon a la provencale, a huge steak. This bistro has served the best food that I have taste since I landed in Europe. I thought about it the rest of the night. It was about 14-18 euro a plate which is about normal for dinner in Paris and we were celebrating Kevin's 21st Birthday. It was well worth it.

Laduree (16 Rue Royale, Paris, France. Near Metro: Madeline or Concorde)

This is a luxury French bakery; it is the bakery that invented the double-decker macarons which are one of the big food fads right now. 

I got a lemon macaron and Kevin got a Madagascar chocolate macaron. It was crisp on the outside, slightly chewy in the middle and bursting with lemony goodness.

We had such a great time in Paris seeing all the sights, tasting all the food and experiencing the city with some of my best friends. I hope that you can eat at some of these places, too. Bon appetit!