August 27, 2005
spherical meat
*belly poke*
...uhoh.
*harder belly poke*
...hm.
I ate too much, but you're not surprised, right? Today I skipped lunch because I woke up too late and I wasn't very hungry. By the time dinner came around, I still wasn't very hungry, but I sat in the kitchen with my mum for some fruit, popcorn (finished the bag, uhoh), chocolate, spicy tofu and bamboo, and whatever else there was. We went to the Chinese supermarket today where I impulsively picked up a bag of Vietnamese taro fries after being unable to find the Terra version at any nearby supermarkets. The taro fries are surprisingly addictive despite the lack of overpowering added flavors. It's not the salt, oil, or sugar that's addictive; it's the TARO! LORDY. ARGH! Obviously, it's not something I should buy again (but you can say the same for all snack foods).
*belly poke*
Uugh.
Yesterday I met up at Lederhosen in the West Village with six friends (Grace, Flora, Diana, Allen, Mary, and Carol) for a pseudo-birthday dinner (today's my birthday, but I didn't do anything to celebrate it since I'm packing to move into my dorm tomorrow). I took the subway to 14th Street from the Port Authority terminal since I had a bit of time to kill and figured I could walk a bit to the restaurant. Even though my school is right in the area, I rarely walk (or eat) around there. Lederhosen is on the adorably homey Grove Street surrounded by residential buildings and across from another restaurant I've been meaning to try out, The Pink Tea Cup.
...But yesterday was for GERMAN FOODING. And that we did after being seated in the back dining room of the restaurant, whose walls are decorated with a mural of the Alps and ceiling decked out with some hanging lederhosen and a skylight. Since it was around 6 PM, it wasn't crowded, but by the end of our meal there were more people, mainly couples.
Comfortable seated around the picnic table/bench, we ordered drinks.
"Water."
"Water.
"...Water."
"Ginger ale."
"I'll have water.
"Coke."
"Water."
Lederhosen is a "bierhaus" but we're all underaged or non-drinkers. ;)
Never having eaten German food before, I had no idea what to get. We all stared at the menus for quite a while until I seemed to be the last undecided person. Doh.
Pick something. ANTYHING! IT'S ALL GOOD! ...what's a rollmop?
I ended up getting spherical meat. Acutally, that's just what I called it. In German, it's called Koenigsberger Klopse.
- spherical meat, or sphmeat
I liked it, apparent since I cleaned the plate dry, but I think I may have gotten the least interesting dish out of the whole group.
- table of food
Doh! That's what I get for choosing something random. Next time I'd try some wursts and appetizers. I couldn't really tell what the gravy tasted like (maybe my tastebuds don't respond to anything that isn't sweet) but the meatballs had a flavor that reminded me of pumpernickel. Or maybe that was something else. I liked the purple cabbage-y stuff since it was sweet (Allen and Diana said they tasted like haw, which I've never had) and the sauerkraut was good, not that I have anything to compare it to since I almost never eat it. Is it supposed to aid digestion? Ish? Or is it just there because...it's there?
I also tried Diana's mackerel dish:
- Geraucherte Makrele (sea meat, or smeat)
Smokey and salty, mm! The potatoes had a spicy sauce on it that I liked, although I prefered my mashed potatoes.
Mary didn't finish her sandwich, but she had eaten some of the complimentary bread and she wanted to save some stomach room for black forest cake.
- Schwarzwaelder Kirschorte
I'm sure she approved of it since she ate the whole thing. :) The German chocolate cake also got thumbs up from everyone:
- Schokoladentorte
Carol and Allen shared most of this, but Carol wanted everyone to try a bit. I ...SAID NOO! NO CAKE! I didn't feel like eating cake or too much wheat, although I ultimately did eat some wheat and fulfilling my sugar quota of the day/week. Carol raved about the caramel topping on the cake though, so I'm sure I'll go back another time for sausages and cake. (But not a sausage-cake. Damn, that just wouldn't be good.)
Some other photos of food from the night:
- Chicken Schnitzelsandwich (Mary's meat and wheat, or mwheat)
- potato soup with a sausage (Carol's)
- Schnitzel a la Holstein (Allen's)
- I think it's chicken (Grace's)
After dinner, Grace, Flora, and Mary parted while the rest of us went to Mary's Dairy, where I wanted to get my sugar fixin'. ONLY ME. Everyone else was too full/not craving sugar/lactose intolerant for ice cream, yet I was ready for a barrage of carb and lactose-laden ice cream, toppings, and whipped cream. Then again, I'm always ready for that.
- ice cream counter
I've been to Mary's Dairy twice before and even though it's expensive compared to other places, I like going there. I wish they had more non-conventional flavors but you can sample the flavors and the shop is a nice place to hang out in. The first time I went there, the owner (maybe, not sure) gave my friends and I a free dessert! Or more like he gave them a dessert since i was pigging out on ice cream and they were just sitting there (they had already gone to Coldstone right beforehand, haha).
- sundae
Two sundaes in a one week period isn't something that happens much in my life. If ever. The sundae consisted of two scoops of mint chip ice cream topped with butterscotch syrup (the hot fudge wasn't hot yet, so I opted out of that), chopped nuts, mini raspberry truffles (a free topping due to the lack of hot fudge) and a mountain of whipped cream. Oh. Yes.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of everything that lurked beneath the whipped cream, but maybe that shows how much I enjoyed it. "Must...stuff self...no...photography..." Not that there isn't photographic evidence of my stuff-age:
- Carol & me munching away
I ate the whole thing. YOU ARE NOT SURPRISED! Good. For some reason I couldn't really taste the butterscotch but the resulting whipped cream & butterscotch soup was heavenly. Carol told me to get the raspberry truffle topping, a great choice since the texture went really well with the rest of the sundae. Obviously, it tasted good too, but biting through the slightly crunchy chocolate coating and the soft center was oddly satisfying. It reminded me of when I would put potato chips in my sandwiches in high school so the sandwich would be crunchy. (It's kind of related...maybe.)
I was really stuffed afterwards but not to the point of puking. Woo! Better yet, every burp brought up minty fresh gastro-intestinal fumes. I know you didn't want to know that, but...too late. Beforehand, I was just burping Diana's fish. (You didn't want to know that either.)
Diana and Allen parted ways before Carol and I walked back up to the Port Authority. It's great to have a friend who won't mind walking somewhat randomly with you, even though you're both kinda stuffed. (I should say, it's great to have a friend who won't mind waddling with you.)
Lastly, Carol made me Poofy cookies:
- Poofy cookies!!!
Ohhh, adorable! Bite-sized Poofy heads! :)
Thank you to everyone who came out for the fooding. I'm glad I dragged my bum out of NJ for the night. And now...I must go back to packing! Argh!
Posted by roboppy at 8:43 PM
Comments (4)
Ahahaa!! Yes! Robyn has what I call 2 stomaches. One for the main meal and the other one for dessert. \o/
And here all along, I thought I was the only asian person out there that can have 2 scoops of ice cream after a meal. =)
Posted by: Wei-yang Wu at August 27, 2005 11:56 PM [#]
No pork knuckles? German food is definitely hearty. And btw rollmops are pickled herrings. Think pickle, think fish. Yeah. You didn't miss out on much.
Like you, I always have an emergency stomach when it comes to dessert. How will my digestive tract know my meal is over unless it is washed over with sighing waves of sugar...
Posted by: AugustusGloop at August 29, 2005 2:18 AM [#]
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: This is the 
Tarooo!
Lederhosen is great. I liked their warm crusty rolls. Mmm, bread.
I'm sure your dish wasn't the least interesting. I'm sure everyone's was equally interesting, after all, I don't think any one of us had German food before. My dish was random as well. After all, schnitzel just sounds awesome.
You know, the commom trend with places we've gone to is that I can't pronounce anything on the menu. Other than weiner. Huhuhuh - weiner.
Allen
Posted by: Allen Wong at August 27, 2005 11:26 PM [#]