smoked ham hocks

It is a nice fall day and I want to take Mini out for a short drive. I also want to check out a ODB reader which concerns me as it has a burnt component that I can see through the translucent case. I cannot open it as it would be viewed as I had tempered with it.

a great german tv series

 

I like movies and TV series based on historical events. Recently I came across a German TV series "The Same Sky" - "Der Gleiche Himmel" in German, on Netflix. It is a cold war Germany drama set in East and West Berlin starting 1974. There are 6 episodes in Season One. It has to be one of the best cold war dramas.

my german dish - meine leberkäse und schweinshaxe

I have been on a roll to try my hands on making dishes amongst the German cuisines. This is my first attempt to make leberkäse. Seems it is a pretty easy thing to make. I also tried making schweinshaxe - a common German beer garden (Biergarten) staple. My excuse for going wholehog? To break up the monotony of learning the German language. Why of all the languages, German, and for a Chinese? That would be another subject of my post to come soon.

my german dish - weiner schnitzel

In my quest to learn German, I have recently been going though the common food and drink vocabularies. There is nothing more motivating than taking a food and drink break when you are sloughing though a rather challenging language for an Asian mother tongue. While I am not a stranger to German sausages, I have been reading up on those I have not explored, or only know the English names. Soon I want to try making many, from different regions.

a few german songs

Some of the most poignant songs that deal with life's joy and sorrow, and mortality are from German composers based on poems. Here are a few that are particularly moving.

more home made sausages - part 2

Home cooks that constantly pursue new skills deserve a lot of praise. There are a lot going against the amateurs. Buying ingredient in small quantity cost a fortune and most of the time you get sub par quality ingredients. Stuck with toy-like equipment handicaps you. Making small batches is very labor intensive and exhausting. A lot of popular and wildly successful restaurants and chefs gained their fame from a very small repertoire. Many foodie home cooks are extremely resourceful and can cook with great depth and breadth.

airline serving cart as furniture

No sooner than I wrote about digging the airline serving cart I saw in Hong Kong yesterday, using airline carts as furniture was featured in Deutsche Welle's Euromaxx program on the same day!

more home made sausages - part 1

A few days ago I ventured into sausage making for the first time. I have been sitting on the fence about trying cured meat for the fear of indulging into a diet of too much red meat. What pushed me over the fence is the general poor quality of these products available in my town. Invested in a sausage stuffer I did when I seized on the opportunity of an open box on Amazon. Cannot beat a discount on already discounted item and free shipping. I made 2.5 lb of andouille. The result of my first attempt exceeded my expectation.

happy birthday von wagner

I have been aware that this year is Richard Wagner's 200th anniversary. I just didn't know which day. Today I watched DW Journal and found out today is his 200th anniversary birthday.

Warning: the post contains link to explicit material

more clam linguine

Strike the iron while it is red hot. It is a Chinese proverb as in the West. Very often after making a new dish I like I often would repeat it for a few meals in a short period of time to hone my skill. I would adjust the technique or ingredients. Some time for refinement and some time for the sake of diversity.

so much singing

I forgot where I read about an United States past president was treated to a Wagner's opera. While he enjoyed the overtures he had a hard time putting up with most of the opera which involves a lot of singing. His remarked something to this effect - the music was great, only if there isn't so much singing.