Date: 16 April 2008 22:20:54
At the end of last week, the Lödgerin made her way by train across Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France to come and see her friends and acquaintances for the first time she she left in October. It was a brief but enjoyable stay. She left early on Monday morning but not without having left her mark - nor without the weekend having had a particularly foreign flavour - that's foreign for her, rather than me, but flavours were involved for both of us as we seem to have eaten vast quantities of food. This was probably because she was here when my natal day rolled round as is its annual habit. [Thanks for your card, JtL, which arrived today - very flower power!!]
On Saturday, we went to a neighbouring town to discover if a highly-rated tea room lived up to its reputation. The Lödgerin is particularly partial to cream teas - these being unavailable in Germany - and partook of the version offered there. It was deemed to be excellent. The scones were the size of a small child and so copious amounts of cream and jam were required. We met up with another German friend, S, who, once having found the correct tea house (she was waiting for us at another one which answered the description more or less exactly bar the name), embarked on her inaugural cream tea - and was somewhat overfaced by the presence of the second scone. Gallons of tea were consumed and it was all very pleasant.
Later in the evening, we waddled off to a very English restaurant in the Ancient Roman City. (I had wanted to go for a Thai meal but as one of my friends has various food intolerances, Thai was off the menu on this occasion.) The restaurant is situated in an old building - a bit more modern than Roman - but fairly old nonetheless - built in 1465 or thereabouts. (This is about 200 years older than the tea room which was built in 1675 and judging from its higgeldy-piggeldy roof and tiny doorway which S cracked her bonce on upon leaving people must have shrunk in the two centuries which elapsed between the two buildings...) We ate food on trenchers, the precursors of the modern plate. This is not quite as quaint as it sounds as it is basically a large piece of bread upon which the meat sits (I think originally the veg would have been on the bread too) but we were provided with plates and those modern implements collectively known as cutlery.
After a special breakfast on Sunday featuring smoked salmon, we then prepared a roast dinner for more friends. The Lödgerin baked her hazelnut and chocolate cherry cake (which has been mentioned in this blog before) to serve as dessert. My friend, The Moose, asked for the recipe and looked a bit crestfallen when this was denied him on the grounds of it being the Lödgerin's Top Secret Recipe. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching closely enough so can't say exactly how it's made. It is absolutely delicious - not too sweet - mmm-mmm!
By Monday morning, I thought I would have gained about 10 tons - so was amazed to find that I actually weighed a pound less than the previous week. I'll have to do this again sometime! How about this time next year?