What a gorgeous cheese selection! Look forward to following your reports.
Oh, man. I miss the cheese and ham selection in German delis 
Youâll have to pop over to Alsace and have some Flammkuchen there to compare. Itâs such a great snack with FederweiĂer (alas, wrong season).
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Settling in. Tonight we joined SOâs host and her husband for dinner at Vini da Santini. Gorgeous little Italian place downtown Frankfurt. SO and I shared vitello tonnato to start, then split grilled branzino and tagliatelle with white truffles. Excellent execution across the board, perfectly al dente pasta, however the white truffle lacked punch. The shavings were plentiful, but just not fully present. Not sure what the issue was - not fresh?
Enjoyed a Planeta Chardonnay with the meal (or two).
Lovely, lively room. Weâll likely be back.
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Any favorites from the 3 schnitzels offered?
Is that taunus venison really venison and cheaper than veal? It sure looks like it. Interesting.
I hope to be there in 2 weeks if i can get the Lufthansa flight i want.
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It doesnât say in German that it is venison but that it is game meat, so it could be also wild boar which is also quite popular in that area. And yes, since it is local game meat, it is often cheaper than veal
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That restaurant looks enticing. I hope you do decide to returnâin the name of research, of course. 
Truffle-wise, I think youâre onto something. White truffle season would have wound down by now, so getting truffles in peak form would be difficult. (Maybe Iâve mentioned friends who live in Italian truffle country, and I count my lucky stars to have visited them during the season.)
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Itâs also faschiert, which basically makes it a Hackbraten or meat loaf, which I personally wouldnât call a schnitzel anymore⊠but Iâm not from the area.
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Iâm confused by the fried chicken theyâre serving⊠sans skin (THATâS THE BEST PART!) & off the bone. Weird.
Also, thereâs really just one schnitzel on that menu, the Cordon Bleu. ZĂŒrcher Geschnetzeltes is more like a stroganoff dish, with sliced meat in a cream sauce, and the âbutterschnitzelâ is a meatloaf, albeit with game meat.
Strange selection, but Iâd try most of it 
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We are going to have our work cut out for us sampling all the regional pastries - here Hessenböller and Frankfurter kranz törtchen.
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If you like Riesling I hope you can make time for a (long) weekend visit to the Mosel valley, specifically the section called âMittelmoselâ (Middle/Central Mosel).
Iâve visited a bunch of villages in Mittelmosel just to drink Riesling. Itâs a special kind of Riesling, dry, mineral, slate-tasting. Itâs the terroir. No Riesling in other parts of Germany, or even elsewhere along the Mosel has this mineral taste. Much of the Riesling produced in this area stays there. Harder to find outside of Mittelmosel is Riesling Sekt (sparkling Riesling, but has to be âtraditional methodâ, not with fizz added).
Quaint villages, super steep vineyards, best Riesling (and soooo many types)! The train(*) takes a different route (too long). If you have a vehicle and are able to stay the night then you can do many a tasting, and visiting several villages along the way.
(*) Omg, the situation with the train these days. Hope I donât have to go to Germany again in a near future. Wtf, DB?!
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Saturday shopping along LouisenstraĂe, hitting bakeries, the delicatessen, kitchen stores and more. Our apartment is only equipped with plastic cutting boards, so we picked up a beautiful olive wood board. Having eaten out last night we had a simple supper at home of kase, Schwarzwald schinken, peppers, pickles and fresh bread. Also tried our first sĂŒlze, one of a half-dozen varieties on offer at the deli
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Your first proper German Abendbrot! Youâre practically a native now
Ja wohl 
Specific recommendations? Looks like just over an hour drive.
Itâs a tough job but someoneâs gotta do it!
On the riesling front, there are various half- or full-day cruises with planned stops along the way for wine tasting, with very pretty sightseeing along the way. Might be too cold right now, but if you have a weekend with better weather, might be worth a look.
You can also combine that with other sightseeing â for eg start the cruise in Heidelberg, which is about an hour from Frankfurt, and see the castle & the the town before / after. (Depending on price considerations, you can arrange a private version of the same thing.)
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To eat in the Mosel Iâd recommend Zeltinger Hof in Zelting. One of the most amazing lists of Riesling you will ever encounter and the food is quite good. I stayed overnight there and the breakfast was top notch as well.
Berkastel-Keus and Traben Trarbach are slightly bigger towns with more dining options.
In B-K is the great wine shop Rieslinghaus (tastings have to be arranged by appointment but worth it). I ate at the Weinstube Doctor last time I was there and it was tasty although it was asparagus season so that was the focus of the meal.
In Traben Trarbach Die Mosel is very good, not really German food if you need a change and great wines.
Itâs a beautiful area for sure, the terraced vineyards along the river are stunning. Trier is a cool city too with lots of Roman era stuff still standing.
The Rhine between Wiesbaden and Koblenz is also a gorgeous drive with great wines. RĂŒdesheim is a cute village and not full of people off season and Georg Breuer winery is there which is probably along with JB Becker my favorite in the area. You can swing through here on the way to the Mosel but there are no bridges until you get all the way to Koblenz but there are lots of ferries.
And donât disregard Mainz as a day trip, I love Weinstube Hottem, and their neighbor Hof Ehrenfels for a schnitzel in a traditional setting as well (I do eat lots of other things I swear) at Hof Ehrenfels you can hear them pounding the cutlets to order if you are seated near the kitchen. Itâs a pleasant city and the Chagall stained glass and the cathedral are worth a gander.
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I would love to hear complete instructions on how to do this trip!
For abendbrod this evening we dipped into treasures from the deli, matjes (young herring) and onion in sour cream, the torpedo-shaped goat cheese from above (now fully ripe after being left on the counter for two days), Schwarzwald schinken, proscuitto (game respects game), lachsschinken, cherry tomatoes, and red pepper. The deli had about half-dozen different preparations of matjes; weâll try them all! Lachsschinken is a very mild ham, a bit overpowered by the ripe goat cheese. Apparently the way to eat it is as you would smoked salmon (lachs): with cream cheese and capers. Next time.
Earlier on our Sunday afternoon constitutional around Bad Homberg we stopped in one of two gelaterias (Amalfi) on Louisenstrasse. I had hazelnut, SO had cherry. Both spot on, superb flavor and texture, not overly sweet. At 4 EUR total for bothâŠeven with the weak dollar, cheaper than our neighborhood at home. Weâll try the other place next week. A couple of bakeries were also open, and we scored a poppy-seed âschneckeâ and a marzipan-filled horseshoe-shaped cake. Just a bit of each was a fitting finale for abendbrod.
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My PIC adores Lachsschinken for its mild flavor, which also makes it great for FrĂŒhstĂŒck, not just Abendbrot, but mostly just with a little butter or cream cheese on good German bread.
