It’s been a quiet week, mainly Abendbrod at home and exploring the various lunch options on the Goethe University Riedberg campus. Minerva in the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (open to the public) is one of the better options, but I don’t think anyone would suggest any of the options are worth a detour.
We’ve been enjoying the many cold salads from Lautenschlager in Bad Homburg. Many different types of cucumber (one reminiscent of the cucumbers in broken cream at Branch Line in Watertown MA) cabbage (one red cabbage slaw included cashews) and potato salads make a delightful variety of options.
Eric Asimov wrote an article this week in the New York Times about German Sekt sparking wines. I noticed two that he highly recommended on the wine list for the restaurant we booked for a late Valentines Day lunch on Saturday. More soon.
Presunto
(2026 so far: El Hierro-> Gran Canaria (ES)-> Lisbon(PT)-> Valencia (ES)-> ........................................................................ [Fleeced Taxpayer])
65
Gonna check out Kölner Karneval and eat all the yummy (fatty) snacks, wash them down with lots and lots of Kölsch?! It’s a mad house there during Karneval. Piping hot Reibekuchen with Apfelmus… my favourite.
You might want to wait till it gets a bit “warmer” to visit Mittelmosel. The times I went they were always in the first week of June and many businesses were starting to reopen then. Summer holiday officially begins from mid June. Wineries and their tasting rooms are usually closed until then. But, restaurants have no shortage of Riesling so probably won’t be much of a problem for you.
Our Valentine’s Day started with a lazy morning, then a drive into Frankfurt for a visit to the Städel Museum before meeting my SOs colleagues and spouses for lunch at Emma Metzler.
Apple Maps navigated us to free public parking within a short walk from the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Art) on the “museum mile” fronting the Main. The Städel is about a 10 minute walk away along the river. We had timed tickets for noon, but to our relief the museum wasn’t terribly crowded. Highlights included an extensive collection of Max Beckmann works, smile-provoking works from Paul Klee and Max Ernst, and a couple of nice Chagalls. After an hour we walked back to the Angewandte and Emma Metzler.
The restaurant occupies a large space on the ground floor of the museum, accessed via a separate entrance. Entering from the river side a sign directs you past the spacious (and currently empty) terrace to the “winter entrance”. (Note to self: return for a meal in warmer weather.) The Valetine’s Day menu was fixed, a four-course affair, preceded by good dark and light bread, served with a cultured whipped butter topped with a small pool of vivid green EVOO. Eric Asimov wrote an article in the NY Times about German Sekt last Tuesday, and they had two of his recommended bottles on the list, so we started with a Jonas Dostert Sekt from Chardonnay and Elbling grapes, a very pleasant aperitif. The menu descriptions don’t tell the full story. Two oysters apiece at first seemed stingy, but as the meal progressed I was grateful. Baby endive (I think chicoree must be a mistranslation) with the trout course was a beautiful (and tasty) construction. The generous beef course included a delicious kofte made from ground beef, served on a wooden skewer and perked up by Moroccan spices. Valentine’s Day menus often come in for attack as blatant money-making exercises, but this was not only delicious but a reasonable value.
It’s a great museum. I only had a chance to visit it once when we were herding a buncha Fulbright grantees through Frankfurt for their orientation meeting.
And I love Blaufränkisch / Lemberger, even tho I am not a big red drinker. Zweigelt is really lovely, too!
Day trip by train to Hamburg. On the return my host couldn’t get me into the DB lounge because I was on a cheap ticket. We consoled ourselves with Bismarck herring. Yum.
That is a big chunk of herring!
I had to look up the derivation of the name. I had a similar appearing herring dish in Copenhagen, i wonder how close they are.
Flip side, i cannot imagine how many different herring preparations there must be.
I just booked my flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC (747-8!!!) so i will be perusing, again, this thread from stem to stern for my 2 days in Frankfurt.
Thanks to you all!
Continuing our quest to sample Frankfurter schnitzel and flammkuchen as widely as possible. This instance of grüner soße was more like an herbed aioli than others I’ve had so far. Still quite good. Another great flammkuchen hewing close to the Alsatian classic. These are both from Park Cafe about a 10 minute walk from the GU Riedberg campus. Not shown, an excellent salad of tomato cucumber and feta. Surprisingly tasty tomatoes for winter.
Tried a Radler on offer which turned out to be beer and Sprite. Was expecting beer and lemonade. Not worth the calories.
GREATLY enjoying the mohnkuchen - poppy seed cake (on the left). Not something we’ve seen widely in the US. The dearly departed Dano’s Heuriger in the Finger Lakes served a great one
Different country.
