Paulaner Bräuhaus

Urgh, we are finally entering week 12 of school. Just ask any SMU student how they are coping, chances are you will get a semi-comatose dazed look on their face. With four reports and three presentations due in the following couple of weeks, my mind feels like a pothole of deadlines. You know when you are entering the whelm of no return when blogging, you feel the need to add appendices and footnotes. Yesterday, my mum and elder sister flew off to Taiwan for a holiday and though I am stuck in Singapore -desk bound and chained to my laptop-, I managed to get a little travelling done- gastronomically-speaking, that is.

I once heard someone comment that the German language always makes her feel like soneone is being interrogated. While I agree with her that it isn't the most romantic of languages, well-prepared German food can be arrestingly good.

It was near impossible to get a table around town without a reservation on a Saturday night. Totally uninspired by the crowds, bright acrylic decor and gimmicky fare in Marina Square, we decided to walk over to Millenia Walk, which though only a short five minutes walk away, was a complete different picture of civilisation. When Jimmy suggested Paulaner Bräuhaus, my curiosisty was piqued.

Level 1 is the bar, where they proudly showcase "handicraft beer made by their resident brewmaster". By the time we left, there was a live band playing, which added to the festivities. One level above the bar, the dining area was decorated like a beer hall- a Maibaum (16th century Bavarian architectural feature) dominates centerstage; indigenous decorative iron frames and pendant lamps exude an out-of-singapore (exactly what I needed!) atmoshpere; numerous pictures of scenes in Germany and German folks spot the interior walls. It reminded me of a German Hard Rock Cafe, but still it was more fun than touche. Funny enough, this gobal brewery chain has more outlets in China than Germany

Old timers would find the menu at Paulaner Brauhaus comfortingly familar and probably zoom in on their favourites. As first time diners (read: Must Taste it All), we went with the Chef Jody Yu Platter- a combination of grilled roast meat specialties & sausages. What I love about this platter, is that there is ALMOST something for every meat lover (for those of you who prefer beef or fish, Morton's and Long John's Silver are situated nearby).

The works: Frankfurter, Debreziner, Garlic sausage, Cheese knacker, Nuremberg sausages, roast duckling, spit roasted chicken, roast caraway pork, grilled pork knuckle. Served on bed of sauerkraut, braised cabbage and German dumplings

May Day May Day! M-O-D, M-O-D

Meat Over Dose? Of course, it is Meat Overload.. this is, after all, German food... were you expecting tofu and legumes? HAHA.. My ill-disciplined tastebuds couldn't tell the difference between the sausages as they were all tasty, though not exactly unique. Paulaner Bräuhaus does a surprisingly good job with their roasts. To me, duck and german food has always been mutually exclusive but with results this satifying, I no longer see a reason to separate the two. No longer just boring chicken, the spit roasted chicken shone with herby flavour. I was little disappointed with the pork knuckle as while slicing, my index finger actually grew sore from the tough texture, but the sound of the skin cackling in between bites was awfully gratifying. Coated in sauce, the tender slabs of roast caraway pork were my pick of the lot.

Never been a fan of german dumplings and after this experience, the satisfaction quotient of this floury mass (mess) remains a mystery to me. Luckily, the cheese knacker stepped up to the challenge. Providing a life float from all that meat and flour was the palatable cabbage patch pair- braised red cabbage and sauerkraut (which by right deserves more than a sentence but I have REPORT DEADLINES to meet).

We were stuffed all right but against our conscience and better judgement, we ordered their recommended Grandma's Warm Apple Strudel. Now what can't MY grandma make such strudels? Unlike the flaky creamy Australian strudel, this German strudel had a crusty attention-grabbing top shell that bore undertones of caramelized sweetness, and the apples, raisins and nuts stuffing received praise from my dad- someone had never been a fan of desserts. Served with bourbon-vanilla sauce and vanilla ice cream, it was a decadant way to end off our meal.

Paulaner Bräuhaus Singapore
9 Raffles Boulevard,
Time² @ Millenia Walk,
Singapore 039596

Stuttgart, Germany

stuttgart. street food?

as mentioned in an earlier post, i was told doner kebabs in german was an experience not to be missed. in stuttgart, i had a lahmacun. i was under the impression that it was just a normal wrap until answers.com told me otherwise. globablly-put, the lahmacun is turkish pizza where the dough is first covered with spiced lamb and later stuff-filled with vegetables. though this lahmacun was lamb-stinged, i unexpectedly enjoyed the taste of fresh crisp vegetables.

again, thanks to answers.com, i have found a worthy explaination of the currywurst for you my dear readers. the currywurst is a typical german street food.. the grilled pork sausage is cut into bite-sized pieces and seasoned with ketchup and generous amounts of curry powder.. and served with my preferred chunky pomme frites (fries)

apparently rumour has it that this used to be former german chancellor, gerhard schroeder favourite food.. now i am no expert on german politics nor mr schroeder's credantials but that guy knows his grub. the currywurst was so delicious, only the small toothpick that i had prevented me from finishing it in half the time.

oh greasy days! i also tried this prawn snack from nordsee in stuttgart. breadcrumed and deepfried prawns with a lavious tar tar dip.. i didn't even bother with the toothpicks after my first prawn.. beliving in the heightened sense of pleasure when you eat with your fingers.. haha

nordsee is a mcdonalds-like chain in germany and it specialises in seafood. now why don't they have this in singapore?! at least, seafood is healthy, no?

Stuttgart, Germany

germany updates:

stuttgart.

this lesser-known but by no means less-interesting town in germany was home for 3 nights.. my german host family were more than generous and accomodating. andi's parents and siblings took care to make sure i felt right at home, which wasn't difficult since the hospitaliby was plain hospitable. though andi's mum didn't speak much english, her caring nature shone through her continous need to make sure her loved ones were well looked after. despite german being their native language, the straub family made it a point to converse in english and watch dvds in english (with german subtitles) to make i didn't feel left out.

nights were peaceful and for the first time in months, i actually slept without ear-plugs. every morning, i awoke to the bell chimes of the nearby cathedral and a bountiful basket of fresh bread.. sounds pretty provincial huh? haha..

i thankfully didn't need to eat out much as andi's mum was a fantastic cook. though meals were neither extravagant nor exhorbitant, they were worthy of michelin stars in my little red book.



my first dinner was german kassler (loin of the pork), potatoes and cheese with bread.


on easter friday, we stayed away from meat. smoked salmon, prawn salad and different types of cheese took center stage. with the decorative grapes, doesn't the cheese platter remind you of a roman platter?


this was dinner upon arrival from munich. smoke-bellowing roast lamb, beans with bacon, pan fried potatoes and nudlen.


haha this is as german as it gets- sausages!

i also visited burg honenzollern castle, which stood on top of a hill. seeing how only the handicapped and elderly took the shuttle bus, we decided to hike up the hills. it was a climb that proved just how lousy my stamina was. its quite worrying when i think of the number of breaks i had to take in that short period of time..

after the twenty minutes climb, i must bore an uncanny resemblance to pugsy. HARHAR, YANG!

but up above, the view was pretty amazing. though the castle would probably have been prettier in spring/ summer with all that greenery, i am glad i made that trip.

Munich, Germany

back in copenhagen after a whirlwind affair with spain and germany.
this will be my crucial month since my grades pretty much depends on how i perform for my group projects and oral exam.
i was on msn talking to two friends who are finally getting out of military service this summer and one of them will be entering boston university in august.. so the other friend and i were talking about planning a road trip in the states next summer.. *looks on dreamily

moving on to germany updates..

munich.

our first meal in munich took place at augustiner am dom where i had bradwurst with sauerkraut with a sidedish of nudlen (german noodles).

i am usually adverse to the taste of pork but the bradwurst was really tasty.. i guess the presence of the saunerkraut helped cut what could potentially have been an extremely porkish taste..

the nudlen (noodle) was slightly more interesting. plain tasting thumbnail-size of floury-doughy bits..it is difficult to imagine this topping anyone's favourite food list.. but hey, at least i can say i have tried german noodles.. haha..

we ate a lot of rubbish along the way and i even had a lacklustre belgium waffles from haagen daaz..

on our second day in munich, we headed over to famous beer drinking hall Hofbrauhaus. though Hofbrauhaus suffers from the reputation of being too touristy, i do believe that tourism encourages bavarians to keep their unique customs alive.

third row on left, the weisswurst is au fait bavarian breakfast. it is a white veal and herbed sausage eaten with mustard and i had a freshly-baked mustard to go with it.

here are some tips for eating this veal-lishly good dish: 1. peal the skin from the sausage and 2. the liquid within the pot is just water, DO NOT mistake it for broth or drink it

ooo, the pretzel really was deliciously fresh.. hey, i have had pretzels on three occasions since arrival in germany, so a fair amount of authority should be awarded.. haha.. check out the litre-strong beer mugs!

since andi could not finish his lunch, i gleefully chomped through half a lamb shank with roasted potatoes and beans.. there was a young german waitress hawkering giant pretzels and though i seriously suspected that her shirt mini pink outfit served as a motivation for sales, i was genuinely attracted by the sheer knowledge of eating the mega-pretz.. but alas, after my wiesswurst and lamb shank, i coud only stomach half the giant pretzel.

actually before hofbraunhaus, i had a hazelnut and caramel muffin from san francisco coffee company.. it was slightly on the dry side, with a faint scent of either hazelnut nor caramel but having been deprived of muffins for so long.. there were no major damages.

after returning to stuttgart, i found an easter present waiting in my room from andi's family.. MORE CHOCOLATES! i got to have my sugar blood level checked back in copenhagen.. the snickers bar that i had the night before.. neuhaus white chocolate that i had on our drive back..and now this!

besides the foot-tall chocolate rabbit, there were malteses, milky ways, marsbars, doves etc etc.. it was especially difficult to resist since they were all bite sized pieces, this making it easier to try EVERY SINGLE one.. two words: kinder bueno. mighty yum.

OH WHY CAN'T MY TASTEBUDS BE MORE DISCERNING?!

i got to admit i had a great time with the bunny- that sounds disturbingly hugh hefner-esque.. despite a throbbing semi-sore throat, i gamely polished half the chocolate rabbit on my flight back to copenhagen and the other half today.. i am beginning to suspect that i could be addicted to chocolates, which is odd because i am hardly 'addicted' to any food in particular. oh maybe bread, but that's more of a preference (over the other carbs) and 'soft spot' issue.. whilst today, i actually found myself itching for chocolate after breakfast.. oh dear.

Munich, Germany 2

munich.

happy 500th post! i feel ancient.

after a two and a half hour drive from stuttgart, we finally arrived in munich. we dumped our luggages into our hostel and made our way down to the city centre marienplatz. i guess it was a blunderring case of being at the right place at the wrong time- this being saturday, the only day shops were opened for this easter weekend.

the streets were teeming with locals cum tourists, hoping to gain a slice of retail action before religious interest took over, thus we were pretty much shoulder-rubbed and elbowed across town.

when we finally managed to pull ourselves away from shopaholics anonymous, we realised there was the lunch crowd to deal with. although it was a satisfying moveable fest, the entire process from waiting for the table, to waiting for our orders to be taken and served and evetually, waiting for the bill left me bursting with anxiety to re-join the retail opportunitists.

looping in and out of the main street took us to Maximilianstraße, where haute couture and even hauter cars reigned. bentley? checked. ferrari? ditto. the porsches, mercedezes and bmws lined streets in silent unison, as if daring less than chic wheels to park alonside them. well, like you would expect otherwise from car crazy germany..

since we completed downtown in a day and shops were mostly closed on sundays, we visited the Englischer Garten (english garden) but alas, after visiting the more spectacular retiro garden in madrid, english garden seemed mediocore by tourist standards.

highlight of the day belonged to Hofbrauhaus, munich's beloved beer hall, where over lunch, we soaked in the part-traditional part-gimmcky bavarian heritage.

though hardline traditionsalists may scoff over this circus affair, lunch was an entertaining affair as bavaria seniors proudly don their leprechaun-ish outfits and sometimes even dance along to the rhythms of live music.

with much time to spare, we visited the Olympiapark- a mini town within a town. it wasn't particularly awe-inspiring but the view from the hills above was invigortating enough..

would you shaked your head in distress if you found out that my munich purchses consisted of instant noodles and asian cookies from a chinese supermarket? i was surprised by how well stock this chinese supermarket was and couldn't resist a mini spree. i even found 'bin bin,' japanese crackers that i loved back in singapore.

i do feel that munich was a little overrated. two days was more than enough and i was glad to be back in stuttgart.

off to the library!