Gluttony

Food in the trip to Germany, Czech Republic and Austria is heavy in one word, or meats, potatoes and beer in three. Nonetheless wonderfully satisfying, if I am not considering the waistline to fit into the bridesmaid's dress next week at my bestfriend's wedding.

I am not a beer drinker but I start drinking at 11:30 as soon as I arrive at Augustiner Keller, a beer hall near the Haupbannhof (central station). I've never had better tasting beer. I notice that every beer mug has a line which indicates if it's 0.5 liter or 1 liter. Supposedly the bartender should fill the beer up to the line. Good honest business will do. If they don't, I guess you will just have to suck it up since customer service is non-existent in Europe. Ralf warns me they will kick me out if I complain the beer does not reach the line.

I eat seven sausages over sauerkraut. The sausages are called nurburgers. They are delicious, small but fulfilling. Pretzel is extra money but it's worth a try. Till the end, I cannot differentiate between the gazillion kinds of sausages, white, yellow, red, black. Just endless choices. At another meal, I have tried some dark ones with white dots inside, soon to regret even putting my tongue close to them since the white dots turn out to be pure fat inside the dark skimpy meat. Ugh.

Goulash in Prague is delicious, always served with dumplings, which are soft bread. Lunch portion can easily feed two people. I ask the dark-eyed waitress for a shot of Absinthe, the water-down version of the hallucinogenic drink that's banned in US and rest of Europe. Unfortunately, I have not seen any rainbow colors after taking it. It's green and tastes almost as strong as the Chinese rice wine, only with additional herbal spices. It's very bitter and burns from tongue to stomach. Over dinner I have ordered a pig foot roasted in beer at the Ropemaker's Wife restaurant at the New Town. It reminds me of my mom's cooking except that the skin of the pig foot is a little tougher to chew but the meat is sweet and juicy.

Wiener Schnitzel is not as good. Too much fried meat for me. This is a piece of veal, flat and rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. Eating half would have sufficed, but this 300 year old Viennese restaurant offers me a serving of delicious roasted parsley potatoes on the side, which I simply cannot refuse.