Restaurant Review: Metaxa, Ramstein-Miesenbach

Metaxa
Am Lanzenbusch 1
66877 Ramstein-Miesenbach

A small group of us stopped by a Greek restaurant for a pleasant dinner in Ramstein. I had read other favorable reviews and suggested the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is an interesting cinder block construction painted a light peach (aka pink, my least favorite color). Even so, the owners made it as cozy as possible with decorations and loads of houseplants. I felt as if I were visiting my cottage, which is also a cinder block construction, just without the musty cottage smell. That brings happy memories, strangely enough. Well, the musty smell at the cottage doesn't but at least the restaurant wasn't like that!

Anyway, we enjoyed a pleasant dinner. I ordered the appetizer plate (without meat) for 12 euros. First I was brought a bowl of soup, which seemed to be a chicken and noodle broth. It was salty but tasted good.

Then I was brought a salad. It did have what is typical in Germany: a ton of salad dressing (I prefer a very light coating). This dressing was the kind with a yogurt base that has a slightly bitter herb. The salad seemed kind of coleslaw-y as it had cabbage in it. 

My appetizer plate had these delicious fried eggplant things. They had a coating with herbs and various other deliciousness. The goat's cheese and the sheep's cheese spread were good as were the rice-filled grape leaves. One of the things on the menu was called "gigantes," which turned out to be large white beans. They were okay but in a weird twist of fate, I was a bit weirded out because they were served cold. I'm not sure where that came from but I think I would have enjoyed them better if they were room temperature.

My dining partners both ordered these, for lack of a better term, "meat packets." In other words, I forgot to write down the names of them. It was basically ground meat with a filling of goat cheese inside. My friends said they tasted quite good.

After dinner, our friendly server gave each of us a shot of ouzo and told us how to say cheers ("geia mas") and we finished the meal with some Greek liquid fire.

Though the ambiance of this restaurant is a bit skewed with cinder block walls, the owners have tried to create a cozy restaurant. With friendly servers and a bit of touristy fun, diners can enjoy a tasty meal.

Even dogs love the biomarkt!

Biomarkt = store with organic foods; often a health food store

In the past, I've written about "parking" dogs outside of stores. It's not uncommon for Germans to bring their dogs with them all over the place, and it's also common that many places allow dogs. However, supermarkets often don't, probably for hygienic reasons.

When we were visiting Heidelberg, we walked by a biomarkt and saw these patient guys waiting for their owners to return.

Restaurant Review: Pancho Villa, Ramstein

http://www.restaurantpanchovilla.de
Restaurant Pancho Villa
Miesenbacher Straße 45 | 66877 Ramstein


I should just call this place Cantina Mexicana #2, or vice versa, I think. This restaurant is owned by the same folks who own that restaurant so the food and the set-up is quite similar. There are some differences and I think maybe the menu might be slightly different, but it's the same general feel.

Here is my review of Cantina Mexicana. I'm not going to go into huge detail about Pancho Villa since it's so similar. However, here are few details: they accept payment in the form of credit cards, euros, and dollars. It always blows my mind that Americans will even ask if places in Europe take dollars -- dude, it's Europe; get some euros for goodness sake! but this place does take dollars if one just can't bother to assimilate.

The restaurant is located on the edge of Ramstein and has a large (dirt with some puddles) free parking lot.

I had lunch there on a Sunday and ordered a chorizo burrito (that's the part of me that's not mostly vegetarian). It was good and somewhat in line with what's served in Mexican restaurants in the US. I also ordered an enchilada. The cheese they use is a bit strange, but it's not bad either.

My server actually made eye contact with/and or checked all of her tables to see if customers needed anything as she walked through so I was super impressed by that. It's funny because it's a standard thing to do in the US but I haven't found it to be the case in Germany. One almost has to hunt down her server most of the time.

I also had a delicious, large, and free glass of ice water. *swoon* It's the little things, y'know?

Anyway, it's not spot-on for the Mexican food that Americans are accustomed to but it's tasty and the service is good.

All Thanksgivinged out

After two lovely Thanksgiving celebrations with friends (one on Thursday and one on Saturday) I am now done celebrating Thanksgiving here in Germany. The last pie tin has been washed and the extra brussels sprouts that I didn't need for the festivities have been cooked and will be lunch at work this week.

The celebration on Saturday was with a different group of friends, this time in town with an easy walk to get there. Ten people crammed around my friend's newly bought IKEA table. This time it was mostly Germans but there were also people from India, France, Israel and Indonesia. That's what I really enjoy about group; everyone is so diverse, with a different story to tell. I grew up in a very homogenous area with little diversity so it's nice to spend time with people from all over the world.

I brought some Stovetop stuffing as well as some leftover pumpkin pie from the other dinner. My fellow diners were completely sad that there was no apple pie left. I guess I'll have to make it again so I can get more practice.

After dinner, we played Apples to Apples, which is essentially a word game. Having been given my game in the US, it is the American edition.  Ha ha. Apparently not all things are universal, it seems. Some bits of hilarity ensued. Some things even I, as a native American (but not a Native one!), can't even explain. Some cards that I played and were hilarious to me got turned down. That's one of the very small drawbacks of not sharing a cultural heritage, I suppose.

That's it! I'm done

I decided to do NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, for November. It's a month of writing something every day. I completed the challenge and here it's December 1 so I can stop. I was so awesome that I actually wrote seven extra entries (sorry, for anyone who actually tries to read everything I write here, if such a person exists).

Anyway, that was fun enough. I'll admit that I'm a bit disappointed that apparently such events happen every month so it's not like November is particularly special for blog posting, but I wanted to support my friends who do NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Anyway, that was fun stuff. Now back to planning some upcoming trips in December with friends and family!

Uncle Paul's Delicious Pie Crust Recipe

As I was growing up, I watched my Mom do all kinds of domestic things, like cleaning, cooking, and sewing. From her, I learned the cleaning part, mostly because I was forced to take part in it (oh, the humanity! ;)  I'm thankful, though, because I know how to clean things really well and how to be picky about cleaning. Such knowledge does not mean that my apartment is spotless; it just means that I know how to make it spotless.

Unfortunately, the cleaning part is the only thing I learned super well from her. I did a little with baking and can sometimes make passable baked goods but I pretty much missed out on the sewing bit. As strong, educated, professional woman, I originally thought I didn't need domestic skills. After all, I'm too busy with my career!

However, now I wish I had paid more attention. I think that there is much to be said for someone who is like a Renaissance (wo)man: to be educated but also to have a wide range of other skills, too. I'd love to be able to sew totally awesome clothes for myself (mostly because clothes to wear when going out dancing or something never have pockets and I'd like to make something that does!). I'd also like to make awesome gourmet dishes to impress friends. I wish I knew how to make great cocktails and how to serve tea properly. Oh yeah, I wish I were also better at accounting, computer programming, and foreign languages.

Anyway, I promised my friend that I would make a pumpkin and apple pie for our expat Thanksgiving dinner. These would only be the second and third pies I've ever made so I was a bit nervous. However, I knew that at least the crust would be delicious because I was using my Uncle Paul's recipe. He makes his family's pies every year with this light and flaky crust. When my Mom doesn't use this recipe and instead makes a Dutch crumble top for her pies, I always get a serious case of the pouty face because Uncle Paul's pie crust is just that good (and I also dislike the crumble topping).

Anyway, here is the recipe that is helping to propel me toward being more domestic and can help you too:

Uncle Paul's Pie Crust

1 and 1/2  cup flour

2 - 3 Tbs. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

-Mix, then add:

1/2 cup canola oil

3 - 4 Tbs. milk

Mix and roll out very thinly between two sheets of either wax paper or Saran Wrap. Don't handle it too much - the cooler it stays, the better. Press into pie pan.

Make your pie the usual way. Cover the edges of the pie with tinfoil to prevent them from getting burned.

An expat Thanksgiving...times two

For Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to spend with those who are special and to be thankful, of course. Thanksgiving is a truly American holiday and besides Christmas, it's when most* US stores and businesses are closed so people can spend time with family and friends.

This is the second time in my life when I've been thousands of miles away from my family for Thanksgiving. The first time, I was a student in a suburb of London (England). I spent the evening with two of my friends, who also happened to be American. We took the train to London and ate dinner at Cheers (yes, it's based on the show!). As we walked through the park and to Buckingham Palace after dinner, I called my family to wish them a happy holiday. It was a neat experience.

That was thirteen years ago. I now live in Germany and faced another Thanksgiving far from my hometown. It was not a lonely Thanksgiving, though; thanks to the connection that expats feel and to my friend's kindness, a bunch of us gathered at her place for a lovely meal on Thursday evening. We had a late dinner since only the two Americans had the day off. It was to be quite an international event, with Americans (just two of us), friends originally from the UK (the largest group there, strangely enough, and I teased them that we had this holiday because the Pilgrims had been trying to get away from their forefathers), a Romanian, and some Germans. It was really fun to share our holiday with them.

In the wonderful way that merging social circles goes, my friends from town were also invited along. My two groups of friends met through a party at my place and then at subsequent events.  We left for Heidelberg a bit early and dropped off the pies that I made (more to follow about them in a future entry!) and some of ingredients for the other dishes I was going to prepare. Then, we headed to downtown Heidelberg to take a peek at the Christmas market. It hadn't officially opened yet but the booths were open, regardless. It was very pleasant to wander through them and not have to fight crowds.

Since it was going to be a few hours yet before dinner and I hadn't eaten much all day, I grabbed an ice cream cone from Gelato Go. It was quite cold out so it makes total sense to eat something even colder, huh? I don't always make the wisest choices in this regard but I didn't care because the ice cream was delicious! I ordered a scoop of marizpan (I think) and a scoop of Spekulatius, which had bits of chopped cookie of the same name. I forgot how huge the scoops of ice cream are there so I had quite a bit to eat! Some people complain about the price for the ice cream (mine was 2,20 euro for the two scoops) but I don't think that the prices are bad considering how much they give per scoop and that their offerings are organic. There are even vegan offerings!

We walked around a bit more and I did some scouting for the upcoming trip that I'll be taking there with my cousins, who will be visiting from the US in December. It was then time to head back for the dinner.

In addition to the pies I made, I prepared green bean casserole (which I personally detest, but it's such a typical dish that I felt that I needed to make it or else I'd be denying my Midwestern roots). I also made a dish of seared brussels sprouts with gorgonzola, pecans, and cranberries from this recipe. If I were to do it over, I'd probably bake or steam the sprouts first, then sear them in a pan, adding the cranberries almost at the end. I felt that they were slightly bitter since they didn't cook as much. The cranberries split open so that's why I'd add them later. It was a tasty dish, nonetheless, and I wouldn't mind adding it to my painfully slowly expanding repertoire of things I cook for events.

This was our hostess's first time cooking a turkey. She made a gourmet turkey, taking the time to prepare it in a brine. I don't usually eat meat, myself, but I took a small bite and it was quite nice, flavorful and moist. The meat eaters raved about it.

As we sat down to eat, I told the guests that we had to do our very special and typical American Thanksgiving ritual: a special prayer, okay even for the nonbelievers. We even taught the guests the super important hand gestures too. It went as follows: rub a dub dub (rubbing one's belly); thanks for the grub (holding hand out); yea god (doing jazz hands). I wish I could have had a video of this.

We then commenced to eat way too much and it was entirely delicious! Our hostess made a wonderful meal, pulling out all the stops with homemade cranberry relish, cornmeal stuffing, mashed potatoes with bacon (for which I will always make an amendment to my usual disinterest in eating meat), homemade cornbread muffins with bacon and sundried tomatoes, a lovely salad, my side dishes, and for dessert, a cheesecake she made and my pies (pumpkin and apple).

The company was lovely and the food delicious. My friends commented that they didn't that they have ever been so full before! Just before midnight, the three of us who live in Kaiserslautern waddled back to the train station to go home. I was in bed by 2 a.m. It's funny because the last time I celebrated Thanksgiving abroad, I was out really late too. In the US, I'm usually in bed by 10 p.m. after Thanksgiving festivities, probably because of the food coma.

The fun doesn't stop here, though. Another friend invited me to his Thanksgiving celebration, which will be today. Most of the other guests are Germans so it made sense to have it on a day that they wouldn't be working or in school. I purposefully didn't eat much on Friday because I needed a break in between two days of feasts. I must say, though, that I feel lucky to have such great company :)


*too bad it's not all of them! This is an example of where the US can really take an example from the Germans and allow everyone to celebrate holidays with their families instead serving corporate greed.