Spargelzeit! in GermanyJa!

An article that I wrote has been published in GermanyJa!, a website with articles about the experience of living in Germany as an expat. It's especially informative for military-affiliated Americans who move to Germany as it has articles about PCSing and other pertinent issues.

You can read my article here and learn all about Spargel, or white asparagus. It's that special time of the year where it's for sale everywhere and restaurants are featuring it too.

Restaurant Review: Burrito Mexican Grill, Kaiserslautern

UPDATE: As of summer 2016, this restaurant appears to be closed. I guess I can't be too surprised because it seemed as if every time I tried to stop by during their opening hours while they were still in business, no one was there and management gave no explanation why the restaurant wasn't open. Business owners, if you want to be successful, you need to run with regular hours!

Burrito Mexican Grill
Next to Steinstrasse 21
Kaiserslautern
Monday - Thursday 1100 - 2200
Friday - 1100 - 0200
Saturday: the store says it opens at 1100 but I've been there several Saturdays and they weren't open then. They may open at 1400; check first before stopping by.

Good golly, are the Mexican restaurants popping up all over the place around in Kaiserslautern! I love Mexican food so I'm always happy to see something new. This spring, three new Mexican restaurants have popped up. One includes Burrito Mexican Grill in the pedestrian zone in downtown Kaiserslautern.


The grill is more geared toward the take-away crowd, and especially the post-bar hopping crew with late night hours, it seems. There are two high top tables and chairs inside for those wishing to have a quick meal. The store is clean, neat, and sparse inside with the tables, a drink cooler, and the grill area to order.

The menu is also small; on offer are burritos, chili, and drinks (including soft drinks and Coronoa beer). I would have liked to see more on the menu, to include nacho chips at least, but then again, the shop is true to its name in that it's a burrito joint. I ordered the veggie burrito and enjoyed the huge burrito filled with rice, grilled bell peppers, corn, pico de gallo, guacamole, and jalapenos. It wasn't authentic Mexican food, which was no surprise, but good nonetheless and reminded me of something from Qdoba.

For a quick burrito fix or a post bar snack, Burrito Mexican Grill is worth a try!

The burrito, after eating a bit of it.

Wolfstein Kulinarische Wanderung

Today my friend and I took the train to Wolfstein, which is north of Kaiserslautern, for the Kulinarische Wanderung. It was a culinary hike through the town, up the hills with lined with farm pastures, and back down again with stops along the way to sample regional wine and cuisine. Shops in town were also open for Sunday shopping (not that the town had a lot of shops, but a few were open as part of the festivities).

It was a wonderful way to enjoy the countryside, get some exercise on the 6K walk, and work up an appetite for the delicious offerings along the way. At the beginning of the hike in downtown Wolfstein, I bought a small wine glass on a lanyard for 5 euros. With that, I could sample wines at the stations for 1 euro per serving and get a little booklet stamped at each place. I won't lie; I felt rather dorky wearing a lanyard, but I feel that way wearing any lanyard. I guess it was slightly cooler because it at least held a wine glass!

There were six stops along the way. As we were walking along, I realized that the town was familiar. We had biked to it during the Autofreies Lauteral Bike Ride last August (read more here). On the route, we stopped at the second stand at the bridge and each enjoyed a bratwurst filled with chestnuts from Metzgerei Frölich. Yes, I normally don't eat meat, but once in a while I'll eat wurst. Don't judge. Anyway, it was amazing and very rich!
 
Our next stop was for flammkuchen at Flammkuchen Serr, next to the horse pastures. It was tasty and I washed it down with a very sweet German white wine from Weingut Wolf. I love sweet whites and it hit the spot!

The line for Flammkuchen.

Seating adjacent to the horse pasture.

From there, we powered up the hill to the Panoramaweg, or the panorama path. It was a beautiful view of the town with several more stops. I had another small glass of white wine at one booth and then pickled mirabelles in Armagnac, a type of liqueur.

Isn't this a lovely view?

Cooking Lachs (salmon) on the wood-fired stove.

 On the way back down to town, we saw these double trampolines (the red one is tiny and hard to see, but it's under the blue one). I had to stifle the urge to yell, "double trampolines! What does it mean? Sooo intense!!" Don't worry; I didn't actually do it.

We finished our culinary hike with a Kalkbergwerk tour of the mines and then rode the train back to Kaiserslautern. It was a lovely day spent drinking wine, eating delicious food, and taking a hike to enjoy the scenery. I heartily recommend it!

--

I read that there will be another culinary hike in Rodenbach coming up on 20-21 September. It would be worth a visit, if only to reuse the dorky wine cup on a lanyard thing ;) (at least I think it's possible to do so, as it looks to be put on by the same organization)  More information is here.

Oh, and don't make the mistake that I did and lose the card that gets stamped at each stop. Apparently one can turn it in at the end with all the stations marked and get a small gift. I missed out on a free bottle of water.

Thrift Store Review: DRK, Kaiserslautern

DRK Store
Rummelstr. 1

67655 Kaiserslautern

Tel.: 0631 – 800 93 193                                

                

Monday - Friday      10:00 - 18:00

Saturday                10:00 - 14:00

 
One of my favorite thrift stores in addition to the Schatzkiste is the DRK in Kaiserslautern. The DRK is Deutsche Rote Kreuz, or the German Red Cross, and their charity shop benefits their mission.

The DRK thrift store is on a side street near the Stiftsplatz, where the weekly farmers' market is held. It is an attractively merchandised and clean thrift store. There is even a hot beverage machine where one can buy coffee and hot chocolate to go.

There are two floors. The first floor is men and women's clothing, coats, accessories, and jewelry. There is even new merchandise from Fruit of the Loom, usually in the form of t-shirts and sweatshirts. The dressing room is located in the back of the store.

Upstairs, there are children's clothes and shoes, adult shoes, books, knick knacks, a small selection of housewares, bathrobes, and sometimes linens.

DRK is a medium-sized thrift store. I've been pleased with the quality, selection, and cleanliness at the store. Items turn over quickly there so a good selection is on offer. Pleasant staff contribute to the positive experience, too. I recommend a visit for some moderately priced, nice items that benefit a good cause.

Die Hundetankstelle at Quack

At the Quack restaurant in Kaiserslautern, even the dogs aren't forgotten*. Outside of the front door to the restaurant, there is a "Hundetankstelle," which basically means a "dog service/filling station." Tankstelle is the word for gas stations. It looks as if this particular set-up was given to the restaurant by a pet store in town.

*Well, maybe the dogs were a little forgotten because the water was rather dirty and unused looking. However, I visited in winter so I would attribute its rough look to that.

I think that the restaurant, Gasthaus Quack, would actually be rather nice for owners to bring their dogs, especially in the summer. It's located in the east side of Kaiserslautern near some trails and has what looks to be a nice patio in the summer.

Borrowing cake pans, pie tins & cookie cutters at the Vogelweh Library (in KL)!

The Vogelweh Library, located on the Vogelweh Air Base on the west side of Kaiserslautern, now offers a collection of cake pans, pie tins and cookie cutters for patrons to check out. It's free to check them out to eligible patrons and I believe it's for a three week period. They have more than 60 seasonal and traditional styles.

I stopped by and picked up heart-shaped pans. I don't like that mushy love stuff, but I wanted to make a double layer cake and that was a kit with two separate pans the same size. The collection is located on the right side of the library on the wall immediately when one walks in.

I thought it was really cool, especially for expats who might not have packed their entire kitchens and would like to borrow some baking tools.

Some of the cake pans and cookie cutters.

Seen in Frankfurt: Skatepark Osthafen

Skatepark Osthafen
Eyssenstraße
60314 Frankfurt am Main

During our trip to the bike market in Frankfurt, we walked along the river and saw this wonderful skate park. It was jam-packed on a Sunday with kids and adults riding their bikes and skateboards on the ramps. There are basketball courts and a playground too.