I still can't believe that I saw heavy snow three out of four days this week! Unfortunately, spring hasn't quite got the memo that it's supposed to begin. Even so, I'm looking forward to the many wine hikes and festivals that are starting to fill up my calendar. If you'd like to keep up, then be sure to mark off the following dates...
Last weekend after the craft beer festival, our group decided we were craving a sit-down meal with burgers. Though there was a food truck selling burgers at the venue, I couldn't tell by the passers-by what the quality of the burgers might be, and I was hesitant to try them after my long search for a good burger in Stuttgart. I didn't want to be disappointed again.
We decided that instead of taking a chance, we'd leave the venue and hop on the U-bahn to the city center where a new burger joint called The Burger House (a chain based out of Munich) recently opened. Of course we were still taking a chance on a new restaurant, but their Facebook pictures showed some pretty legit-looking burgers...
Yesterday was rather important for Germany as the 23rd of April 2016 marked the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot, the German beer purity law. Quite simply, the law, which originated in Bavaria, limits the production of beer to just water, barley, and hops. The law was enacted in order to protect Germans from unscrupulous brewers who would put some rather nasty additives into their beer, like wood shavings and soot. Even today, the Reinheitsgebot is largely still followed as it's become a symbol of quality and national pride for Germans. (You can read more about it in this helpful article posted by the BBC.)
And so, it was perhaps with more than a bit of irony that Kraftpaule, a new local pub, decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary with Stuttgart's first ever Craft Beer Festival. If the sold-out, 3,000-person attendance is anything to go by, then the event was a huge hit and no one seemed to mind that their double chocolate stout and whiskey porter did not fall under the beloved Reinheitsgebot (and neither did we)...
In my last post, I wrote about our trip from Milan to the Cinque Terre and our hike through the five villages. We had a really wonderful time on the coast, though I was looking forward to seeing Florence for the first time, a city that many of my friends and family members say is their favorite in Italy.
We got to Florence late on Tuesday night with just enough time for a quick bite at a local restaurant before bed...
It's been a while since our last trip to Seattle, so I decided it was time to pull out our passports and head to someplace new over Easter weekend. Our destination? Italy! Though Matt and I went to Rome for a day on our honeymoon, we haven't made it back since, which is surprising given that Germany really isn't that far and we've already lived here for four years now. Most of all, we decided this trip would be a great opportunity to explore all of the Italian cuisine that we've been missing...
Every year at the Messe (meaning fairgrounds), the Markt des Guten Geschmacks (the market of good tastes) comes to town. I've somehow missed it the last couple of years, and so even though we've had a really busy week having just come back from our vacation in Italy (a post on that is coming soon!), I decided that I just couldn't miss this event again.
The Markt des Guten Geschmacks is part of the Slow Food movement that began with Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986. The group advocates for regional, sustainable, and artisanal foods, and local chapters organize events like this one all over the world. Germany's own chapter was founded in 1992, and they've since worked to promote the slow food philosophy at events around Germany...
One of the foods that I absolutely loved when we visited Japan was onigiri. I'd never eaten these little rice balls before our trip, but soon came to rely on them for a quick, filling breakfast in the morning or for a mid-afternoon snack. It seemed that every corner convenience store had them, and there were tons of different flavors.
When we returned to Stuttgart I tried to find onigiri. The closest I've come is Waraku in Düsseldorf. Taking a 3-hour journey every time I have an onigiri-craving hardly seems practical, so I decided to learn how to make my own...
That's right, Traveling Hopefully is now Travel Hungry.
I never imagined I'd continue blogging for this long, but after two years, I still enjoy spending the time reflecting on and sharing the great meals that I've had at home and abroad. Now that my blog is a bit more mature, the old name and style just didn't seem to fit with what I felt my blog had come to be about. I want the new site to better reflect what I blog for and about: great food in Stuttgart and beyond.
You'll notice that the name isn't the only new feature. I've updated my blog's style to make the layout a bit more eye-catching. I've also commissioned my very talented husband to create a new logo for me that I hope will better define my name.
Apart from blogging about my outings to local restaurants and food-focused travels, I'm also going to start blogging about some of the more successful recipes that I make at home. Food is a big part of my life, and I actually spend more time cooking at home than eating out. A lot of what I make are recipes from the places that I've lived and traveled to that I just can't find in the local restaurants. I'll be sharing those recipes, along with any tips, for you to enjoy.
I'm traveling hungry and looking forward to the journey to come!
When I read Ami im Schwabenland's blog post about her cooking class with pumpkin back in October, I thought that it sounded like something I'd really enjoy (especially because pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors!). I've only ever done a cooking class while traveling, but haven't yet participated in one "at home". To my delight, soon after that blog post Ami im Schwabenland invited both me and the blogger behind Kaffee und Kuchen to join her for their next class. After a few emails back and forth, we finally decided on last Saturday for our date...
