In my last post, I talked about all the things we saw and did in London for the first four days of our trip. After taking in the capital, we hopped in the car and began our UK road trip...
Recap: UK Road Trip
Recap: A Few Days in London
We recently returned from a twelve-day tour of the UK, and it sure was a whirlwind trip! Now that I’ve had some time to process my photos and get back to work, I’m eager to share all the great things we did. In order to make my recap easier to navigate, I’ve divided it up into two parts. This first part will cover all the sights we saw and food we ate during our five days in London, which we used as our starting and ending point for the trip...
Cool Fine Dining at Délice
My husband and I have birthdays exactly a week apart. As we've gotten older, we've shied away from buying each other gifts and tried instead to buy experiences. This year, we decided that one of those experiences would be dinner at Délice, one of Stuttgart's very own Michelin-rated restaurants...
Variety and Quality at the Street Food Festival Böblingen-Sindelfingen
I've been so thrilled to experience the recent boom in street food in Stuttgart. Ever since the first (slightly unfortunate) event back in May, it seems organizers have been trying hard to learn from past mistakes and make these kinds of festivals worthwhile. I've been particularly impressed by the recent Street Food Thursdays in the Karlsplatz. If you follow me on Facebook, you've probably seen my photos from the past couple of Thursdays, which have offered more craft beers, more vegan and vegetarian options, and more international cuisine.
In fact, Facebook is how I first heard about the Street Food Festival in Böblingen-Sindelfingen. They've been posting teaser photos for months, so I knew this weekend's festival was going to be good. Unlike past events, they extended the festival to cover three days, helping to prevent a rush all on one day. They also charged a 3€ entrance fee. Now I know that they can be controversial, but I understand the need when you have to cover costs like trash cans, security, and toilets. And although the festival was a 20-minute ride on the S-bahn from the city center, it was located in the spacious "airfield" right next to the station...
Street Food Thursdays in the Karlsplatz
I was really excited to find out last week that someone recognized the high demand for street food in Stuttgart and decided to organize a weekly location for food trucks. The group called Gaumenfreude seems pretty serious about it, too, though it was only through a casual mention by a friend last week that I learned about it. Though it was too late for me to attend their first Thursday at the Karlsplatz downtown, I made sure to mark my calendar for the second and got my chance last night.
Because it's been so hot in Stuttgart lately, we didn't make our way down there until about 8 pm. I was immediately relieved to see that there weren't huge crowds or long lines (probably helped by the Sommerfest currently going on). I was also amused to see foosball tables, beach chairs, and a live band set up for the evening...
A World of Food at the SommerFestival der Kulturen
Part of my intent in starting this blog a little over a year ago was to explore Stuttgart's culinary scene more thoroughly. I often lamented Stuttgart's lack of dining diversity as compared to some of the other cities we've visited, but the more I've blogged, the more I've searched for and found the diversity that I was craving. Though it may not be as obvious as in larger cities like Berlin and London, Stuttgart definitely has a lot of hidden gems.
One major bonus has got to be the festivals, and imagine my surprise when I discovered a new (to me) one downtown! Just around the corner from the Hamburger Fischmarkt, the SommerFestival der Kulturen has pitched their tents and stage in front of the Rathaus in the Marktplatz. Yes, I'd heard of it, but for some reason never made the effort to go. Now, seeing as I write a food blog, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't at least make the effort this year, and I was really very pleasantly surprised...
Big Demand for the First Ever Stuttgart Street Food Market
I found out about the Stuttgart Street Food Market about a month ago on Facebook. Even though I never grew up in a city around much street food, I've loved eating at food trucks on our trips to places like Amsterdam and at festival stalls around Stuttgart. There wasn't much information about this market leading up to the event, but I was pretty excited to try it nevertheless.
The website details said it would be at the Nordbahnhof from 11:00 until 18:00. While planning for the event, I had every intent on getting there early, but when we left the house around 11:30, it was such a beautiful day that we decided to walk there to work up an appetite. As we passed through the city center, we saw a huge antiques market stretching from the Rathaus (town hall) all the way up to the Altes Schloss (old castle), as well as some kind of bike festival in the Schlossplatz. It's odd for two events, let alone three, to be going on at once on a Sunday, and I wondered if there would be enough people left to attend the Street Food Market...
Valentine's Dinner at Goldener Adler
The last time we were in the area of Marienplatz we passed Goldener Adler and had a peek at the menu posted outside. We'd never heard of the restaurant before, but the appetizer special with a chorizo-saffron risotto looked delicious. And so when Valentine's Day came around last weekend, we scrolled through out list to see what looked good, and Goldener Adler won. (Note that we ate on Friday night -- really, Valentine's Day was just an excuse, and since they were booked for the actual day, we happily went with the day before.)
We (almost) promptly arrived for our reservation at 7:30 pm, by which time the restaurant was packed. I didn't get a picture of the inside, but it was nice -- old-world style elegance, but somewhere between German pub and hip-modern. The atmosphere was somewhat laid back, and I noticed a mix of businessmen after work, families with kids, and young couples like us. The restaurant was also happy to accommodate Leo, which I always appreciate (as did the toddler who kept making eyes at him, I'm sure)...
Bloggers Lunch at Hüftengold
Since I've started blogging, I've been thrilled to find lots of other great blogs and bloggers who share similar interests as mine. And while the blogging sphere in Stuttgart is still rather small, I'm not alone. This past week, in fact, I got a message from the lovely M over at Kaffee und Kuchen. We'd known each other for several months now through blog posts and comments, and she asked if I'd be interested in a face-to-face meeting. I was happy to agree.
Being both foodies, I offered up a list of lunch places that I'd been wanting to try, and we quickly settled on Hüftengold. I'm actually a bit ashamed to admit that although I've lived two blocks from this tiny café for over two years, I've been to sit down. That said, I have tried their delicious shrimp curry and homemade caramel-stracciatella ice cream at the Bohnenviertelfest this past summer. I was excited to go back "for real" this time...
A Decadent Sunday Brunch at Pier 51
Today I had the pleasure of eating brunch with a good many of my dear friends and coworkers. We decided to convene before the official start of the school year at our second annual Sunday brunch at Pier 51. Why Pier 51? Their brunch is one of the few "American-style" buffet brunches that I've found in Stuttgart, and while it is a bit pricey at 32€ per person (half price for children), I think we generally eat our money's worth given what's offered.
When you pay for the Sunday brunch, you get a good many choices including breads and toasts with butter and jam; yogurt and milk with many different kinds of cereal and müsli; fresh-squeezed juices, teas, and coffee; a hot buffet with bacon, sausages, eggs, waffles, and pancakes; and, my favorite section, a cold buffet with sliced meats and cheeses, smoked fish, grilled vegetables, salads, and other antipastos. The price of the buffet also includes one glass of Sekt (sparkling wine). And if you go early (around 11 am) and stay long enough (around 1 pm), they switch the hot buffet from breakfast to lunch, so you can help yourself to an additional array of pasta, vegetables, rice, fish, and meat along with a dessert table with fruit and mini-cups of various sweets...