My title is a bit misleading. El Mero Mexicano is actually in Fellbach, about fifteen minutes outside of Stuttgart by S-bahn. But when you've been deprived of Mexican food as we have in Germany, then it's worth the extra travel time to get to the restaurant. It is (especially since Mezcal^2 closed this year) probably the best Mexican food that that you can get in this city. The head chef and owner hails from Mexico, and you can taste the authenticity in the corn tortillas...
When a company called Gaumenfreude started organizing Street Food Thursdays in the Karlsplatz this past summer, I was thrilled! I love the variety and portion sizes at food trucks, and although Gaumenfreude's first market started out a bit hit-or-miss, I stuck with it and returned again and again to try the new food trucks that they were able to bring to Stuttgart. Over time, I had some great burgers and pulled pork, and yes, even some halfway decent Mexican food. And so because they came through in the end, I decided to go check out their Großer Foodtruck Weihnachtsmarkt in Zuffenhausen today to see if they could still deliver...
Even though the last street food market turned into a bit of a fiasco, I entered the dates for their second event in my calendar as I rarely pass up a food-focused event. The second market took place this past weekend at Turlenstraße 2 in the Mitte. Right away the location was much better. Instead of the winding path through the train tracks that I took to get to the first market, this one was located right across the street from the new Milaneo mall. The signage was also much better with large, bright green announcements along the entrance.
The venue was a bit like the bottom level of a parking garage with all of the food trucks and stands set up inside. There was a desk set up at the entrance where they required a 2€ entrance fee. When we arrived on the first night, Friday, we noticed a group of Mexican dancers by the entrance putting on a show. It was a very festive atmosphere, although much quieter than the first market. By comparison, there was hardly anyone there. The lines to most of the food stands were only three or four people long at most, and there were plenty of picnic tables set up around the venue for people to stop and eat. There were about 30 different stands set up in total, and we ended up going to the market on both Friday and Saturday night so that we could sample as much as possible...
My husband and I have long wanted to visit more cities in the north of Germany, especially Düsseldorf. I read last year in a Germanwings magazine that Düsseldorf has an area known as "Little Tokyo" with tons of authentic restaurants and shops. This is in large part because Düsseldorf reportedly has the highest population of Japanese citizens in Europe, thanks also to the bi-weekly flights between the city and Tokyo. With our interests piqued, we decided to use the long Easter weekend as an opportunity to see if the city lives up to its hype.
To get there, we used our Deutsche Bahn cards to purchase train tickets on the ICE. It's only about 2-1/2 hours from Stuttgart to Düsseldorf, and the discount we get with our bahn cards make them well worth it. The train followed the course of the Rhine River, a fact I wish I'd have known before so that I could have positioned myself on the right side of the train as we travelled north. The views were stunning! It seemed as if around every bend we passed another castle and another picturesque German village. Perhaps there could be a Rhine River cruise in my future...
Last weekend we really wanted to try a Mexican restaurant in town that had been recommended to us by a reader of my blog (thank you, Nico!). Good Mexican food is not as easy to find here as in the States, and we still haven't found a good go-to place. Unfortunately, our lack of planning and the restaurant's popularity meant we were unable to get a reservation. Not to be put off, we planned ahead and made a reservation for Wednesday night.
We walked to Mezcal^2 (yes, the name is Mezcal to the power of two) with our dog from our apartment, which only took about 20 minutes or so. When we arrived at around 7:00 pm, the one room restaurant was a bit empty, which was a surprise after we couldn't get a table the previous weekend. The restaurant takes up a corner room at the edge of building, and is a big, open space with turquoise walls, colorful bunting, and a number of Mexican dolls for décor. We sat down at one of the smaller wooden tables with metal folding chairs (very rustic) and were quickly waited on by the only server in the restaurant...
We saw, did, and ate so much in Barcelona that I've had to split my recap into two parts. In Part 1 I talked about everything that we saw and did in the city, including our tasty cooking class with Espai Boisà and our tapas tour with taste Barcelona. In this part, I'll give you my recommendations for places to eat.
It wasn't hard to make this list. We had so many good meals in Barcelona, that I'm actually a little sad to be back in Germany. The ability to taste so many small plates of tapas really fit with my indecisiveness and love of many different flavors. In fact, we spent the day before our return simply walking around the city and moving from one great tapas bar to another. It was a nice end to our vacation..
