Neuschwannstein

Never been here before in almost 8 years of time spent in Germany. Rather inconceivable considering the fact that along with Heidelberg, this is perhaps the most visited monument in Germany (by Americans....and maybe Japanese tourists.)

So it was time to go - and do some hiking in the area as well.

Afterwards, we were wondering a bit WHY this place is so popular. It does in fact feel a lot like Disneyland in Germany - just no giant mouse, and rather than burgers and fries, there were....uh...pretzels and schnitzel.

But despite the cheese factor, it was a well-done tour - short (well, there are really only about 6 rooms in the castle to show because Ludwig was killed off before he could finish the rest of the place), digestible, new enough that the place wasn't crumbling and falling apart like many of the beautiful, but almost always in a state of restoration, sites and relics of Europe. Maybe that was what is so appealing to Americans - the place is not in a sorry state of disrepair, and you don't need a week or even a day to tour it.

That last photo there? That's King Ludwig, who's face appears on a cookbook of sorts. "Eat like a King" is the name of the book - and it included all kinds of recipes from that era. I briefly considered buying it, but then decided that while the recipes were interesting, I wouldn't really want to cook any of them. Ludwig came to a rather strange ending (maybe as a result of eating those recipes? His kitchen was pretty awesome though - my photos were all blurry from there unfortunately,)...in 1886, after about 17 years of work on his "medieval" castle (the guy actually tore down a real medieval castle in the process of building his - a monument to Wagner), he was declared psychologically unfit. The next day, he and his psychiatrist were found in the nearby Lake Starnberg drowned to death. The mystery of the death was never solved.

Team Dinner Brick Lane

Just back from dinner on Brick Lane. Love the graffitti everywhere and the food is not bad as well. More photos to add tomorrow. Must sleeeeeeep.

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Couple more photos added.
Sweets shop I will be going back to at lunch today to pick up a sweet or two.
More graffiti - maybe more "brick lane" in nature...
dinner - tasty although not particularly visually stunning
strange addresses in london...."eleven and a half"???

Simple Italian

As much as I love eating and cooking Asian food (Thai, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese...almost all of it), sometimes you just want something simple. Something with complex flavors, yes, but those that are created from cooking for a long time rather than with a lot of ingredients. One of the challenges of cooking Indian food is that you usually have this loooooong list of spices to grind or chop and carefully meter out into the recipe you are watching/stirring/pondering. But Italian is often different. Like this evening. It was a cool and rainy day. Very busy at work, but at the same time quiet (for me) because my colleagues are in London. I wasn't much in the mood for lunch so I went out and grabbed a bowl of vietnamese pho. (Such a disappointment in Munich!!!! Argh!!!) So I was HUNGRY for dinner, and the cool air and impending fall made me nostalgic for comforting Italian. I knew I had a half a chicken in the fridge...and tomatoes...garlic..onions...white wine...really all you need as long as you also have an hour or two of patience to wait for all those flavors to caramelize and decant and come together into something totally different.

So, even though I was HUNGRY, i was just sort of relaxed after the long day. I poured myself a glass of wine, and quickly chopped up the 4 key ingredients. Slowly sauteed the onions, the garlic, the chicken, the tomatoes, adding in the wine, the salt and pepper. Tasting along the way. You can't go wrong when you have a Marcella Hazan cookbook to guide you through. Or even just instinct...

I would have loved a handful of noodles with my Chicken Caccitore, but instead, I ended up more or less licking the juices from the dish off my fingers and vowing to make some noodles for the leftovers for tomorrow.

Sea of Umbrellas

Yes, it's a nice, colorful, and amusing sea of umbrellas there at one of my company's exit doors. Reminds you of overblown inside-out tulips, or alternatively, a miniature Christo work. Unfortunately, it's merely indicative of the rain that is pissing up, down, and sideways on us without pause. Ugh.