F**DP*RN

This is what’s left over from Christmas. My Mom called me up and threatened to throw it away, so I squeezed it in. This is it. The Bossmob of Holiday Dinners. Childhood memories in a kitschy (sorry Mom), gilded China Bowl.

The recipe for what we call FISCHTUNKE, which literally translates to FISHDIP was handed down to my great-grandma from her ancestors from Breslau, former Schlesien, now Poland. The name originally stems from the main ingredient carp. In time, the fish got replaced by veal bratwurst, accompanied by a very rich lebkuchen, malt beer and rootage gravy.

I can’t possibly describe, how much this meal means to me, especially because it’s only served during the Christmas Holidays. And yes, I know it kinda’ looks like a cover of a cannibal corpse album in a plate, but believe you me, it is delicious. Delicious indeed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I ate too much last night… way too much! but that’s the problem with letting me prepare the meal for a party. This year I did some Clam Chowder with Sweet Potatoe Cookies for starters, followed by a Baked Apple with cinnamon Sauce and Foie Gras. This btw. was only the lead up to a gut busting main course of Raclette. Clearly I chose not to do the the standard version with Salami, Cheese and Potatoes, but the slightly varied Sirloin, Chicken, Prawns and all kinds of fancy stuff version. 

So now I’m spending the rest of the first day of 2012 sleeping and holding my belly.

yesterday we hopped the border to Alsace, France for some pre-christmas treat. We wound up in a really nice place called Auberge à l’Agneau, real old school… I thought I’d go with the signature dish, so I ordered the battered frog’s legs with garlic and the gourmet’s salad with foie gras and other nasty bits…

as my girl doesn’t like liver all that much, I fed exclusively on fat duck liver and kermit’s tasty jumpers. And no, the frog didn’t taste like chicken, it’s more of a monkfish taste…

and don’t give me the animal lover’s crap, as long as I don’t see toad nor duck on the list for endangered species, they’re on my menu!;)

Yesterday my grandpa and I ate some chicken… this wouldn’t be an interesting thing, if we hadn’t killed the beast beforehand. The reason for this gory bloodfest was not so much me being an axe wielding weirdo, as me realising that I haven’t got the slightest idea, where the meat I eat every day comes from. Many foodies are wearing their being concious carnivores, buying only the best meat from their local organic butch as a shield against vegetarian attacks. That’s all good and well, but as cooking and food has been raised to near religious dimensions by some - definitely not me - I think one has to at least once witness the process their meat goes through until it sits on your kitchen desk, ready to serve as a great meal.

btw: these are just the nastybits, heart, neck and stomach, prepared with a salsa and vinegar sauce… was yummy!

Today i surprised my girlfriend with some awesome Rainbow Pancakes… I did officially take no pleasure in goofing around with this gooey rainbow madness at all, I swear!^^… granted, the kitchen looks like some looney tunes mobster went on a killing spree in bikini bottom, but it was worth it… TOTALLY worth it! Oh, and did you see the one that kinda looks like a Jackson Pollock painting… the original may be more precious but this one’s definitely more delicious!;)

This again was a recommendation from Andres, the beautiful La Plaça in Palau Sator, Catalonia. One of the great things here is, that nearly every restaurant offers a three-course menu with complementary wine and tablewater for as much as 15€!

In this case we enjoyed some black risotto (with bunny, gambas, Squid and all other sorts of unidentified goodness ;), some duck in blackberry sauce, cold veggie soup and crema catalan. T H I S  W A S  A W E S O M E !

(Source: laplacarestaurant.com)