"A fried egg topping is the little black dress of the culinary world—it’s appropriate for any occasion." Germany's Strammer Max

Strammer Max is a German open-face sandwich or Belegtes Brot, consisting of ham and a fried egg atop a slice of rustic rye bread. Strammer is the masculine form of the German adjective stramm, meaning tight or taut or firm. Max is simply the familiar diminutive of the first name Maximilian. So strammer in this context is usually translated as “strapping,” as in “strapping young man.” Wikipedia’s…

894. Leberkase

This is the last of my old forgotten posts. Which also means it's the last you'll ever see of this mottled grey and white worktop from my old kitchen. Maybe I subconsciously forgot about these posts so that I could have a little moment of remembering my old apartment, or maybe I just forgot about them because I had a random moment of disorganisation. Who knows. But whatever the reason, I got to reminisce about my old kitchen a little bit, and it was nice and sad and I'm sure you all loved it and weren't bored by it at all...

Leberkase is a German meatloaf, pate, luncheon meat type thing. Basically, it's cooked like a meatloaf, tastes like pate, and is served in thin slices like luncheon meat. I didn't like it. At all. I don't like pate. Never did. Never will. 

The rolls on the other hand were great. These were from Cardiff market, and they're huge and crispy and fluffy on the inside and cost 10p or something equally stupid and they were a must-buy every time I went to the market. 

I don't know about the rest of Germany, but if it's anything like Austria, sign me up. The train ride over looked like the Sound of Music, all the time.  (note:  train travelling is so cool.  It's great having the space to roam around in or get lost in your own thoughts.)

Speaking of the Sound of Music, we stayed at Salzburg, where the majority of the film was shot.  We got to see the chapel, the front of the Von Trapp house, and the 'Do Re Mi' Mirabell gardens.

We also visited Mozart's home and saw a classical concert with works by Mozart and Tschaikowsky.  The acoustics in the room were flat-out awesome; they made the sextet sound like an army of strings.

The people were much more welcoming and friendly then the Italians we encountered; I wonder how much of that was just happenstance or cultural differences.  But regardless, it's definitely an eye-opening and humbling experience being an American in these countries.  One moment you're proud, the next you're ashamed and you don't even know how to explain it.  I've been outside of the US before, but this trip was the real bursting of my America bubble. I was very sad to leave Germany.  Even my bro, a staunch Rome advocate, preferred it. But you just can't stop this train...