Ich bin ein Berliner 2

Our journey to Berlin began on Tuesday, 10 in the morning. We hopped on a train heading towards Augsburg. In Augsburg we caught our ICE train. The ICE train makes less stops and goes faster than the regular R trains. But the journey from Augsburg to Berlin still took 6 hours. Thank goodness I am so used to long trips. It is quite funny though that it takes us 6 hours to go from a city in southern Germany to a city in northern Germany in less time than it takes to go from southern to northern Florida. But the trip was nice. Our train was mostly empty, so no issues with finding two seats together for Emma and I. Getting to see Germany by train was very exciting. It was nice to see all the little towns and villages. We passed many wind turbine fields and many solar panel fields. This was awesome! Some of the Solar fields went on forever it seemed like. It is amazing to see something like that, only because I’ve never seen anything like it in America. 6 hours and a couple of naps we arrived in Berlin Hauptbahnhof, an extremely large, multi-floored train depot that confused us a little at first. From the glass front you can see the Reichstag and the expanse of the city that continued to stretch past my view. Once we got our bearings, and asked for some help, we found where we needed to go and headed towards the hotel.There was a small issue once we arrived at the hotel, our online reservation did not go through correctly even though we had a confirmation. The hotel was very sorry that they did not have an extra room for us, but were nice enough to put us in the hotel down the street free of charge. Not making a very big deal of it, we planned for the next day and went to sleep.

Bright and early the next day we headed off towards Tiergarten and the Berlin Zoo! This was something Emma really wanted to do. Not going to lie, it was incredible! What a fantastic zoo. Something I loved, I got to learn all the names of our favorite animals in German. We also saw some fantastic things. The zoo seemed to have more baby animals than I had ever seen at a zoo. They had a year old Asian elephant and a year old orangutang. They were adorable! Something else that was interesting was the way some of the animals reacted towards the other animals, like my favorite experience of the zoo, the white wolves hunting the brown bear. The wolf and bear exhibit were right next to each other only separated by a small wire fence that the wolves could easily jump over. The bear decided to go for a swim right next to the fence, and the wolves went into hunting pack mode. For a couple of minutes we watched at the wolves stalked the bear around the fence. I could have sworn for a minute the wolves were going to jump in, and all the children standing and watching were going to get a hard lesson on nature. Thankfully though, the bear swam away and the wolves went back to the other side of the habitat. Here are some photos of the zoo.

I just recently changed my settings so that anyone can comment anonymously. I did not realize that you had to set up an account to comment. Hopefully this makes it a little easier for everyone.

Thanks!

Ich bin ein Berliner!

This up coming Tuesday, Emma and I have 4 days off of work. We asked for these days off so we can go to Berlin and spend a good amount of time there to do everything we want.
Chef Florian used to work in Berlin so we were asking him some questions of where to go and where to stay. He recommended to us Hotel Pankow. Its a little small, but in expensive and in a good area for traveling around. Its a quirky little place based on the photos and descriptions we have gotten of it. We will have to see for ourselves when we get there.

Travel takes about 5-6 hours by train to get from Salach to Berlin, so two days will be half days to travel there and back again. But still it is a ton of time and we are so excited.

The next question is, what are we going to do in Berlin? So far on the list is to geocache. A couple of fellow cachers set up a list of good caches for English speaking tourists to guide you through the city and take you to the best monuments. What a grand idea! One takes us to the Brandenburg Gate which is a popular landmark in Berlin. One takes us to a Hiroshima monument. And another takes us to a park where the largest section of the Berlin Wall still stands. I read that it has been converted into a freelance art piece where different artists paint murals on it. If only I could still find a piece of the Berlin Wall to take home with me.

Something else that is on my list to do while in Berlin is to go to the one of the other Salvidor Dali Museum! For those of you who may not know, I lived not to far from the Dali museum in St. Petersburg. I also worked down the street from it for 10 months, and I remember at the top of the parking garage you can see the surreal building in the distance. Dali is my favorite artist, and to have the opportunity to go to the one of the other collection of his art is an opportunity I cannot pass up!

On Emma's list, she wants to visit the Berlin Zoo.

We will be traveling to the Tiergarten to get to the Berlin zoo which is in the center of this park. It is the largest green space in Berlin, and was restored in 1955, after being devastated during WWII and the trees that stood were chopped down for fuel.

Well the preparations are still being dealt with, and our plans are being made.

Here is a question to my readers, "If you were going to Berlin, Where would you go?"
Comment and let me know.

It has been great learning all the German words for produce and products. Although most of the kitchen staff would rather teach us insults and profanity, I do always try to remember the important words.

When prepping for a long time, usually standing still, I practice my numbers and counting. I can now count to 20 without any hesitation.
Eins
Zwei
Drei
Vier
Funf
Sechs
Sieben
Acht
Neun
Zehn
Elf
Zwolf
Dreizehn
Vierzehn
Funfzehn
Sechzehn
Siebzen
Achtzehn
Neunzehn
Zwanzig


My favorite word that I learned yesterday is Hippenmasse. It is German for tuile batter that we make shaped cookies with. Most popular shape that everyone knows, the fortune cookie. So from now on I will forever call it hippenmasse.

Patisserie Day 1

This past week has been as if the kitchen staff was playing "hot potato" with me. I am just bouncing all over the place.
So today I was placed in patisserie, and what a crash course it was. Not that today was very busy, with a full dining room of just four people... but that it is the second to last station that I have not yet learned. It could also be considered the last station, since I highly doubt the Chefs will attempt to put Emma or I on Saucier.
Anyway, today I made my first batch of petit fours. Including fruit tartlettes, chocolate tartlettes, jelly lollies, and an array of different chocolates that Chef Florian calls praliniens. But what he is referring to is the standard Belgian Praline. This is a chocolate with a hard outer coating, a softer inner or sometimes liquid filling. Not to be confused with American pralines which everyone from New Orleans and myself just love. Of course, I had to do a little research to know all this.

Afterwards, I was sent to the deli slicer or cutting machine as we call it at the Burg to make a component of a dessert called Ananas Carpaccio. Ananas is pineapple in English. Not bananas without the "B" like I thought at first. This is a long tedious process of thinly slicing the ananas on the cutting machine, and carefully layering it, over lapping some, onto a large sheet tray. Make six of these large sheet trays and put them in the shock froster, or freezer as we say. The comment of the day was... "This is a day job isn't it?" Yes, yes it is. It took me about 2 hours. At least I have a ton of songs memorized in my head so I could sing to myself to pass the time.

While standing on one spot for two hours, I did notice something that was rather humorous to me. Since spring has sprung, the insects have come out to play. And like the kitchens in Florida, the fruit gnats swarm. I was happy to see some of the oh so familiar and annoying bugs. At least I know that German kitchens have the same issues we do in Florida. Or it could be our fault... the Pommelos do come from Florida here.

Entrementier Reflection

Well, it was a good try putting me on entrementier. Emma lasted 2 days, and I lasted 3. It is not that we were not good, or not surviving, but we cannot speak German.
So a quick review of what they had me doing for three days.

8:30 - Cut 20 onions
9 - Cut Cabbage
9:30 - Cut carrots
10 - Cut zucchini
10:30 - clean
11 - Clean the rest of the kitchen and see who needs help
12 - Go to Garde Manger.

For the three days that I worked at Entrementier, I was always sent back to garde manger. One day I helped with plates and tried to learn all the plates that get sent out, but everything moved so fast, no one had any time to really explain to me what was what, and where it went. So most of the time I was pushed out of the way and then told to go back to garde manger. In reality, the only thing I was going to be able to do was prep before service, and plate during, since I do not understand German, they really could not train me on any position. It was nice for them to try and give us the opportunity, but I think everyone learned a lesson.

So back to garde manger I go! I like it there more anyway.

Spring is in the Air!

How odd that just a few weeks ago it was -3 degrees, snowing, and the sun was never shining. I guess German Mother Earth finally hit the switch and decided she was done with winter. This past week has been a wonderful 20 degrees, sunny, with a light breeze. It has been quite a change from seeing people in the town bundled up for the next blizzard, to the towns people walking in t-shirts and hiking around the trails by the Burg. Another beautiful surprise that I was told about but did not believe is the wild flowers that have sprung up everywhere! The green grass has turned into a rainbow of colors. It is amazing.

So I made a promise that I would pick and dry a collection of wild flowers from Germany for my Aunt Lois.

This is the first one, collected from the front of the personal house I live in. Tomorrow is our off day and it is so beautiful, we are going for a hike on the trails around the Burg Staufeneck. We do not know where they lead, or what the view is like on the other side of the hill, so it will be an adventure! Maybe there will be a field of flowers for me to pick and dry for my beloved Aunt Lois.

Real quick, I know this is a bad photo but it is of the tree outside of our window. While it was cold it was just sticks. Now it has pink buds all over it but no leaves. We do not know what kind of tree it is. Can you help us figure it out?

Work Reflection

It has been a while since I posted about how work was going. So here it is… Fantastic! I have gotten used to the long 16 hour days, but now it flies by like nothing. The entire kitchen is used to us being around and all talk to us like we have been friends for longer than 5 weeks. I am learning so much, it is hard to describe. Entire philosophies of how a kitchen should operate, how simple ingredients can make the largest impact on a plate, and not to mention my overall skill. I have gotten to work with some new ingredients that I’ve never seen before. As well as work with some ingredients that I’ve seen before, but really learning how to utilize it.

My new pet octopus!

 I am still in Garde Manger for most of the days. I have become very comfortable and know what I need to do daily. The plates changed like they do every 4 weeks. Here are some photos of the new menus.

Spargel Salad with white asparagus chibust and green hummus.

 This is the Zander chibust



















Along with garde manger and being allowed to run the station on my own some nights, I have been offered amazing opportunities to learn and advance my skills in sushi rolling. Chef Straubinger had a sushi event for a party in the scheune. The scheune is the barn. We had a buffet of sushi, sashimi, nigiri, and an option towards the end for personalized dragon rolls a la carte. It was an amazing experience and a wonderful opportunity for Chef to give me. Here are some photos of that event.

The next week was Easter. Easter was packed full of people, full dining rooms, buffets and other events in the sheune. Every employee was working at the Burg, and everyone was busy. The menu for Easter day had special dishes that we all compromised on. As a second course, there was a sushi dish that I was put in charge of. Here is a photo of it. I have become the Burg’s unofficial sushi chef! It was a ton of fun. That day we worked 18 hours straight with no break. But the day was very successful and extremely fun.

This past week we have met some new people and gotten to have long conversations with them, for example the co-owner of the Burg Staufeneck Herr Schurr. He is the brother in law of Chef Straubinger. As we sat and had a wine lesson with him, we told him how appreciative we were for the experiences and hospitality the Burg has shown us. We told him of the experiences other internship students who have gone to Germany had, and how they’re internships nowhere measured to what we are doing and learning here at Burg Staufeneck. He shared with us that it is the passion and focus he and everyone else sees in us. That other students they had did not want to learn, did not have the positive charming outlook, and did not have the drive to work all day with no complaint. He said that it is a plus that we have good skills in the kitchen, but our passion is why they offer different opportunities to us. Flattered, we continued to talk through the night as more bottles of wine were opened. Here are some photos of what we drank that night.

 As a conclusion to this post, I want to say that I am enjoying it here so much. More than I thought. I am comfortable and happy. Even though I am tired some days, I always have my smile on. I will do anything and continue to learn as much as I can every day.

Munchen Part 3

We begin our second day in Munich waking up to a complimentary breakfast buffet by the Hotel Brack. It was delicious! At the table was all types of breads, jams and leberwursts, yogurts and cereals, soft boiled eggs or scrambled. It was a wonderful treat for us and fueled us for our long day ahead. Our waitress just as we were leaving wanted to inform us that is was -3 degrees today, and still snowing!

It had been snowing all night and was still coming down as we made our way to the street. The day's plan included going back to Marienplatz and seeing what we can before our train leaves at 6. The fastest route for us to take by foot was back across Oktoberfest field.

 We were having a little fun playing in the freshly fallen snow for the first time since we have been in Germany.

 However the wind chill did get to our noses..


So continuing on our adventure, we arrive in Marianplatz to the clock tower. We are able to walk under it into a court yard. The Rathaus of the city is inside the clock tower. To the right of us was an elevator door, that looked to lead to nothing. Beside it was a small sign that said "2 euro to the top. Pay on 4th floor" Intriguing. So we got in the mystery elevator and hit the 4th floor. to our surprise it took us to the top of the clock tower where you could walk around and see the view of the city. We got to the top just as the cuckoo clock went off. We could not see it from the top, but we did a bird's eye view of the people below watching the clock in amazement.

because of the snow though, the view was cut short. It was hard enough to see the buildings still in the city from the top, none the less the views the signs were telling us we could see. But what we could see was another tower with a man standing on top of it. I waved to him. We found out that it was St. Peters Cathedral. We walked down from the top of the clock tower and exited though cast iron doors and stained glass. A tour group saw us leave and a man gave us a weird look, not knowing where we came from. But we headed over to the cathedral which was on the other side of Marienplatz. As we walked inside, we were at a loss for words. It was gorgeous inside! Everything was in gold, painted with intricate murals to the ceiling, and set in marble. It was one of the most impressive Cathedrals I have ever been in. Sadly, those sights that I saw can only be in my memory because as we walked in, it was the middle of service. The sign on the door said no photos, and an usher was walking around making sure tourists did not disturb the service. So we quietly walked through the back, listened to the prayer in German, and exited out the other side. We were confused because we did not know how to get to the tower especially if there was service going on. On the other side of the church, we walked back to Marienplatz. I saw some post cards so I stopped to see if I wanted any, and out of the corner of my eye was a small yellow sign that read "Tower 2 euro" We went up to the cashier and said tower and handed him 2 euros. We accidently stumbled right were we wanted to go! But unlike the clock tower, this one did not have an elevator. It was narrow wooden stairs all the way up to the top. It had to be the original stairs because it even brings you through the bell tower room where you can see all of the different sized bells covered in snow. At the top the view was even better than the last tower, because this time you could see Marienplatz for what it is, plus the famous cuckoo clock.

It is beautiful!

Back down on the street, it was almost noon, so we got a good standing location and waited for the clock tower to go off. We took a video of the entire thing of the King's men and the dancers. But it is too large of a file to upload with my limited internet. However, I can tell you the personal experience I had while gazing at this historical landmark.

     I stood still, watching the figures dance under the clock, and I never blinked. I felt myself smile uncontrollable as I realized where I was. I am standing in Munich, as an adult and on my own. I was in Germany, living and working. Seeing places that I have never seen before. Doing things I had never done before. Learning things that I had never studied before. Still watching the clock, I said to myself, "Congrats". Because in that moment I felt successful. I am doing everything that I ever dreamed of. Going where I always wanted to go. I felt infinite and completely happy. The feeling still has not gone away.

Munchen Part 2

We slowly made our way through the city of Munchen, taking photo after photo of the buildings and all the famous landmarks. Using our handy city map we picked up from the hotel, we found our way onto Orlando Strasse and saw the illuminated blue sign that reads “Hofbrauhaus” I stood under the signature HB with a crown and was filled with so much excitement.

Even though every person we have met in Germany says it is just a tourist trap, it was something on my list of things I wanted to do while I was in Germany. I am very ecstatic that I actually made it. Inside, the hustle and bustle of waitresses in leotards distracts your attention only because you don’t want to run into them carrying 9 steins of beer at once, the old deco of the building, there are paintings from the floor onto the ceiling. There are pictures of different generations all sitting at the Hofbrauhaus drinking. The tables look like they are the same tables since the hofbrauhaus has opened, are covered in carvings of names and dates of people who have visited before. At the Hofbrauhaus, everyone sits together. If there is no open table, join a table! We found one with a nice couple sitting at it. We said our hellos and ordered our 1 liter of beer each.

 At the table next to us, a young man leaned over and asked if we were from Australia. He spoke English very well; him and his cousin who was visiting from England became our temporary drinking buddies. They were even nice enough to take photos for us.

As they left, our table filled up with a German family that was out drinking. Everyone was there from the children to the grandparents all ordering a liter of beer each! We finished our 1^st liter, and ordered another one. In the background there was a polka band playing. Every other song it seemed like would wild up the Germans at the table. The family would start singing, banging on the table, and cheers everyone within arm’s reach. But of course it’s not cheers, its PROST! A fun little tid bit, it is bad luck in Germany if you clink glasses with someone without making eye contact. We learned very quickly that it is very difficult to clink glasses with a family and make eye contact with everyone! I was more worried of not actually touching glasses.

Oh well. By the end of our second liter, it was getting dark outside and the temperature was dropping as we sat, and we have a long walk back to the hotel. We said our goodbyes to the family and bundled up for the walk back. It was about -1 Celsius and snowing, but we were so warm from our beers it didn’t even bother us.

This is us walking home, can you tell we've been drinking?