My dream life...

... is living on a farm, in an idyllic house in a breathtakingly beautiful landscape with outbuildings that have character, with a huge vegetable garden and orchard buzzing with bees and chickens running around in the garden and ducks and goats and sunshine all day and spring/summer/fall all year and just the right amount of work and no hardship. With a room overlooking the orchard and an old-fashioned typewriter by the window where I can write books whilst my kids play hide & seek outside.

So, what did I do, selfless as I am? I gave my dear British Boy a present for Christmas. A smallholder tasting weekend at Mumbleys Farmhouse. Max, despite his somewhat stiff upper lip posh appearance, has grown up on a farm and knows very well what it entails to run one, to have the smell of goat hovering around ones nostrils 24/7, riding around on a tractor, making hay and doing all this even when it's not a perfect 20 degrees and sunny outside. Well, so I thought he really really really needed to attend this course, which basically gives town folks an introduction to hobby farming... Erm, it was a course for 2, so he was free to chose WHOMEVER he wanted to join him in this endeavour. What a lovely wife I am...

So, the man knows what's good for him and he chose to take me along. Here is what we did last weekend - we drove towards Bristol, found ourselves in a lovely little inn to spend the night and in the morning, under a few pristinely white clouds in a sparkly blue sky, we drove down a rustic lane, flanked by lush green shrubs and trees and birds singing to arrive and see this:

Holy cow, I mean, goat, that is FARM PORN!!!

We spend the day on the farm, being introduced by the very personable, knowledgeable Jules to all her animals and the high level basics of farming. We started off with the goats, then went to hens, ducks, geese, which I found amazing and I definitely want some. Shortly before lunch, we looked at bees. We donned beekeeper suits, opened hives and searched for queens. None of this was news to me, as my dad's a beekeeper, but it was interesting for Max.

 

Lunch was ham from the farm's pigs, quiches (under the cloth arches), potatoes and salads along with freshly baked rolls. Oh, and two puddings. It was delicious!

After having filled our bellies, we put on our wellies and went to see the sheep and the pigs. I definitely want to have pigs to raise and maybe even some sheep. I mean, look at that face:

Bacon in the making..

 

The pigs were amazing and that is the only way to raise them for me to stand behind eating them.

The day was great, whilst I am not walking away feeling like I could start a small holding straight away, it gave me a much needed perspective of what I want to do - definitely not breed sheep; yes to fattening lambs and pigs and maybe even veal; 100% yes to bees, goats, chickens (both meat birds and egg layers) and a big fat resounding YESSIR to growing my own veg. Which we already do now in our garden.

It was a fantastic weekend - and after that whole day of small-holdering, we went to eat at a lovely place. The next post's subject.

Wisitors and weekends and wonderful food

Germans have funny accents. I am German, I'm allowed to say that. Although I sound slightly 'North American' or as the British Boy likes to call it 'Pseudo Yank German', I have difficulties with my 'v's and 'w's - especially if I am tired and or had a couple of drinks. So, vodka turns into wodka (that's interestingly also how it's spelled in Germany - hah, betcha didn't know that! Right? I mean, this is a useful and informative fact... it is, really...) and visitors turn to wisitors, especially when she's from Germany.

 

But first things first. This whole week was a German week. Firstly, my trip back home to the fatherland. I thought it would be my dad who would drive me up the wall, but it turned out to be my mom that made me cry this time.

 

Here is my check in for the day of the drama:

I am thankful for spending a productive day at work, for having a great conversation with my dad, for feeling loving and non-obsessive about food and for having had a fantastic eve with my friends.

At the moment, I feel very sad, because my mom is sad and I cannot help her. I tried to fix it, but I cannot control or force her to do what I think would be right. I want to accept that what I think is right might not be what she needs and more importantly that it's her stuff, not mine.
I also feel extremely full after a day of big eats, big portions, hefty food and I feel pressure to work for work.

I am a commitment to balance. I will finish  one task, then stop and be kind to myself.

 

In the end, I managed to keep that balance and the fact that I have awareness around that is great. Upon my return from Germany, I managed to see my German friend Christin and we had dinner at Thai Square in Islington. To be honest, I am not too impressed with that chain, it is quite pricey for food that just lacks a bit of oomph and vibrancy.  

 

Thai Beef Salad

The very next day, my oldest friend Heidi arrived from Germany. Now, I don't mean oldest as in age, because Heidi is only 1 week older than I am. I mean she is the first friend I ever had and can remember. From age 3, we have been to kindergarten together, to elementary school, lived on the same road, went to grammar school together and have been in touch through her marriage and her giving birth to a little boy named Max (like my brother and my husband - they have the same name, are not the same person, that would be weird and incestuous and just plain wrong), who is now 7 years old already. Funny side note, Heidi's older sister, who never could stand me and I couldn't stand her either, named her daughter after me. She must have forgotten all about not liking me or must have liked the name A LOT, because I sure has hell won't name my child after someone whom I can't stand. True, that rules out quite a few names already, and I guess it will make it easier once I have to choose. :)

Either way, with Heidi here for 5 days and we spent quite some time catching up and talking about our lives, our ambitions, our dreams and perspectives. Food was yummy too - for breakfast we had fruit salad, yoghurt and oats with toppings. By the way, I am so proud of the lilacs I took without permission from a public park - they remind me of spring and with the shitty weather I needed every possible crutch to remind me of spring.

 

Cappucchino, fruit salad, yoghurt & oats

The British Boy treated us to a brilliant Sunday roast of pheasant and loads of veggies. I feel very lucky and had a wonderful weekend with wonderful wisitors.

Roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions and asparagus & peas.

Pheasant breasts, protected from drying out by bacon, and the vegetables.

Vienna, but no Sachertorte

I'm getting better at travelling, purely from a food perspective. I am getting tired of it at the same time, from an 'impact on life' perspective. Whilst it's nice to change things up from my office job, the world doesn't stop when I'm away. That means a lot of things to catch up on upon return. I don't like that. At all.

Vienna is beautiful though. I had a chance to spend 4 days there, walking around the city and practising eating by myself in moderation. It went fairly well - the first night I treated myself to a two course meal at Lebenbauer, a so-called 'Vollwertrestaurant', which could basically be described as place that serves new age stuff, for instance brown rice, quinoa etc. This is not so wide spread in mainland Europe as it is for instance in the US.

Trio of asparagus

Cod with brown rice and vegetables, sadly this was not so tasty.

One of the best evenings was listening to the Vienna Symphony for free in a park. I had stumbled across a poster one my morning run and returned two days later to a blue sky, a 50 minute queue for a white wine spritzer and some music. It was lovely!

One of the highlights - a free concert in the park, with sunshine, a white wine spritzer and an orchestra.

Another highlight was going for a run at the Prater. It was six AM last Thursday, already 18 degrees, blue sky and sunny. I had put my hair up in a pony tail, slipped into my running shoes and set off into the general direction of the park. About 10 mins into my run, I felt a weird sensation on my head, like someone pulling my pony tail... I looked around and there was no one. Creepy, I mean, I was running alone in a deserted street - it could have so been someone trying to nap me... Anyway, I kept on running, when it happened again. It was a HUGE crow chasing me, talons (do crows have talons?) first, several times. Flippin' bird. Scared the bejeezus out of me.

My eats were ok too and I loved being able to combine my work trip with a stopover in Germany at my parents. Only downside was that the trip ended exactly like my China trip... with another episode of stomach trouble. Luckily I recovered much quicker and was able to back to solid and exciting foods quickly.

Breakfast and lunch on Monday after my return (on our newly laid lawn - yay - and yes, I took my breakfast bowl outside into the garden to snap a picture and then back inside to eat it. The British Boy looked at me as if I was insane.)

Strawberry banana smoothie topped with pear, buckwheat groats, coconut and hazelnuts.



A german roll topped with my dad's venison salami & pear, side salad.

Beijing Recap and the worst runs of my life

What a week and what amazing experiences! Beijing is so many things - it's HUGE, and chaotic, and polluted, and fascinating, and exciting, and invitingly quiet. And I came away from this one week trip with the worst bout of food poisoning EVER. I mean, I thought I was dying. But let's start at the beginning.

I landed after an uneventful 9.5 hour flight and in my head, the day was supposed to play out like this: I land after getting some sleep on the plane, go to my hotel and spend the afternoon exploring this exciting city. I had looked at the map, saw that Tiananmen Square was measly 6 km from my hotel and thought I'd walk it and then take a cab back or the metro.

In reality, this played out slightly differently. After only sleeping for 3 hours on the plane, waiting forever for a taxi at the airport, I arrived at my very plush hotel.



That bed would have been big enough for 4 people, I kid you not. Very comfy.

Having put down my suitcase, I enthusiastically set off on my 6 km walk. It was smoggy and grey, but so very interesting nonetheless.

I started feeling really hungry and found a 7Eleven that served a lot of hot food. Not being able to speak Mandarin or read any signs, I did what any respectable traveller would do: Point, smile, nod and speak loudly and clearly in English as if that would make the kind people behind the counter understand me.

Some sort of soup with a seaweed thingy and a chicken ball, which was all soft and squishy and probably made of all sorts of chicken bits. Tasted ok.

I have NO CLUE what this was, it was a sort of dumpling filled with an oily, fish egg tasting soft mixture that melted into the broth. I ate most of it. I can attest that this was not the cause of my food poisoning.

Some more pictures of the city:

The bus queuing system - totally spiffy!

My only problem was that I underestimated how friggin' tired I was and my grand plan of hailing a cab or getting on the metro failed spectacularly because I had not written down the hotel's address and so had no point of reference to get back. When I realized that I'd have to walk back all of those fucking 6km, I almost cried. I made it, of course, and was too tired to go to a restaurant so just got myself a selection of foods from the Wal-Mart downstairs (yep, they had a Wal-Mart and apparently it's quite revered).

This is pickled Chinese artichoke. Erm, I would totally lie if I pretended I had known this 10 minutes ago. I googled 'radish that looks like a maggot'. Luckily this lady did all the research for me!



After walking for over 12 km, I felt I deserved some sort of cracker. It was interesting, sweet and salty and morish.

This was oily (a theme in Chinese spicy cooking), cartilage-y (another theme in Chinese cooking) meat that I snuffled down.



Selection of sweet baked items, the sunflower cookie in the back was the best and I felt entitled after that walk!

Dessert that night was a large fruit salad. I thought it was interesting to see a cherry tomato, although it is of course a fruit.

Day 2 to Day 5 were spent in training for work. I took advantage of the ample breakfast buffet in my hotel - one of the swankiest hotels I have so far stayed at and soon found a new favourite: Congee with soy sauce, chives, cilantro, chili oil and some pickled seaweed of sorts. YUM!

Big Ass breakfast with omelette, sautéed veg, a hunk of seeded baguette, some smoked salmon, congee and a bit of oatmeal and a yoghurt.

View from my room on Day 2

Breakfast on Day 3, congee, an egg, muesli and sautéed veg.



This was the spot for 2 of my dinners.  

This place, where I went for dinner twice, was really interesting. A large food court, a cashless system, where on entry I bought a card that was worth 1000 RMB, and then I went from stall to stall, pointed at what looked good and handed over the card to pay. At the end, I handed the card back to get the remainder of the money. Brilliant system.

So for dinner on Day 2, I got two bowls and choose the vegetables (in one bowl) and meats (in another bowl) and then handed them over to the woman behind the counter. The two chefs in the back prepare the stir fry as per instructions. I said hot, well, not really said, I tried to make myself understood by idiotically waving my hand in front of my mouth to show how hot it was. They got the spec. It was friggin hot - oh, and oily.

Spicy stir fry

I also got a good looking bun of sorts that contained a garlicky Chinese green. It was goooooood!!

 

Loved the garlicky inside. mmh.

 Each night, I tried to explore the city a bit by walking around. It's the best way to see any city. I really enjoyed walking the busy streets, seeing the tiny shops crammed next to each other, people coming home from work and buying freshly pulled noodles, dipping into parks, cycling home...


A park in Beijing - it was so tranquil and interestingly, there was an outdoor gym (you know, one of those, where you can make a total ass out of yourself in front of everyone, like, in public) and it was heavily used by men in suits after work.

My last two days were spent visiting my colleagues at our Beijing office and going on a proper sightseeing tour.

After 3 hours of introduction, sharing about our countries, how we do things and what we can learn from one another, I was lucky enough to be taken to a local spot for lunch. I told them I like spicy... it might have been a mistake...

Lunch spot under blossoms

 

What a meal - there was sooo much food!!



Erm, so much for not oily. That film on top? Oil, about an inch deep, that's 2.5 cm of OIL...

 So, my colleagues ordered everything under the sun. I mean, it was a FEAST. I also ate way too much of everything. That whole fear of missing out? Yeah, big time. This was a once in a lifetime foodie experience, and I fully and truly immersed myself in it. I pushed my internal 'fuck it' button and the food plan went out the window...

I had some of everything, multiple times. There was whole chicken that was chopped into tiny bits - skin, bones, tendons... everything. Half was fried with the peppers in hot chili oil, turning the chicken into little red morsels of crunchy skin, crispy, oil-saturated meat and chewy tendons. It tasted so good and the numbness of the peppers in my mouth was addictive.
The other half was boiled in a spicy oily soup with vegetables. I ate more than my fair share and then some of all the stuff surrounding it - scrambled egg with Chinese toon (yeah, look it up, I had no idea it existed either, until I ate it), bamboo shoots, pickled sugar cane, steamed buns, wood ear mushrooms with wasabi, cabbage with bacon, some cold starter of tripe and ear in spicy oil and rice.

My last day in China was spent climbing the Chinese Wall section in Mutianyu and visiting the Forbidden City. It was epic and impressive and just wonderful.

Chinese Wall at Mutianyu - Breath-taking and fucking hard to climb, my calves hurt even now (5 days later)!!

Chinese Wall at Mutianyu

In the Forbidden City

Amazing Forbidden City in Beijing

So pretty - Forbidden City in Beijing

On my walk back from the Forbidden City, I had this craving for fresh strawberries. Did I stop to think about the good advice I got from soooo many people? Nope! Not at all, I brushed it aside and, like a stubborn teenager, decided to piss on the potential consequences and go for the instant gratification and buy and eat them without washing them.

 

Serves me right. Waking up at 3am in the morning with the feeling of just about exploding, making it to the loo in my posh hotel and literally yelling 'fire in the hole', because that's what it felt like, that was so fucking not worth eating a handful of strawberries. Fuck fuck fuck. It was hellish. The 11 hour flight home was even more enjoyable. Poor fuckers on the plane next to the lavatories. My sincerest apologies... really. Sorry.

 

It's been 4 days since I returned and I still feel pretty groggy and can still not poop like a normal person. Enter my messed up thinking: I am convinced I have cholera, but at least I'm not getting fat.

 

I write this callously, but am actually quite scared and really want this to stop...