2007-05-18

Ich habe meinen Fotoapparat wieder vergessen.

I forgot my camera again.

It's been a social week here in the 13th District. And some late nights. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to post of our week because I keep forgetting my camera. So, a couple of stories to let you know we're still alive - and living the good Viennese life.

Tuesday night, I was lucky enough to get a preview of Angelika's the Dining Room. While Angelika hung up my coat, Gino greeted me enthusiastically, giving me a dog hug like only a golden retriever can. We ate antipasti, warm baguette, deep fuschia colored beet/rhubarb/potato soup (keep checking A's blog - she may post her newly invented and delicious recipe), risotto with tomatoes, and rhubarb cake with meringue on top. With each course, we had wine from the Dining Room's special wine supplier. I feel like I'm in a special club to know about this label. We'll have to try to bring some home with us.
My writing will not do Angelika's cooking justice. Even in English, I don't have the vocabulary. Suffice to say it was fantastic and I know the restaurant will be a huge success. The ambiance complements the food and wine beautifully.
And then there is the chef herself. She is so warm and kind and I felt like family before she had served the soup. At 10 o'clock, I noticed the time and thought, 'well, we'll chat about one more thing and then I'll catch the Straßenbahn.' The next time I looked at my watch, it was after midnight! We quickly checked a website, to discover that while the Straßenbahn was still running, I'd miss the last U-bahn that would get me home. I thought I could try the Night Bus, but Angelika would hear nothing of it. I think Gino would have been happy to give me his basket, but I had to get up for class in the morning. Angelika called a taxi and sent me safely on my way (after they finally found the house).

Curt has been struggling with an injured toe this week so Wednesday I was on my own at Wein & Co. and the Naschmarkt to buy most of the ingredients for our little dinner party Thursday night. 17 May was a holiday (Ascension, I believe) so no stores would be open. This required a little more planning ahead than we are used to. I managed to navigate all my purchases in German. It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done and no one switched to English despite my lack of vocabulary, sketchy comprehension and those "cute" R's of mine. (That description is from my German teacher who also describes my oh-so-American r's as sounding like a dog barking.) Curt took care of buying things we could get at the neighboring grocery store. When I got home I also stopped by the Apotheke to replenish our supply of Ibuprophen which is, blessedly, the same word in German. Curt started marinating the Indonesian Ginger Chicken.
We spent Thursday cleaning, the apartment and a little more than 1kg of spinach. Late afternoon, Curt excused me from the kitchen and started to cook in earnest. I only got called in once to help improvise a cover for the baking pan since we didn't buy aluminum foil on Wednesday. We found a couple of slotted disposable pans in the cupboard, I turned one inside out so the holes wouldn't line up and stuck them together as well as I could. We didn't get a tight seal, but it seemed to go ok. Our guests, Marie and Florian, arrived at 7:30 with dessert in hand (I'm a bit afraid to try baking in Celcius). For appetizers, we had artichokes stuffed with cheese, pita bread, and hummus from Naschmarkt and some prosciutto-wrapped goat cheese app's. All quite tasty, but nothing to compare to Curt's masterpieces. There was the chicken on rice, with the extra sauce over the top - so yummy! And he fried the spinach in the giant electric skillet with garlic, red pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I married a great cook! Marie made a Sacher Torte that I found to be significantly better than the one we tried at a cafe in March. Just goes to show: nothing beats homemade.
Marie and Florian asked to see wedding photos which we don't have here so they ended up seeing far too many photos that are in my computer. (such good sports) They logged onto the Austrian version of Facebook to show us photos of Florian's spring break trip to Paris and Marie's year in Helsinki. And we started to plan their Feb '08 visit to the states. New Orleans, St. Paul and New York are firmly planted on the itinerary. We might just tag along to New York....

Next time: photos!

ETA: here's a direct link to Angelika's rhubarb soup recipe, with photos.

2 comments:

Lumpyheadsmom said...

I try to guess what your titles mean before reading the rest of the post. I'm sure my pronounciation is all wrong, but in my head, it's funny. Today's translation was "I have a fat ass getting wider by gestation."

I guess that refers more to my post-pregnant butt than either of yours, though.

Anonymous said...

Hi Auntly H around the corner, thanks for all your kind words,they make me blush ! It was so great and meant so much fun to Gino and myself to have you over here, and I hope there definitely will be some more before you leave ! And I would have loved to taste Curt's meal, sorry for the toe, but it has not effected his cooking skills, right ?
And how about Konzert für Europa next Thursday ? Much love from gino and his mom