Our adventures in a mobile home
Posts tagged food
Schweet Schiltach
Aug 13th
Another day, another picturesque village in the Black Forest, this time Schiltach. An abundance of historical museums dot the town. The timber museum is free (for dogs too) and gives an interesting insight into how the area accumulated its wealth by bringing trees down the river from the surrounding hills. They have ample information in English available and a very friendly English-speaking guide on site ,who was ever so keen to tell me all about his 10 years of living in London in the 60′s. The apothecary museum costs €2 per person (but no dogs allowed). It has several rooms full of torturous looking devices and evil medicines. It is astonishing to think that DDT was once used as a human delousing hairspray! The museum is on the site of a pharmacy built in the 1800s and is neatly preserved in its original state. The sweet little old lady that takes your entrance fee directed me from one contraption filled room to another with much gusto, even when I was clearly yawning with disinterest after five rooms of objects had been closely scrutinized.
There are many culinary delights to try in the Black Forest. We picked up some lardons made from Black Forest pigs in the local metzgerei (butcher) and used them in a couple of dishes. Mmm, tasty! They also make delicious beersticks (smoked sausages) which David is always trying to buy in large quantities. I have to watch him closely! We have found that meat is very cheap in Germany, especially pork products. They also have a huge range of interesting breads. At long last, after so many white baguettes, our digestive systems are enjoying the health benefits of unrefined foods. Sadly we weren’t so enamoured with Black Forest Gateau which proved to be very sugary and sadly lacking in cherries and chocolate. You can never have too many cherries and chocolate!
Extra Green Paella
Jul 3rd
I did some research online about where to eat the best paella. Valencia lays claim to this typically Spanish dish and after deciding that we weren’t going to be staying in the city itself I settled on El Palmar, a little village just outside. This is where they grow the rice for Paella and surrounding the small village are paddy fields, a stark contrast to the dry, brown scrub we had seen for the last couple of days. The sound of frogs and sight of white herons was soothing in the muggy, oppressive heat.
Just as we arrived in this restaurant-riddled town we heard the sound of a band and had to investigate. A group of lads were playing samba tunes and setting off firecrackers to celebrate someone’s birthday and, probably, the Spain football match taking place later in the day. Like drunk boys everywhere they were up to mischief and some of them managed to set the grass alight. Luckily they had drunk enoughbeer to create a river of urine to put out the blaze.
We found a restaurant in the middle of the town facing a rice paddy and sat down to enjoy some local white wine. Once again I had forgotten our Spanish book and so wasn’t entirely sure what was included in Paella Valencia, but was sure it would be delicious. When it arrived David’s face fell. The yummy chicken, butter and green beans were accompanied by some very colourful snails! He was adventurous enough to try one but they were very green, fairly slimy and rather chewy. I think we must have been put off by their parasitic eating of prickly pears which we saw earlier on our trip. Ah well all the way to Valencia for some authentic (but in the end uneaten) snails.
