Griesbrei is a deliciously good food.

My job in the past allowed me to work with the Germany’s Next Top Model crew and Heidi Klum for 9 years. We spent about 3 months a year together and it was always interesting and fun. Heidi is super cool as was the German crew. It was a blessing to be part of a production team of friends. We had much fun working and partying together.

During that time my travels took me to Munich to visit my friends and it is always a joy to be with them in their city.

On my first trip to Munich I found myself attracted to the markets. Lidl, Rewe, Aldi and Edeka were my favorites. The lighting, the prices, the choices, the stern checkers, it all caught my eye. I’ve been back 5 times and always look forward to walking around the markets.

As I wandered around the market on that first trip looking at stuff on the shelves I ended up purchasing something I thought was like German breakfast grits called griesbrei. It was a product made by Dr. Oetker. I bought a few and made it for breakfast at home in Los Angeles, after decoding the instructions. I loved it.

When I told my Bavarian friends about how I loved griesbrei I always got the same odd reaction. They would get a weird look on their face and say to me, ‘so you like baby food?’

Well, I guess I do. Griesbrei is good. It’s sort of like grits but also reminds me of when I was a kid and my grandmother used to make me tapioca pudding for dessert and I always loved that too. She also would make homemade ice cream in a bucket with salt rocks and ice, but I digress.

Ingredients

3 ⅓ cups milk

½ cup soft wheat semolina

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

1 large egg

1 tbsp. butter

Add milk and sugar to a sauce pan, mix well and bring to a light simmer.
Gradually add the semolina while stirring.
Bring to a light simmer, cover with a lid and remove from heat.
Allow to sit for about 5 min.
In the meantime, separate the egg.
Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
Add the egg yolk to the semolina pudding and mix well until fully incorporated.
Stir in butter and vanilla extract.
Fold in the egg white.

You can get your package of Dr. Oetker’s Griesbrei by clicking here.

The Joy of Griesbrei

One of the memories I carry from when I was a little kid is of my grandmother preparing tapioca pudding from scratch. It was the best. I always loved it warm and freshly made. Grandma always made us stay out of the pool for 30 minutes after eating lunch. Anyways, the memory I have of those tapioca puddings is captured in a German dish known as Griesbrei from Dr. Oetker. I discovered this dish while curiously shopping in a Munich market. The flavor of Griesbrei reminds me of those early family days. My Bavarian friends always laugh at me and say that I like ‘baby food’ but it is what it is. If it tastes good maybe it’s worth overeating sometimes. Perhaps I will try to mix it with some grits, a couple eggs and a side of peppered bacon next to a buttered pancake splashed with maple syrup.

Dr. Oetker makes the package above and the one I originally brought home and fell in love with but you can prepare your own with the following recipe. I have some semolina left over from pasta making and will try this recipe soon.

Griesbrei –

Ingredients
3 ⅓ cups milk
½ cup soft wheat semolina
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 tbsp. butter

Instructions
Add milk and sugar to a sauce pan, mix well and bring to a light simmer.
Gradually add the semolina while stirring.
Bring to a light simmer, cover with a lid, and remove from heat.
Allow to sit for about 5 min.
In the meantime, separate the egg.
Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
Add the egg yolk to the semolina pudding and mix well until fully incorporated.
Stir in butter and vanilla extract.
Fold in egg white.

You can purchase your Dr. Oetker’s Griesbrei on Amazon by clicking here.

Enjoy. Prost.

What’s inside that sausage?

Ever wonder what’s in that delicious looking sausage. Well the Dude of Food has been wondering and finally took the time to tear one down and see what’s in there. Above is your typical average sized sausage found in any US market. This is not a small breakfast sausage but a regular sausage. This one weighed in at 46 grams as shown.

The first thing I don’t like eating is the intestinal lining that sausage is held together with. There just doesn’t seem like any nutritional value to this stuff. The next thing I noticed was the amount of white fat speckles mixed in the meat so I cut the skin wrap from around the sausage and began to pick the specs out with the tip of a corn holder.

You can see in the photo below that there was a good amount of those white fat particles in there. The other things that were hidden in there are what look like small gristle beads. They are rounded and look like little white nuggets. I am pretty sure these things are about as healthy for you as plastic but who knows. Anyhow, I weighed the pile of garbage that had accumulated on the tin foil and it weighed in at 10.6 grams including the intestinal wrapping but not the weight of the foil. That works out to be roughly 22% useless unhealthy waste in every sausage.

So for nearly every 5 sausages you eat 1 of them is all fat and nasty gristle waste. Granted this was the first one I broke down and the brand was recorded but not given here as I want to test a few more brands and see what the averages are before any brands are named.

I also bought a small, stainless steel kitchen grinder and have been experimenting with grinding various blends of meats and spices for my own sausage patties and meatballs in search of a healthier mix.

Save the Food/Ocean/Planet.

The Dude of Food thinks the Save the Food idea might be a better concept than capitalism. If all humans practiced wiser living, we could see positive changes in society. Create less waste. Re-use items. Plant edible foliage. Share. Protect the Ocean. Pollute less. Recycle. Educate. Find out more at Save The Food.

https://savethefood.com/community

Think of all the things that could be. Less food wasted and more people fed. More composting for better future growing conditions. Less waste dumped into the ocean so we’re not polluting our food & water sources. Do you pee on your garden?

Think better built, longer lasting, reusable products. Life quality in litter free cities like Amsterdam is nice. Public gardens that grow herbs for local restaurants like in Santa Monica. Munich has great public gardens that house streams, trees, ducks, deer and serve beer. I mog di Minga!

Take a look at your decisions and food waste footprint and ask yourself the choices you can choose to make life better for you and those around you.

The Dude of Food tours Dillinger in Munich.

While visiting good friends in Munich, Munchen or Minga, depending on whom you speak with, the Dude of Food can work up an appetite as there is much need for fuel to keep a body in motion while taking in all the culturally glorious things this beautiful Bavarian city has to offer.

There are quite a few good places to eat in the Sendling area of Munich and one lunch spot that stands out to me is called Dillinger Chicago Bar & Grill on Passauer Strasse. The Dude of Food has eaten many lunches here and is always satisfied at the meals presented. The staff is friendly and efficient. The prices are reasonable. The food is made fresh and always prepared with care. The soups are always really good and prompted me to request to meet the chef of Dillinger.

The chef is a nice, interesting and caring guy named Harjit Signh. He welcomed the Dude of Food into his extremely clean and organized kitchen. In his kitchen chef Harjit was very transparent about his passion for doing food preparation right. The Dude of Food loved Harjit’s drive for making his opportunity to create quality food work out right.

Feel free to visit Dillinger’s web page http://www.dillinger-bar.de/ or email them at dillingerobersendling (at) gmail and tell them hello for me and that you heard about them at the Dude of Food web page. Veiling danke Harjit und Dillinger.

Dillinger Bar & Grill

Hofmann Strasse 19

81379 Munchen

089-787-490-22

Enjoy und prost!

The Dude of Food makes Obatzda just like a Munich beer garden, kind of.

The 1st Obatzda the Dude of Food ever made in his Westside kitchen was fairly decent. It wasn’t just like Munich Obatzda but I have to say it sure helped ease the longing I have to be back in Munich with my friends at one of its many beautiful beer gardens. The Obatzda made by the Dude of Food wasn’t exactly the right color and was lumpier. It also wasn’t mixed as well as the Obatzda you find in Munchen and probably had something to do with the Gruyere cheese I used.

What mine did do for my spirit though, was remind me of all my Bavarian friends und the gut times we’ve spent together eating obatzda, stecklefisch, pizza, chicken, goulasch, knudel, donors or pretzels while drinking Augustiner Brau Helles beer and enjoying nature.

The Obatzda the Dude of Food made was pretty darned good and my mind happily filled in the blanks. I love brotziet und look forward to having more on my next visit back in Minga, Bavaria. Danke schon und prost.

Wake up and love Butter Cafe in Munich!

https://www.yelp.com/biz/butter-münchen

According to Dude Food G. on Yelp, this Butter place found on Blutenburg Strasse in Nuehausen, Munich is really cool. You know right from the beginning that this is not your normal everyday cafe. Butter is the diamond in the ruff waiting to be discovered. This place has babies, art, coffees, music, food and is full of life’s positive vibrations. These guys are a couple of psychologists dressed as music loving ravers.

If you just need a coffee to blow out the cobwebs from the previous nights Augustiner Helles, then Butter is perfect. If you need a veggie or meaty sandwich to go with your coffee than Butter is perfect. If you need a ginger, apple, carrot fresh juice than Butter is perfect. If you need a shoulder to cry on and a doorway to block than Butter is probably not for you.

Stop in and say “Aloha dudes” to the guys from Butter from the Dude of Food.

Butter

Blutenburg Strasse 90

Nuehausen, Munich

Open 8am http://alles-butter.de

The Dude of Food finds the best pizza in Europe, at the Dusseldorf airport!

The Dude of Food had just left Munich. It was with a painful heart that he dragged himself away from Minga, a city that he loves. He had prepared for the long flight back to LA by staying up all night on his last visit in town before he left. He knew he had a 1 1/2 hour layover in Dusseldorf Airport’s Terminal ‘C’. Upon arrival to Gate 32 Terminal C a vision similar to an oasis housing a food mermaid revealed itself to this hungry traveler. A restaurant at the next gate (34 Terminal B) had a sign announcing food and beer that read Zigolini.

This small restaurant named Zigolini offered some good looking pastas and pizza for a reasonable price. The Dude of Food asked for a large beer. The guy next to me received a veggie pizza and that was it. I took one look and needed a pizza also. I asked for a sausage and bacon pizza. There is no exaggeration in saying that this may be one of the best pizzas ever!

The next time I flew through Dusseldorf it was a no brainer to go back. Zigolini was still there waiting for me in all her delicious glory. The only thing that was different was the sign now reads Marche. You can read more about Marche at http://www.marche-restaurants.com.

Muhamad Ali, the head chef and designer, personally told the Dude of Food that the restaurant is still called Zigolini even though the sign has changed. The receipt still reads Zigolini. Chef Ali has one of the best secret recipes ever and is a sweet guy that loves sharing with his customers. His pizzas are simply amazing and he will happily add the ingredients you may want if you don’t see the combination you like on the menu.

This pizza was better than nearly all I’ve ever had in Firenze, Rome, Germany, New York, Chicago, LA or maybe even ever! Certainly this is the Best Valued and Best Tasting Airport Food that the Dude of Food has ever encountered. If you are ever near the Dusseldorf airport and have some time to kill, the Dude of Food highly recommends that you go see for yourself about the pizza at Zigolini Italian Food and chef Muhammad Ali.

Veilen danke Muhammad Ali und Zigolini. Keep up the great work Dr. Ali.

Zigolini

Dusseldorf Flughafen Terminal B by Gate 34 Airside 40474 Dusseldorf

Adelholzener Alpenquellen – Bavaria’s finest lovingly supports global needs.

Adelholzener makes some of the finest drinks from Bavaria and the Dude of Food loves them. Tasty, refreshing and quality products by Adelholzener really help make life better.

Adelholzener Alpenquellen is owned by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul which is a congregation of women with simple vows, founded in 1633 and devoted to corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Thank you sisters. The company’s proceeds are therefore channeled into numerous social welfare projects. My grandmother was a member and I volunteered my first 100 hours at the old St Vincent hospital in Los Angeles when I was a young boy.

My buddy and I were known as ‘candy stripers’ because of our uniforms and we brought books and smiles to recovering people throughout the hospital.

According to their web page, www.adelholzener.com , Adelholzener places utmost importance on all of their products being of the highest quality. Their broad range of products offer the right kind of refreshment for every situation and befitting of any event or occasion. Anyone who is health conscious can enjoy our Organic Spritzers made with juice (Not-From-Concentrate) and certified.

The Dude of Food respects what these women do and likes the quality of their products. Anything I can do to help make this product become more recognized I will do. My tee shirt size is XL.

Again, veilen danke to the sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Keep up the good work and may the good Lord continue to bless you.

Unternehmen_UberAdelholzener_Detailseite2

Oida! Oktoberfest Wedding. The Dude of Food loves Munchen, Bavaria und Helles bier!

Oktoberfest approaches again and the Dude of Food can barely wait!

The original Oktoberfest celebration began as a wedding party in Munich on October 12th, 1810 when Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (later King Ludwig I) married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. All of Munich and the surrounding areas were invited to enjoy the joining of these 2 love birds. It’s been written that approximately 40,000 folks attended the party. The celebrating included a large feast, jousting and a horse race in the Sendlinger part of town at the current Oktoberfest party grounds. The wedding party lasted for many days. Everyone partied and good times were had by all.

There was entertainment at the Marienplatz, the Promenadenplatz and other spots about the city. 32,065 buns, 3,992 pounds of Swiss cheese, 400 kilos of mutton, 8,120 sausages and 13,300 pairs of smoked sausages were distributed for free. 6,125 gallons of beer and 98 gallons of Austrian white wine were also served. 150 musicians entertained the fun loving crowd.

The actual wedding took place in the Court Chapel of the Munich Residenz.

I worked for Heidi Klum for 9 years on Germany’s Next Top Model and fell in love with the awesome crew, German people and their culture overall. Oida! Ish liebe Bavaria und Germany. Vielen danke und prost.