This year, on Valentines, Tim and I found ourselves in Dresden, the capital of Saxony. We stayed at the self-proclaimed highlight of baroque architecture, otherwise known as the fancy-schmancy Taschenbergpalais Hotel. And while the husband took care of the accommodations, I was in charge of finding a place to eat. I initially wanted to go to a place called Bean and Beluga, whose website made it look five kinds of awesome, but they were closed due to a creative winter pause (which, come to think about it, also sounds five kinds of awesome). My choice number two was the Kanzlei Restaurant on Pohlandstrasse 18. Located in a somewhat residential area, about ten minutes from the city center, the restaurant seems like a hidden gem.
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Did you know that February is the national pancake month? I didn’t… That is till February has passed and I found myself thinking whether I am allowed to make any pancakes during a non-pancake month. The verdict is: Yes, I can! Actually, a bigger obstacle to pancake-making is the fact that Tim absolutely loathes pancakes. It’s something I cannot understand, since pancakes are not a particularly offensive dish. I can think of more offensive in terms of smell, taste and texture. Let me think… oh I know: herring for instance? And of course, even though I hate herrings*, Tim loves them. They supposedly taste better than pancakes. I have obviously married a crazy person (I love you, baby!). So anyway, with Tim working from Greece and not being at home, I can make pancakes every day, in fact, I can nominate March to be my national pancake month. Oh, yes I can!
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It’s a dreary winter here in Düsseldorf, with plenty of rain and snow. Also, it’s very, very cold, which always puts me in a nasty mood. To the surprise of everyone I know, I intensely dislike being cold. Throughout my life, whenever I complained about the cold weather, someone was bound to say: But you’re from Poland, aren’t you used to it? The answer is: No, I’m not! Being from Poland does not equip you with a furry skin or any supernatural resistance to low temperatures. Just because we have unforgiving winters does not mean that people enjoy them. What they do enjoy, is warming themselves up with vodka and eating plenty of hearty soups. I like soups. They’re my secret weapon against below zero temperatures and overall misery they induce in me. Also, soups are very forgiving dishes, you can throw anything in and they’re almost always guaranteed to taste good. And they taste even better the next day when the flavors had some time to mix and marry. Yes… soups are the best thing about suffering through winters.
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So if I started talking to you about milk marmalade you would think that I fell off of a crazy tree. If I continued to talk about milk preserves, you would also think that I hit every crazy branch on my way down. And, in turn, I would think that you’re most definitely not French. That’s right folks, French people have what is called confiture de lait, which is a caramelly spread made of milk and sugar. It’s equivalent in Latin and South America is called dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is what you make when you have any combination of the following: a) a lot of milk just about to go bad; b) a lot of free time; c) an obsessive compulsive disorder in regards to stirring liquids; d) willingness to taste something divine. I exhibited all of the above and thus embarked on my first dulce de leche making adventure. The process is a bit of a pain in the neck and it takes a long time but the result is one of those highly addictive foods which keep calling your name so loud that you can most definitely hear them through the fridge door. It gets eaten pretty quickly and I’m quite positive that it goes straight to your thighs. All in all, it’s so worth it.
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