Flammkuchen

Grüß Gott Dear Reader!

For those who think I have been a bit quiet recently, it is because I managed to catch some form of chest infection, which successfully managed to knock me sideways for most of this week (conveniently my one free week between my language course ending and my introduction to law course beginning on Monday). As a result I have spent most of the past week in bed, but managed to drag myself outside, after increasingly getting cabin fever!

In the afternoon, I ventured into the Altstadt on the search for ice cream with a good friend from back at my home university, who is doing exactly the same course as me. Apparently, this is a very big deal in Konstanz and other tourist resorts where the weather actually gets warm enough to justify eating them - unlike many childhood memories of my lips going blue with cold eating my 99 on the British coast, or just having picnics inside the car due to the rain whilst facing what would be a beautiful view only we couldn't see it! Having explored around, I am delighted to say that myself and a friend managed to find a very reasonably priced, claimed to be Italian, ice cream parlour and happily licked our way through three large scoops. For myself, I recreated the Neopolitan idea, with Melon, Wildberry and Nutella ice creams, which was definitely worth me escaping from my nest for a couple of hours.

In the evening, I went out to dinner at Joh Albrecht - a German Brauhaus - with some new friends, and was introduced to various different types of beer, by an American who seemed to be something of a conisseur, having lived in München and taught himself German by learning the Bairisch Dialekt. Most out of character for myself, I did not automatically reach for the non-alcoholic drinks list, and instead ordered a Kupfur, which is a much milder and less bitter tasting beer, due to having more malt and less hops (from my awful memory of the explanation). I admit I did not make it through the glass, and was helped out by my American and Ukrainian friends, who were more than happy to oblige - even if I had warmed it up by cuddling the glass, in an effort to look like I was actually drinking it at a normal rate (rather than superbly slowly!). The Brauhaus has offers on a Monday, for all you can eat Schweinshaxen (pigs knuckles, which are actually surprisingly tasty), and a "große Schnitzelparade" on a Tuesday, so I am more than confident that I shall be returning at least twice more in the coming few months!

I decided to order a Flammkuchen, a delicacy which I believe is very popular in the Black Forest region. However, I was not expecting the change in base which occurs between the more northern areas, such as Strasbourg and the Alsace Region, and the southern version in Konstanz. The traditional topping remained the same - Speck, Zweibel and Quark (bacon, onion and sour cream cheese). However, in the northern parts of the Black Forest (also found in Baden-Baden I seem to remember), the base is more a savory pancake-pizza sort of base, which is light and spongy - more in line with what you would expect for a product named Flammkuchen: lit. Flamed Cake. However, in the Brauhaus here, the base is more a thin cracker, which is tougher and more difficult to cut through with normal cutlery. The size still remain impressive - about the size of a medium pizza, though in France it was served to be as a circle, and in Germany in a rectangle. However, I am told by my American Beer-Lover that in other areas, it is possible to get smaller, more dense Flammkuchen, served almost on thick bread! I shall clearly have to explore more closely into the world of Flammkuchen...

After dinner we ventured to the Niederburg Weinstube; a Weinstube (pronouced Wine-stew-blee, though this may be the Swabisch dialect) is like a pub/bar which is dedicated solely to serving wines. Despite having been advised to order the white wines of the region (these being better and more drinkable for those of us who have not built up a wine palette), I ordered something called Weißherbst which is made by one of the local vineyards in Meersburg, Staatsweingut. From memory, I recalled friends drinking (and enjoying) this at the Meersburg Wine Festival and with white (weiß) in the name, surely I couldn't go wrong. It turned up with a very pinkish colour and surpassed all of our expectations (the rest of the group having clearly gone for whites of a more obviously white-grape type, such as Risling and Pinot Grigio). Still now, with a Chilean who knew a lot about wine, an American whose parents grow their own wine, and a Brit who seems to know all the local vineyards around Konstanz, we are mystified as to what sort of wine it was! Automatically ruled out was the idea that in any form could it be a white - the colour was just wrong. Rosé was a possibility, but a very light red wine was another (looking it up now, it comes from the Spätburgunder, which I belive is a red grape - although I still don't know what that really means in terms of whether it must be a red wine or not), but with a fruity aftertaste that the other drinkers on the table marvelled about. I was just happy that I'd finally managed to find a wine that didn't taste like vinegar or alcoholic scrub to me (clearly, viticulture is never going to be my calling), and that maybe I could imagine ordering to try and make myself appear more adult than my usual lemonade, whilst still finding the experience of drinking it vaguely pleasant. This is high praise indeed from a girl who will normally feel ill after just smelling even the smallest amount of alcohol in a beverage. So if you come to the Lake Constance region, that is one wine I can recommend with some degree of confidence, and hopefully a bottle or two will be making its way home for Christmas Day...