Home Made Noodles

Wednesday 24/11/2004

Back to noshblog site (click here)

Diary and Notes

Now I just love the word nudel, it's not as good as babaganoush but is still a fine word. As such, I will try to use the words; nudel and nudeln, exactly twenty one times during today's blog, starting from... 'Now'. (Note that the two nuuuudel's in the title don't count as nudeln, as they are spelt differently to nudel and occur too early in the script anyway.)

I went out for dinner again. Yes, I have officially become a member of the glitterati, what with all this fine dining and high living. Fortunately the price of meals out here in Germany is about the price of a meal at home in Britain, so I am not really that worried. Also, I wasn't paying today, but if I was, it would have been very 'günstig' indeed. I have also, after some badgering by certain readers, decided to buy a cheap digital camera in order to take photos 'to show context'. A friend Neil who lives in Frankfurt has emailed me a few photos and (after having deleted the ones where I look like a complete Joey) I've posted some on the earlier blogs. I'll go and take photos of places like Cron & Lanz and other such joys of Göttingen and scatter them around my blog.

Today we went to the Nudel Haus, one of Göttingen's more studenty eateries. As you can probably guess they sell nudeln. Every nudel known to mankind, all home made and excellently prepared. Now before you ask "But Jon, what are these strange nudels of which you speak." I will explain, nudel is just the German word for pasta. Not to be confused with knödel (the k is pronounced) which is actually like a big fluffy gnocchi, but German. The Germans take their nudel (and their knödel) very seriously and a bit like my great Maccheroni whinge, they now claim them to be German and not in any way Italian at all.

So what sort of nudeln did I have?

Well, oddly enough and considering that this is a German nudel house selling home made German nudeln, nearly all the sauces sounded like they came from Italy. There were a few exceptions such as curry sauce, a sweet and sour Chinese sauce and that good old German favourite, nudel auflauf (which I'll have at a later date) but apart from these, everything was very Mediterranean. Most of the nudels had German names (tagliatelle was bandenudeln for instance) except for spaghetti, ravioli and lasagne. It took me some time to choose which nudel I would have (or whether I should plump for the pizza option, but considering this was called the Nudel Haus, I thought I'd stick with nudeln) and eventually went for a chicken and spinach tagliatelle in gorgonzola cream sauce. I'm not sure whether from the two hundred or so nudel dishes on offer this was the best, but it was some of the best nudel I've had in a long time. We also had some pizza bread, drizzled with olive oil and fresh parsley, which went down a treat.

Afterwards it was off to the Christmas market which had just opened today for a glass of kirscheweinpunsch and to gaze in wonderment at all the pretty baubles on offer. I'd have to have been one nudel short of a picnic not to have gone.

Cake Blog

Chocolate figs on a stick: Not technically a cake but I am including anything that is a dessert in my cake blog, so I've no problem. These were delicious. Five figs, on a stick, dipped in chocolate and with a walnut on each. Only 2.50 Euros from the Christmas market. Much better than a boring toffee apple or candy-floss.

Menu

Home made tagliatelle with chicken breast and spinach in gorgonzola cream sauce,

Pizza bread.

Veltin's Pils.

JCBorresen@gmail.com