Saturday, August 31, 2013

Fischimbiss Schabi

One of the reason I love Hamburg is the abundance of seafood. You can get fresh seafood in weekly market, supermarket and many restaurants offer various seafood dishes. One of my favourite fish Imbiss is in Schulterblatt, called Fischimbiss Schabi. They offer relatively fresh  and tasty seafood with reasonable price.


Here is my mixed plate of grilled fish with deep fried potatoes served with a dollop of aioli and some salad. The fishes are fresh, grilled with perfection, crispy skins and juicy, soft flesh. Don't forger to order one of Hamburg's invention: The fritz-kola. 

The story behind this weird looking fuzzy drinks is ... many years ago, some poor student decided they could't get enough caffeine from the normal coke, so they concocted similar drink with more caffeine content. Since they were poor and did not have money for sales and marketing, they visited each and every shop in Sternschanze asking the shop owner to sell their drink. Slowly the drink got much love from the Schanze public and become a hit. Since then they've added many other flavour to their sortiment. What a succes story, isn't it. 


 

Here's a look of their grilled squid for Hubby, who loves squid. 


Crispy and succulent squid ... yummy



One little tip; go and eat on a sunny day and snap a place outside on the bench. If it's occupied, wait till its free, shove the occupant or share the bench, your choice. The imbiss have an open kitchen and once they grill their seafood the air can be fishy and the smell lingers on your clothes. I've had that experience and the first thing I did once I was home, was shower and did the laundry.

For the dessert, just walk one block further ... but that's material for another post. So stay tuned and wait for it next week. 


Fischimbiss Schabi 
Schulterblatt 60
20357 Hamburg

Saturday, August 17, 2013

An Khang Quan

I love good Vietnamese food, imagine piping hot Pho, soury and sweet Bun Cha, silky and succulent Banh Cuon, crispy and flavourful Banh Xeo, the list can go on and on and on. So near my office, there are a very good, good means for me authentic and delish, Vietnamese Restaurant. 

The green decorated restaurant is unimpressive from the outside, but the inside is prettily decorated and gave you a felling that you've stepped into a house in a small bamboo village in Vietnam.   

I was there for lunch, the menu is very interesting and price is reasonable. We got tomato soup with almond flakes as a starter. 

Tomato soup
Hubby who always want Bun Cha wherever he went, chose a lemon grass pork with vermicelli, The pork is stir fried and topped with chunks of roasted peanut, and thin slivers of iceberg lettuce give crispness to the dish. The sauce can be more sourish, but we are not complaining. 

lemon grass pork with vermicelli 
Me, always in search of good wok hei noodles ordered vegetarian stir fried flat rice noodle, I was satisfied, bit salty and sweetish with strong enough wok hei, and most important the veggies are still slightly undercooked. 

Stir fried rice noodles
I like the food, I like the ambient, this is the restaurant where you want to bring guest to entertain. They even have a very impressive dinner menu which offers vietnamese steam boat. Wonder how will it differs to the Chinese one.

An Khang Quan

Hoheluftchausse 86
20253 Hamburg 
U3 - Hoheluftbrücke

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Freshly picked raspberries at Glantz Erdbeerhof

Are you a raspberry or strawberry person? Me, I always prefer strawberry, it's sweeter and fruitier than raspberries. I admit, the raspberries that I know is always those almost foul-travelled long way-packed in styrofoam-without fragrance-fruits from the supermarket. Those raspberries lovers always swear that fresh raspberries are way better than strawberries. One of hubby's colleagues, Volker, is one and he told us that Glantz Erdbeerhof offers raspberries for picking. Once we got such information, hubby and me decide we want to eat pick them this weekend.  

We choose to pick them from the Erdbeerhof in Delingsdorf, Here are the rows of the raspberries trees.


Rows of berries
Look at those plump fruits, aren't they just screaming: "pop me in your mouth!" 

I must say I'm a convert, the ripe plump raspberries are so sweet and they have such a aromatic fragrance which is so inviting. And the color, oh the color, it's such a pretty pink that hubby thought I smeared lipstick on my shirt, and it's actually raspberries juices. 

berries


After such tiring job; snacking picking raspberries, the Glantz erdbeerhof has a very pretty and comfy erdbeer shop and erdbeer loung where you can buy every product made of strawberries and raspberries. Jam, wine, dried fruits, tea, sorbet,  you name it they have it.

Don't forget to sit at the lounge and order their home made strawberry and raspberry sorbet. 

The shop
Strawberry sorbet in cone


Raspberries sorbet in cone

Erdbeerhof Glantz

Hamburgerstraße 2a
22941 Dellingsdorf

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Black Vanilla Ice Cream at Giovanni L.

It's summer time and naturally it's ice cream time. I've eaten a lot of ice cream in Hamburg and there is a really good one in Eppendorf (Eis-Schmidt), mediocre one in Barmbek (not worth mentioning), a good old school type in Bramfeld (Eis Cafe Arktis) and some other ice cream here and there. 

Here is one particular ice cream I find interesting enough to blog. It's the black vanilla ice cream at Giovanni L. You can find them nowadays overall in Hamburg and Hannover and I'm sure it will spring in other places too. The owner Giovanni Lasagne is big on franchising his ice cream. I tried various flavours and I must say the ice creams are good, dense and creamy, packed with flavor and there are many surprising flavours too like say red bull, campari, papaya (which is considered very exotic by the Germans) and many more.

Giovanni L. 

Back to the black vanilla, I find it super interesting because the vanilla ice cream we used to is always milky white, but if you think of it, vanilla pod is actually black. So if you blend midnight black vanilla pod and make ice cream out of it, it should be either black or at least grey or white with thousand black dots isn't it? But we are so used to ice cream mixed with artificial vanilla flavor that my first reaction on the black ice cream is eww. But once you overcome your disgust and tried the ice cream you will be rewarded with shot of intense vanilla that every other vanilla ice cream will pale in comparison. 

If you are looking for other flavours to pair it with the black vanilla, my personal favourites are pistachio, Spanish cream and black chocolate. But take it from me, you want it pure black, undiffused with other disturbing flavours. 


Black Vanilla Ice Cream