Chow Down in the Schwarzwald

In September, Katy was not the only visitor amongst the expatriot community. Patrick Cobb's mom Ceil came to visit as well. Ceil came visiting from Bradford, Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks and during that period became travel pals with Theresa and Katy and Irma (a.k.a. Gaby's mom). Ceil and Patrick are posing in the picture below.Every vistor has to have an agenda and both Katy and Ceil had an agenda to buy a cuckoo clock. After all, cuckoo clocks come from the Black Forest and the Black Forest is just across the river from Strasbourg. So, on the week-end of September 22 we organized an outing with Ceil, Patrick, Wade, Gaby, Irma, Theresa, Katy, and I to go cuckoo clock shopping in the Black Forest (a.k.a. Schwarzwald).

But this posting is not about clocks. It is about food.

We stopped for luch at a restaurant in Gutach that Theresa and I liked. Unfortunately, they were swamped and there was no service to be had. We finally gave up and headed down the road. But the time, by that time, was after 2 pm. This is a dreaded situation, because most restaurants close their kitchen from 2 pm until 6/7 pm at night when the dinner crowd starts. One can starve in Europe looking for a meal after 2 pm in the afternoon.

But we lucked out and found a Gasthaus. Gasthaus Hossle was the name.
Anyway, it seems that half the pictures on this blog are of food. If any food deserves a picture, then the food from Gasthaus Hossle does. The kind of food you expect from Germany. Meat. Sausage. Gravy. Potatos. (Potatoes???? where is Dan Quayle when you need help with spelling?). This was Uber-comfort food.

The intro picture was the platter of "meat assortment". I think that is how the menu item would be translated from German to English. Basically, this plate was an obscene collection of ribs, sausage, sausage, and sausage. This same plate can be seen in front of Patrick and Ceil.
The picture above was a pan fried, gravy smothered recipe of venison. The dark stuff is either gravy or deer meat. The white stuff is sour cream with herbs. The beige ball is a type of stuffing....I think boiled as a ball and then pan fried butter to give it a little crust.

Wade is a vegetarian, which poses a slight problem in Germany. However, he and Gaby both had a dish that was made up of cheesy potato(e)s topped with fried eggs. 5000 calories without guilt.
The highlight of the dining experience was when Katy walked into the kitchen and asked for the recipe for the German potato salad. Normally, you would expect the chef to kick her out. Instead, they had a good old conversation and exchanged e-mails....after, of course, Katy got the recipe from him.