09-09-2016.
Try Authentic German Cuisine
Today is my fourth day in Wurzburg Germany. My daughter and I went to a German restaurant, which has been in business since 1951 and located at a busy intersection, to try some authentic German cuisine.
We sat on the roadside next to restaurant, so we could see the traffic on the street while eating. I heard locals like to eat this way.
I ordered a big dish: roasted pork shank, cheese needle, two big potato balls, and half a liter of beer.
The roasted pork shank is a traditional dish of Bavaria where Wurzburg resides. My pork shank tasted a little bit like my hometown Zigong’s famous dish NiuFoHongZhou. But I felt my hometown’s pork shank is more tasty than the one I was having. NiuFoHongZhou is a very famous dish with a long history, it was a imperial palace tribute from the Qing dynasty (1662 – 1722).
I lived in the United States for more than 20 years after leaving my hometown Zigong. Today I am sitting on the side of the street eating pork shank, and yet the flavor and the color of the pork shank brought me back to my faraway hometown of Zigong.
“Memory is a messy courtyard with many doors, you don’t know what winds will blow open which door at what time.”
To remember delicious food is always a warm sweet feeling for me, I guess this is probably one of the reasons that travelers enjoy eating local food, to collect warm sweet memories from far away.
Children born in the 90′s enjoy fries, my daughter ordered a special side of fried potato slices. The potato slices here are fried in oil, they are very crunchy unlike the soft French fries from McDonalds’.
While eating, I saw convertibles of many colors and many brands passing by at the busy cross section. Before we left the restaurant, I could not resist shooting a few photos of the convertibles on the street, I was very happy to know that convertibles are not only California cars, but can also be found in Wurzburg.
Lilacs
After a satisfying meal with good food and beer, we took the leftover food and walked back home. I saw a familiar bush with light purple flowers in the garden outside the apartment building. I climbed up to the garden to smell the light purple flowers and smelled the strong sweet smell of lilac. I told my daughter joyfully: “This is a lilac bush, a flower filled with poetic flavor and romantic feelings.” It is too bad, she didn’t felt anything, because I never planted lilacs in our garden.
Buying a Bike
Lots of Germans ride bikes, so my daughter and I went to the bike shop to buy a bike.
The sales lady in the shop had silver colored nails. My daughter commented on how beautiful her nails were. The sales lady proudly replied: “My nails are real and not artificial. So my nails have different length.”(My daughter translated this for me).
I could not understand German, so I stood there silently observing: the sales lady is very pretty with hoarse voice, it sounds like she is a long time smoker.
I noticed lots of Germans smoke and many cigarette vending machines were on the street, some are very close.
Every country has its own problems.
Traveling abroad lets me treasure what I have.
A Few Episodes
Start eating happily:
Zigong’s famous dish NiuFoHongZhou on Baidu:
Niufo roasted pork shank is a specialty snack in Zigong Sichuan. Niufo is a thousand-year-old town in southern Sichuan, the famous chef in Niufo developed this roasted pork shank, therefore it is named Niufo Roasted pork shank.
This dish was a court tribute as early as the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. This dish has a unique flavor of brown-red color, fresh taste, moderate saltiness, tender meat, rich aroma, and fat but not greasy. It is suitable for people of all ages.