emmeleau's Profile

this is kinda funny. in my entire time in germany, i've never had an issue with the freezer. the whole adjusting to cooking fresh, wochenmaerkte, etc just meant stopping by the twice weekly markets to pick up ingredients for that day and day after... otherwise supplementing at rewe or pennymarkt and cooking things that same day. we never really have leftovers, and have kinda shifted from the hoarding/storing mentality. naturally we have plenty of standbys if guests drop by (cakes, breads, cheeses, cornichon, etc), and wine aplenty to boot. but i can DEFINITELY see the problem if you are into 'mixology' etc. i personally like my weinschorles/wein at home and then when it's time for cocktails it is a perfect excuse to get out and go to the bars!

shockingly french cuisine is my least favorite, italian also is at bottom (possibly because of growing up in a french/italian family). i love greek (not moussaka or anything creamy, more like salads and fish meze - could eat that all day for the rest of my life), spanish/basque (mmm tapas/pintxos), and german cuisine (i.e. a nice wintertime dampfnudeln/knoedeln or a seared summertime Regenforellen with salad).

lella and amanda0730 - you have just rocked my world. will look at manual tonight!

how i wish my two frankfurt kitchens looked like this. or in fact had anything at all! So many of the places we looked at only had a huge empty room with a connection for water and electricity...Einbaukueche - something we totally take for granted in the states...

you probably already know this - but please make JASMINE white rice. a sign of a true pinoy home.

also, maybe consider having traditional desserts like coconut pie, cassava cake, or leche flan (also pinoy style, slightly different than spanish). also typical universally popular fiesta dishes for holidays are menudo (beef stew), mechado (also beef stew), afritada (chicken dish). all google-able, just enter "filipino+menudo", etc. bonus: often usually pleasing to western palates.

if you are doing brunch on the earlier side, you may want to look into -ilog breakfast dishes - this is a filipino abbreviation for various meats/fishes + egg and sinangag (garlic rice). popular versions are: tapsilog (an easter tradition in the philippines - tapa is cured pork - with an egg and sinangag), longsilog (longanisa - a hearty sausage - with egg and sinangag), and dasilog (cured milkfish +egg and sinangag). i remember many a happy family get-together morning start out that way, huge platters of eggs over easy, longanisa, tapa, and a big steaming bowl of sinanag.

GOOD LUCK!

edit: *clientele -- sorry, pet peeve.

not sure if you are looking for non-finger food apps, but you could do little shots of bouillabaisse or take inspiration from turkish fish meze? they have bazillions of little fish dishes (tiny smelt, sardines, etc) -- but may be a little too intense (for my fam it would be perfect) ...

i like the fact that here in europe, the aperitif never really went out of fashion! pizzette (miniature pizzas - like palm sized), mini arancini (rice balls), grissini (bread sticks) are often served in italy and in italian switzerland. in france, i've often had shrimp (but no foul cocktail sauce), mini soca, tapenade, and tartines (goat cheese and fig, etc). and obv, spain has all those small tapas dishes.

i didn't really realize it before, but i only travel for food! not just new places, but also whenever i'm back home in the US, my schedule is equally determined by satisfying cravings/checking new places out as much as it is by seeing family and friends! my husband and i are known to go to amsterdam for stroopwafeln or barcelona for pinxos -- but it's easy because we live in frankfurt (aka culinary DESERT, outside of german food).

@jmorri26 -- cracking up at your 'leave the non-beer drinkers alone'. so true. it's not for lack of trying that a lot of non-beer drinkers opt to not drink beer. people get so fanatical about pushing beer -- they should make an abc afterschool special about it.