Braunschweig
Braunschweig is known to the British as Brunswick.
I passed through on a train on my Home Run from Gdansk and as it was a place I’d never heard of before that trip, when I planned this trip, I noticed that I could change trains at the city.
This Google Map shows the layout of the city.
Braunschweig
It could be a sensible stop on a rail trip across Europe.
It was also a friendly stop, which started when the lady in the tram information kiosk, gave precise instructions on how to either walk or use a tram to the centre and then sold me a pair of tickets for the tram. The tram was not very new, but it was in good condition with very good information. Incidentally, the tram system has a unique metre gauge, which is being updated so that the tram routes can share with trains. Sounds like stealth train-trams to me!
As I had a good late lunch in the Cafe Alex, I’m glad I visited. It was only after I returned that I found that it was a brand controlled by Mitchells and Butlers. Some of their UK restaurants I’ve eaten in, don’t know their allergies as well as the Germans.
I must try out some of them again.
Lunch In Chemnitz
It is probably interesting to compare my lunch in the Ratskeller in Chemnitz with the scraps I scrounged in Middlesbrough a few months ago, on a day when Ipswich lost and the trains screwed me up rotten.
I only had a tuna salad.
I’ve tasted worse, but it lacked a certain tastiness, although it was very unlikely to do me any harm.
At least the menu indicated gluten, which is very difficult to detect in many places in the UK. The German system of a series of letters and numbers would be welcomed here.
A Wet Evening In Dresden
The weather up to now had been hot and sunny, but by the time I got to Dresden it was raining hard.
But hey, I’m English and we may go out in the mid-day sun, but we also don’t shrink from the rain.
The meal was excellent and it would warrant a separate post if more of my pictures came out properly.
Supper With Celia
I had supper in a restaurant called Švejk Restaurant U Karla, which I found by typing “gluten free restaurant Prague” into Google.
The food is traditionally Czech and I found it excellent.
I don’t think you call the Celia gluten-free lager or the gluten-free bread traditional, but it is also Czech and excellent.
The only problem with the restaurant is that due to Prague’s maps and information, I found it difficult to find. In the end I was just on the point of giving up, when I found it.
I was certainly very pleased that I persevered.
Supper By Krakow Castle
I had supper at a restaurant called Pod Baranem, that I’d found with Google.
It was excelklent and so was the Cydr Lubelski
Cydr Lubelski In Krakow
Just sat down to supper with a bottle of Polish cider. Excellent and only 4.5% alcohol. I didn’t know they brewed it.
An Almost Vegetarian Lunch At Chimera In Krakow
I found Chimera in the pocket guide of Krakow I took with me.
There is some tuna in the salad, but for vegetarians, that is of course optional.
It is well worth a visit, as this review in Trip Advisor says.
As to location, the restaurant is just a short walk from Rynek Główny.
Supper In The Main Square
The Poles are proud of their food in much the same way as country people in the UK. Every chicken, animal, potato or leek you see, seems to have been brought up as a labour of love and I’ve never seen what you might call bad food in Poland.
If like me you’re coeliac, usually in a restaurant there is someone, who understands your needs and if that fails, I take a Polish Gluten-Free Card. But usually, only the top line gets read and the waiter or often the chef will say, have the duck or we can do the fish, in perfect English.
I took these pictures as I had supper.
I only had a main course, as I inevitably do, as I’d had an ice cream earlier.
An Unusual Supper- Goat’s Cheese, Strawberry And Basil Salad
Usually, I have fruit with a main course for my supper. Partly because of laziness, but C also preferred fruit rather than cooking something. My mother-in-law was also someone who cooked compulsory heavy puddings and although I hadn’t been diagnosed as a coeliac before she died, much to her annoyance, I always refused to have any. I wonder why? So for many years my pudding was strawberries, raspberries, pineapple or mango, with or without ice crem or lately yoghurt.
I am also not a particular lover of salad, but I do know that I should eat more. It’s the green leaves I’m not struck on, but but on the other hand, I eat most green vegetables, except pak choi. The latter is on the banned list, as I seemed to get it every day in hospital in Hong Kong. On the other hand, I could eat sprouts all day.
So when I got my copy of The Times this morning and it said that the comic would have a lot of salads, I took a detailed look at the cover.
A Strawberry Salad
Is that a salad I see before me without any lettuce, that uses strawberries as the main ingredient?
On opening the paper, I found it was a goat’s cheese, strawberry and basil salad. As I had all the ingredient’s in my kitchen and some ham hock to go with it, I thought I’d give it a go.
I don’t think there would be any chance, it would gluten me, let alone kill me!
After all if it had been disgusting, I could have always put mustard on the ham hock and eaten the strawberries au natural.
But it was absolutely delicious! All I need now is an attractive lady to sample it with me, when I cook it again!
I think that I might buy The Salad Bowl by Nicola Graimes. It might contain another equally delicious and unusual salad.
I’ll certainly go to Waterstones tomorrow, to try before I buy!
My First Lasagne
I cooked this lasagne last night using this recipe on the BBC Good Food web site.
The verdict from my guests and myself.
1. I thought it tasted fine and my guests even ate some of it, with one having second helpings.
2. I made too much and got the timing wrong, as the recipe isn’t that precise.
3. I think it could also have done with more bechamel sauce.
4. I also left it in the oven too long, but that was more because I was having my hair cut at the same time. Not a good idea
5. The M&S pasta sheets may be a short cut, but they are easy to use and don’t taste any different to gluten-rich ones.
6. For lunch today, I had it cold. It was very good, tasting a bit like a meat and pasta cake.
7. I did add some tomato sauce and although not very correct, it was a better taste.
I’ll cook it again soon, but next time I’ll do half the quantity, which should give me enough for two portions. So I could share it with a guest or have one hot and one cold.
The Anonymous Widower 