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Magnum Gold?! is Magnum variety that was new to me so I had to try it when I saw it in Maria Wörth on the southern side of the Wörthersee. Information on the web is limited but at least there is a UK commercial.


The packaging said something about caramel flavor with no information about what the coating was made from (beside sugar).





On the first bite the caramel flavor came through and inside the white core there are yellow lines of caramel. Overall a nice snack. Hopefully they'll introduce it in Germany as well.

Upon arrivial in Barcelona I was greeted by blue skies while the Alpes and Pyrenees were still covered in snow.



For the journey into town I had several options and went with the train. In retrospect the bus might have been more convenient, though. I started walking from from the northern tip of Passeig de Garcia. The street is your usual major street improved with a bit of Gaudi architecture as well as nice street lamps, trees and the sunny weather to go with it. Around the La Rambla area I made took a few diversions through the narrow streets with all the small stores.



The pedestrian area was bustling with people so it was hard to get good shoots. I went to the La Boqueria market off La Rambla where the (morning?) market was still in full swing. Main staple on the market was the jambon but most of the produce looked tempting. Among the fruit stands were a few tapas outlets. It was too busy and after all sitting there would make one the perfect target for petty crimes. The area outside the market appeared to be area targeted by those folks.



I continued walking to the amazing Plaza Real and the Plaza de Sant Jaume. I intended to visit the Museum of City History underneath/next to the Plaza de Rei but they were closed until later that day. I decided to wander around and wait for it to reopen. Instead of often quoted 60 minutes you need to tour the museum I spent around 90 minutes as it was amazing. Basically it is a maze of walkways through an archaeological excavation accompanied by an audio guide. The exhibit was a part of the old roman town found while moving (yes!) another building on top. The exhibition features everything from the city wall (made of recycled stones and even tombstones) to an upscale home with connections to the sewers. There was also a church with multiple generations of building projects - all on top of stone inlays in perfect condition which used to be part of the home next door. Overall this museum is a must-see for every visitor!



Finally I was off to early dinner at Cerveceria Catalana. I thought about ordering the huge sampler plate but instead went for three small dishes and a cold beer.







Albeit the Hamburg came last the food and service was good. This tapas bar was the obvious choice for lunch the following day. I took the subway to Diagonal Mar commercial center where I stopped by at the local Alcampo supermarket to get some water, wine and sweets to nibble on. At the Hilton I checked into my King Executive room on the top floor (23rd) with a water view. The woman at the check in desk informed me that although I had lounge access (nice outdoor terrace on the 15th floor) she recommends that I would head down to the full restaurant for breakfast - fine with me. I went upstairs, took a long bath, had some of the nice red wine and relaxed in the easy chair while watching US TV (Family Guy marathon). Bliss!

The next morning I went downstairs for breakfast and ordered poached eggs as I could not find regular eggs on the buffet. A few minutes later two slightly overdone eggs were served on toast with some salad. People from neighboring tables stared at me but when I pointed them to the menu which lists all the stuff one can order the kitchen must have had lots of orders coming in in a short time.

I took the subway to La Sagrada Familia and on to Park Güell where I walked around for about an hour. Unfortunately weather changed a bit to the rainy side and made me head to lunch earlier than anticipated. When I arrived at Cerveceria Catalana the lunch service was still in full swing and the rain made more people flock around the umbrellas outside. I resigned and went to a family style place where the only thing worth mentioning was the mushroom salad.

Back at the airport I was told that my flight to Frankfurt was about an hour late. Since my connection in Frankfurt was only 55 minutes this sounded like trouble. To make bad things worse it was the last flight of the day (arrival at 10:45PM in Hamburg) and the last Hamburg-bound flight before the Lufthansa pilot strike. I tried to get on the Munich flight and even though they managed to find me a business seat did not let me board as the Munich-Hamburg connection was totally oversold. I bought Internet access in the lounge and checked my options. For sure I wanted to stay clear of Lufthansa mainline flights as much as possible. I was hoping to get to anywhere in Europe with a connection to Hamburg Monday morning. The obvious connection was through Milan on Lufthansa Italia - one of the reasons why the Lufthansa pilots were on strike. Unfortunately the flight was canceled leaving some 150 passengers in Barcelona and fighting for seats on the remaining flights. The Stuttgart flight was fully booked as was the Düsseldorf one. My only hope was that the Frankfurt flight could make up some time on the way and would bring us to Frankfurt in time to make the connections. In the end we barely made it thanks to a slightly delayed flight to Hamburg. I was in Hamburg five minutes before the curfew with all the information displays already showing impacts of the Lufthansa strike ahead.

Being the foodie I am here are a few pictures from the food we enjoyed in Hong Kong. Note that all the airplane food will follow in the next few days.

First off here's a typical snack from the Grand Stanford Intercontinental Club lounge.



The second evening we went to a Korean BBQ place. Basically you purchase a seat and select raw food from the buffet. Once back at your table a waitress fires up your gas BBQ on which you cook your own food.




The third day was well spent at Sushi One. Since we were a group of five we ended up ordering lots of dishes to share.



In the background of the previous picture you can see beds of rice with a tuna paste on top. It was amazing and I guess it wasn't even toro quality.












The following day we met with more people and went for dim sum. It turned out to be a quite touristy place although lots of locals were present. The dim sum wasn't offered in the traditional boxes but ready to eat on the plates.

What the Krua Thai website lacks the staff makes up for in service and quality. It an imbiss style outlet where you get your own drinks from the fridge. This thai restaurant was on my short list of places to try while in Cologne. It was well worth the 15 minute walk.





While the sate appetizer (at 4 Euro) was a bit disappointing the red curry I had was awesome. The greens were cooked spot on and still crisp and green. The chef must have quenched them - something you probably don't see at your usual take away place.

Just before Christmas I've been on a short Florida trip with a friend. We basically only zipped around the Miami area with side trips to Key West and the Everglades (Shark Valley). Here's a collection of the food that we enjoyed.

Before evening arriving in Florida we had some breakfast and a snack in the Hamburg and Düsseldorf lounges followed by in-flight lunch and dinner.




From a few years back I knew that there were two shopping malls close to Miami International Airport. One of them had a Fuddruckers. After some shopping and before the imperative grocery run (Walmart) we stopped by there. It's all fresh and the meat patty was never frozen! You can/have to get your own toppings for the burger.



The next morning we stopped at one of my favorite breakfast spots: Crackerbarrel. The first time we went there I opted for French Toast instead of the more common egg based stuff.




Finally: Five Guys. In my opinion one of the best burger places on the East Coast.


The next morning a certain friend wanted to try something different: the cheap Denny's chain. It turned out to be barely OK food esp. with the alternatives around. But hey, if that's part of the US experience I'm willing to do it again.



Next up was a hibachi/teppanyaki place. It's a japanese steakhouse. In this case an independent place has been just taken over by the Benihana chain. I had to convince my friend to give it a try but it was well worth it.



I did not take pictures of the shrimp appetizers.

Due to my leg I am bound to the chair right now and use the time to sort all the photo folders that I neglected over the last few months. In this case I found a few pictures from my trip to Palma de Mallorca in April.

Back then I visited the Hardrock Cafe and had the worst food I ever had at a Hardrock Cafe:



The burger was served in a pathetic excuse for a burger bun and the few fries weren't up to the HRC standard either.
Free refills for fountain drinks were something I expected only to find out that they don't have them. After some complaints via email to the Hardrock Cafe about the food and service I got all my money back. The waitress also double-charged me for the food. I guess she did it because I did not tip at all but then this could be due to the fact that the HRC just opened a few weeks earlier.

I am not proud to have fastfood when there is tasty local food but in this case I just had to get the meal. It was late and I was hoping to track down some nice food in the Hilton Shopping Mall ... to no avail. I noticed that McDonald's had some interesting burgers and at 2 Euro for the largest meal they are sure a steal.





The size of the burger was incredible. For the first few bites it was a bit on the dry side but once I managed to get to the cheese it was pretty tasty for a McDonald's burger. The slices of processed American cheese were regular size but way too small to fit on that burger.

During the Boston trip last month Tim and I were contemplating where to head for a dinner. We missed Five Guys Burger that day so opted to get something filling. A small and cheap place came up during our searches: Apsara Palace in Providence.

From the outside the restaurant looked just like we expected it to look. The neighborhood wasn't too bad either.






The food was good as was the Thai ice tea. Unfortunately the General Tso's chicken was far away from HongKong Harbour (my favorite spot in Atlanta, GA) standards. Knowing that General Tso's appears to be an American invention with multiple possible origins I guess this is what you have to expect: different interpretations of the same dish.

A few weeks ago we went for an early BBQ and a friend brought a gas powered coffeepot, Baileys and milk. Last week during the post-breakfast drinks service on the PrivatAir flight I noticed the bottle of Baileys on the cart. It was breakfast time, but heck, I'll be stuck in aluminum tubes for another ten or so hours. I told the flight attendant that I wanted a coffee and some Baileys. She looked at me and knew what was going to happen. Do you want your Baileys in your coffee? I sure want that. I usually add some milk as well. Would you like some milk? As you can see in the picture below I took some milk along with some more Baileys on the Rocks. Thanks to the Baileys and the champagne I could sleep quite well ;-)



Note the cluttered table. Other airlines remove the tray first and then do the coffee/drinks run. Being quite late and allowing people to sleep faster I can see how they wanted to rush the service, though.

Finally ... a visit to Five Guys Burger, dubbed the In'n'Out of the East Coast.



The menu is not as minimalistic as In'n'Out but still pretty straight forward. You select the type of burger you want and the opt for as many of the free toppings you want. The regular burger comes with two patties.



A minute later one person built my burger while another one flipped the never frozen meat patties.





I had to wait a couple of minutes by the wait was well worth it. Flat out the burger was delicious. It is different from In'n'Out but I cannot make out a clear winner.

I have a long history of buying strange and sometimes discomforting looking canned and bottled drinks. Whenever I read energy drink I have to think of Red Bull and how much I don't like those dead gummi bears.
But a coffee based drink? Different story. There were several flavors to choose from and if they had the Cinnamon Dulce version I would have gotten that for sure. Instead I ended up hauling the Mocha version back to the hotel room.



The drink is less milky and definitely not as sweet as the Frappuccino version and somehow hit the spot. I could make out subtle guarana/energy flavors but not so much that I won't finish the drink.

Website: Starbucks Coffe on the Go (not sponsored, just for the sake of completeness)

When I first read about the South Pacific delicacy I knew that I had to eat it. Ika mata is raw marinated fish. Tuna is the usual base but any white fish should work. The raw fish is cut into small pieces and marinated in fresh lime juices. Only very few spices are added (some chili in my case) as is coconut cream. It makes a brilliant appetizer or a full meal.

I did know that this flight was going to be good. I had high expectations and Austrian delivered.


Before takeoff menus were distributed among with shoes and an amenity kit. I already cheated before and knew the menu so I knew I gonna go with the Japanese dishes.
The amouse-bouche served was the same for everyone but definitely had an asian influence.


After a short while - glasses were topped off immediately - came the first course. True to japanese culture it was cold fish and a cold soup. I neither dig the cold buckwheat soup nor miso soup so I left it almost untouched.
The main dish I ordered was eel. It looked like it was just a few bites but broken down into chopstick compatible bits it was quite a lot.







I then turned my attention to the inflight entertainment only find out that you cannot start/stop movies but have to wait for them to be restarted. That's so 90ties. I dozed away for a few hours before ending up in the galley talking to the purser who just came back from her 3 hours off. She was interested to hear what I think of Austrian Airlines, their product and other airlines in comparison. I missed the midflight snack talking but managed to get another two hours sleep before breakfast came. At that time I wasn't really hungry but since I preordered breakfast I had quite a few things coming my direction.
Early in the morning I once more woke up during the descend into Narita. As I wrote before immigration was a breeze and for a few seconds I thought about catching a train to Ueno station instead of Narita.

The Frukt&Mandel version was disappointing but the lakrits flavour is my new number two Marabou chocolate close to the mint chocolate version.

Last weekend we wanted to try Sake Bar Hagi which also includes a restaurant. The first night the place was too crowded and we decided to head next door for a quick bite.
The next evening we managed to get a table and ordered a wide variety of dishes to share. Last came the infamous japanese pizza (which actually is more an omelet with toppings).



The katsuobushi on top was so thin that it moved in the heat: It's alive!.