hand cheese

Never order anything with the name of hand cheese.  Trust me.

Last night, great guy and I went out to the glass-box-like, wine bistro on the Rhein.  We had to drive, so no romantic river strolling, because I currently have a small, very annoying, infection on my foot.  Over the past few days, I have been going a bit stir-crazy;  no little car to zip around in, not knowing where to go, no friends to hang out with, my father not feeling great, being far away from family with Christmas around the corner, and so I really wanted to get out of the house.

We sat down by the window, ordered our favorite Riesling, and opened up the menu.  I had no idea what anything was, so great guy made some suggestions, ordered and then we started talking about our day.  Actually, I think I started babbling about my basketball days-gosh, how boring.  Can't believe he didn't walk out.

Then the hand cheese arrived.  Now, I think that if people actually could accumulate crud between our fingers, like say, toe jam or belly button dirt, and you scraped it off, patted it together into a little cake, sat it on a shelf to age for two or three years, and then served it up as a snack with crackers or bread, this is exactly what it would taste like.  Please don't get me wrong, I am a very un-picky eater, and I truly love German food.  There is only one thing I can think of (other than, now, hand cheese) that I don't like eating, and that is capers.  Ick.  So, when I say DO NOT ORDER HANDKÄß on your next Germany visit, you should really listen.  But, there are some odd people who do like it...for example, great guy.  He ate it all up.  Ick.

To end this post on a positive note:  I, for the very first time, used a German recipe and baked a cake.  Great guy's boss asked him if his little missus could actually bake, and when will he be bringing some goodies into the office.  So, I baked.  Mokka-Mandel-Kuchen.  Unfortunately, there were a few details in the recipe which I did not understand and so I just guessed.  I made sure to tell great guy to try a piece first before handing it out, and then to quickly chuck it in the garbage if it was horrible.  Apparently it tasted okay.  Because, honestly, most German food is really good.