Despite all good intentions to watch as little TV as possible, I always fall for (new) cooking shows on TV. Just can’t help it. German TV seems to know my Saturday schedule, because they run various shows when I usually return from doing groceries, starting with two hours of Jamie Oliver – OK, I’m definitely over that one. Not that I don’t like him (despite the horrible dubbing…), maybe I had an overdose, he has been on now for about two years without interruption.

What a relief when I finally discovered a change in program: Now it is just one hour of Jamie – which I skip anyways – followed by “Bill’s Food“! With quite a few foodblogs referring to his books, I was as curious as I could be. “Bill Granger is the god of Australasian cooking and his two restaurants are Sydney institutions.” (Time Out, London) – So he’s a well established chef, I have to give him that. Similar to Jamie’s German voice, the dubbing is rather annoying (why don’t they use subtitles?) and underlines his enthusiastic presentation almost to a comical extend. His kitchen is neatly designed and kept in pastels, including his shirts. The only thing that’s even brighter, is his million watt smile that oh so frequently beams at you, that you tell yourself to put shades on next time you watch him. On the first show, we clocked him – 21, 22, 23, 24,… SMILE 21, 22,…; an average of 10 seconds to recover in between. Hm, maybe I’m exaggerating a tiny little bit here, but I’m absolutely positive, that there is a guy standing right next to the camera man, holding up a big sign “SMILE INTO THE CAMERA, NOW!!!” The other thing that stands out is the sheer inexhaustible level of enthusiasm with which he explains some of the cooking steps – you could easily be led to think he invented them ;) One thing is for sure, he’s an excellent marketer…
Nevertheless it’s a fun show, the recipes are straight forward and simple. I’ll certainly watch it again, although RTL II doesn’t broadcast any episodes at the moment. (Perhaps – meanwhile – I should have a closer look at his cookbooks…)

My latest discovery is “Leas KochLUST” with Lea Linster. She runs a restaurant in Frisange (Luxembourg) and is a highly awarded chef de cuisine (among many other honors she received the “Bocuse d’Or” back in 1989). Owning and treasuring two of her books, I was eager to finally watch her show on TV. The concept is quite simple: She cooks with the help of a cooking apprentice, each show a different one. In the first show I watched, the audience was made acquainted with “Korbinian”, a rather tall and skinny guy.

Hmmm, how shall I put it? She is a dedicated woman and I have no doubts about her leading a restaurant’s kitchen. But one can easily recognize, that she isn’t very used to preparing a dish in front of a TV cam while talking about it. The prepared “pasta packets” looked anything but neat and even, in fact they were torn up and I couldn’t believe they were actually showing this. The way she chopped onions with a parer left me rather clueless… And the conversation between her and Korbinian…, well, better skip that part completely. Was he reading his questions from the autocue? Questions, a cooking apprentice would probably not ask in front of a camera. Such as “Why do you run the pasta dough through the machine more than once? ” Or statements like “Panna cotta is an easy dessert, because you don’t have to whip cream.” Pardon me? Maybe both had a bad day, I don’t know. Best moment: She asked him to remove the pasta from the oven and he stated, they would need a few more minutes. She snapped right back at him, in a don’t-you-dare-to-smartass-me tone, to take them out. She wasn’t amused, as one could easily tell… ;)
If I had to choose between her books and her show, I would without hesitation go for the books. On the other hand, I might give her show another try, if only for her cute French accent!

I guess it all comes down to what you are looking for in a cooking show? Well, for me it’s got to be a healthy mix of the following ingredients: Technique, congeniality paired with a good sense of humor and interesting recipes. Still looking…because, good chefs don’t necessarily have to be good actors ;)

Here you can find a broad overview about cooking shows on German TV.
Bill Granger’s website
Lea Linster’s website

Honey, honey, honey. Having spend every other day with my grand parents as a child, I always took it for granted that a full jar of delicious honey was readily available at our breakfast table. My grandparents always preferred the kind that had that natural creamy, light color and opaque texture and came from an acquainted beekeeper. To be honest, back then I didn’t touch those jars at all. As a kid my hands usually reached out for the golden, more liquid and transparent “Lagnese” honey (a brand) – my grandma could beg as much as she wanted to, I wouldn’t touch her “tenacious stuff” with a ten foot pole. Maybe you already see a pattern… Of course, today, I love this rather robust, more white/beige than golden, creamy honey – it’s best when it comes directly from the producer.

The happier I was when I discovered the Honigstüberl (honey snuggery?) which is located right down at Viktualienmarkt and carries all sorts of honey and honey related products. Across several shelves you can find honey in virtually all shapes and forms – small jars, which are great for sampling, as well as their XXL siblings. On my first visit I tried to describe to the owners what I was looking for and they recommended dandelion honey, which became a standard ever since.

Fortunately, this month’s installment of Sugar High Fridays SHF#10: Oh Honey, You Shouldn’t Have!, hosted by Nic over at bakingsheet, gave me the opportunity to revisit Honigstüberl and immerse again in the multitude of honey variations and their distinctive flavors.

In general Oliver and I prefer honey straight from the jar either on toast, on a fresh roll (German Brötchen/Semmel) or with Greek yoghurt and roasted nuts for breakfast. To expand our horizon on the broad variety of honeys we left with no less than 7 jars of honey, including cinnamon, pine nut, lavender, coconut, sunflower, strawberry and pistachio flavors – sounds like a lot, but they’ll be gone by the time the next post is up, since we chose the tiniest size of available jars. Our favorite is the pine nut honey which has a very smooth texture, a subtle nutty taste and great dark auburn color. The least tasty ones where the strawberry and pistachio honey (both produced in Sicily), simply too sweet. The coconut honey was a major letdown, too, it felt like biting on sugar crystals – it had a really strange texture. A little treat we discovered right on the counter, honey flavored gummy bears. Even their shape was different, one piece always meant a couple of gummy bears holding hands (or paws). A few hours later when I asked Oliver about the gummy bears, his only excuse was, “they were so good and it was just a small bag” – he basically inhaled them.

We had also asked for eatable honeycomb, but what we were offered wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. It had way too much wax all over it. Not being overly convincing, the store owner assured us that it was perfectly safe to eat it, too. We didn’t buy it, and neither the waxy honeycombs.

Back home we experimented a bit with roasted figs topped with ricotta, alternatively with Greek yogurt, pine nut honey and ground roasted pecan nuts on top – very yummy, but wouldn’t necessarily qualify as a recipe. So in essence with all the honey at our disposal we’re looking very much forward to the round-up which I’m sure will bestow us with a plethora of wonderful recipes and options to try out.

I’m so sick of this weather! I’ve had it – Gosh, it’s been raining for ages! I don’t even rush out anymore to grab lunch at the coffee shop just around the corner without being fully equipped – well, an oversized umbrella that is. Undoubtedly, a clear indication of too much rain – the south of Bavaria and parts of Austria are already having troubles with flood water. Hey, it’s enough! Take this miserable weather, add a rather stressful day at work and a pinch of annoying customers – happiness here we come. To top it off, my iPod ran out of power during my tram-ride home. Just great. Listening to the people around me, I realized I was sitting next to an American family. The parents probably in their 50s, the three daughters somewhere late teens, early twenties I’d guess. Despite the ugly weather and rain, they really enjoyed the tram ride, wowing at almost each and every building we came by. My mood improved with every “Oh look at that!“, they were so charming. As the tram got more and more empty, they started changing seats every 30 seconds or so, to get the best view on the German Museum on the right, the “Müllersches Volksbad” on the left and the “Gasteig” back on the right… “Wow“… “Gorgeous“… “Wow“. My hidden smile grew bigger and bigger, I almost started giggling, their happy-go-lucky enthusiasm was highly contagious!

Entering our apartment house, I first ran into R., who lives in the apartment to our right, having a little chat about us taking care of their plants while they’re away on vacation. Gossiping about a new restaurant on our block, happy neighbor C. from upstairs joins us. The subject quickly changes to the (soon to take place) annual “house (food) festivity” – and there joins neighbor M. By now we’re four people in the hallway chatting away – we could nearly start a party – and I haven’t even reached our apartment yet. That’s what I really like about this house, in fact it’s the main reason that keeps us from looking for a bigger apartment – everyone here is so open and enjoyable.

Then M. finally makes my day: She returns the empty marmalade glass of the homemade marmelade I brought them last week. Ok, not a big deal, but it is the gesture & thought that counts. Most times, these glasses never find their way back home. What do they do with them, make their own marmalade or just toss them? My gut feel tells me, it is more the latter… Anyway, back to M. She asked me, if I was curious to meet a rather rare and unknown herb. What a question! Of course :) What she brought to light and introduced me to was a huge plant of pineapple sage. She told me to rub the leaves between my fingers and smell them. Hey, this is amazing! Virtual pineapples traveling incognito as herbs! Before I can say anything, she cuts down some branches and hands them to me. Next thing I remember is myself being sucked into cyberspace and googling away for more information on pineapple sage. How could I have missed out on such a flavorful herb?

Some tidbits of info I found included..: Pinapple sage is to be found especially in Mexico and Guatemala, their leaves are pineapple-scented and therefore especially used in various sweet food combinations, like e.g. yoghurt, fruit salads or cold drinks. Even their red flowers (late summer till autumn) are edible. And I accidentally discovered further interesting herbs I have never heard before, like banana mint or peach sage… I never knew! My only problem right now: What to do with this wonderfully scented herb!?