Weimar and Anna Amalia, Germany – August 2013

Weimar….who has ever been to Weimar I wonder ? Well let me tell you. Those who have not been to Weimar have missed out on a pretty little spot in the former East Germany.

Goethe and Schiller share history here, as well as lots of other stuff from the German history books. But I shall not bore you with that. But the town is full of museums and buildings that takes you all the way back to those glory days in German history.

We were on our way back from Leipzig having dropped the kids at grandma and grandpa.

We had chosen the most central hotel, a hotel that has had guests ranging from Hitler to Barack Obama. Despite the placement on the town square and the famous history of the Hotel Elephant, it was quite affordable and the staff on it 5 star rating level, even beyond that. VERY VERY friendly and attentive. I give the hotel my highest recommendations and would love to be back one sweet day.

Here is some pictures from the city center.

Hotel Elephant, good enough for a president, good enough for us.

Two rock stars…

A great little band of university students…

Funny thing here…the lyric to their song fit the mood of the missus to 100% – So we were somehow schocked and wondered if they had written the song for her for that day. We bought the cd instantly and wish them all the luck in the world.

A corner of the town square

Weimar is full of small bars, we had a horrible gin/tonic just around where the above picture is taken, lots of small cafe´s lots of shoe shops etc.

Pretty woman – walking down the street

Music Family

A funny shop with an even more funny shop-keeper.

In case you forgot dear Astrid. This picture contains something that is on my wishing list for Christmas.

So, plenty to see before we went back to the hotel, freshened us up and hit the bar before the evenings dinner at Anna Amalia, a one star michelin restaurant inside the hotel.

Anna Amalia

So, without knowing – no kidding – I was pretty unprepared for once. We had booked the table at the in-house restaurant. I actually did not know it had a star, not until in the middle of the dinner when I inquired the friendly maitre why they had not. That was funny.

Anyway, before dinner I told the friendly barkeeper to prepare two gin/tonics one for me and one for the prettiest bride she would ever see. And minutes after Astrid came down looking like a million.

The missus

The gluten aspect of the missus, gave room for the only flaw of the evening, because I had duly noted it when booking, but still only a normal – but great bread selection hit the table.

Bread

The error was soon corrected with apologies, and apart from that the evening was perfect. The beautiful – well outstanding terrasse with lots of lit candles gave room for a day and an evening to be remembered.

Unfortunately, for you foodies – the lights – the candles gave only room for 2 more shots. It was simply too dark, but on such a romantic evening, I did not give a damn. It was the night before our wedding anniversary, and I just had one of the best days of my life –  I know, I´m an old romantic.

Here they come…

Great little amuse

The missus…

My conclusion:

The soft rain started to fall, we both each got a blanket to warm us. Great food, great wine and the mood of the evening made this one of the best evenings of my life. I shall keep it private, But today, on this day, the missus gave me the biggest gift I could have ever hoped for. So big was the surprice – that I think I was in schock for quite a while or still is. I thank you dear Astrid for the gift. I hope I can give it back to you somehow in the years to come.

I cannot wait to get back to Anna Amalia and Weimar – rather sooner than later. And next time maybe focus a bit more on the food.

My rating for this visit to Anna Amalia: Food 8p (10), service 4.5p (5), ambience 5p (5), 17.5p (20).

Sp -if you have the chance – go visit Weimar. It´s worth a tour.

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Falco, Leipzig – 16 August 2013

My friends will know that the last few months brought me many ups and downs. In some cases too many for a lifetime. I think only last month I made the missus a list of my best moments of the last three moments. Only two restaurants made the list of around 30 personal emotional highlights. One restaurant in Weimar, I shall get back to that one later – and our new favourite dining place on this earth – Falco. Having been here only once before, expectations were sky high. Peter Maria Schnurr is the essence of a rock´n´roll chef and what this blog is all about. Enjoy life NOW. Keep on dreaming. Keep a light in your heart and in your  life. Peter just wanna see you smile.

This time at Falco we were spoiled with a stunning menu, outstanding service a funny and entertaining Peter Maria Schnurr and had such a GREAT evening with much needed laugther and extravagance on all levels.

Let me set the scene. We had just had 1 week of holiday, meaning – our beautiful boys spend 1 week with their grandma and grandpa. Leaving us a week to endulge in time. Lots of much needed time. However, it was great to be back in Leipzig to pick them up and to see that they actually missed us. However, this last evening was to be spend without them.

The Boys were back in town.

Or more precisely we were back in town to pick them up. We enjoyed the day with a walk around Leipzig and a trip to the huge Völkerschlachtdenkmal.

Impressive with lots of steps inside to be conquered.

Back to Falco…

And the stunning view from Falco over Leipzig.

Inside the restaurant we were greeted as old friends by maitre Oliver Kraft, and sommelier Christian Wilhelm. Together with the rest of the staff they are as good as it gets. And make sure all dishes are explained, questions are being answered and chit chat delivered in a balanced and nice way. And on a pleasant down-to-earth way that we prefer. Rock´n´roll.

Its been a while since the dinner took place and some details has slipped my mind since. Some plates were very very hard to shoot, since the glazing of some newly purchased and very exclusive plates did not work well with my camera.

But I shall give you some highlights.

The ever so light and passionate kitchen of Peter Maria Schnurr

The menu for the missus was prepared and printed with focus on the gluten issue etc.

Great bread….

One of the best looking and tasting amuses EVER !

Amuse 2

Amuse 3

Astrid had this without the lardon, and let me just say, the lardon carried the dish.

Amuse 4 – a masterpiece

All four amuses outstanding, the little funny looking thing here above, was tuna with a GREAT combination of tastes. Explosion of simplicity and good taste. 10p for the amuses

And then the sun went down and the moon came up.

Corréze veal, tartare and sweetbread

Great presentation, simplicity and respect for the tastes with no disturbing elements but also no kick factor. 9p

A beauty for the missus

A little bit of everything – Miso coconut hummus, H2O melon, truffels and what do I know. Great 10p

Crab !!!

No, no crab, but crab. GREAT dish. 10p

Walking mountain Trout

I do not like the plate. And it was almost impossible to shoot. The white glazing that looks likes a sauce disturbs the picture. They were very proud of these one of a kind plates. But – what they should be proud of was the delicate trout and the stunning dish. I think it was the best dish the missus has had this year. She was VERY impressed. 10p

Leipzig by night…

Porc

I can say many things about this dish. But if the missus might have had her dream of a dish. Well so did I. Best meat ever. Reminded me of the first time I had lamb at Lameloise. It melted on your tongue. It was stunning and worth a trip to Leipzig alone. I love you Peter Maria Schnurr or whoever did this. 10p is an understatement. You had to be there to understand.

A few other dishes hit the table during the dinner, but I am not happy with the photos. The quality of the dishes were equal to what is shown here anyway. Off to the sweets.

A game of petanque maybe ?

Eatable of course. Including the “sand”.

What followed this time around at Falco was simply the funniest but also great and good working desserts we have ever had. The Petanque above was just a small warm up.

Jamaica with Jamaica rhytms…

I got to taste this as well and my own set of mp3 player etc. A friend of Peter – Matthias Tanzmann had created/chosen the funky music to go with the next two couple of desserts for the missus. It was not rock´n´roll…but wauw, what a great way of being innovative, and surprice your guests. We loved it. The rhum, mango and coconut did the rest.

Round two of that Coconut Groove

Applause, 10p for the two.

My dessert, with a rubbish photo was the only flaw of the evening. I did not care too much about it, was happy to have tried Astrid´s 🙂 Inside my dessert was as I have seen before baby sweet corn. I do not get or like that lol.

Anyway, last off was another stunner

Hehehe….

A refreshing, tonic creation to finish of a great menu. Funny thing is – they cannot get the Sweppes Tonic cans in Leipzig so they had to go for a Fanta cans.  We salute you for this dish and promise to ship some tonic cans this week – deal ? Great finish 10p

I think a few more sweets hit the table, but we were too full to bother and maybe even rerejected lol.

My conclusion and rating for this visit.

I shall make this one short and simple. Peter Maria Schnurr, Oliver Kraft, Christian Wilhem, Kathleen and all the staff provides all we want in a restaurant. It is just so unbelieveable good and surpricing. This time around we felt like old friends coming back. It was like hitting harbour after a deadly storm. We felt warm and cozy and were spoiled with attention and outstanding food. There is no way that this evening was not one of the best we have ever had in a restaurant. It was out of this world. We thank you from the botttom of our hearts for making this one a night to remember.

So what you expect folks. . TOP score on all levels. 20/20 Points.

I shall finish with some shots from after service. Last time I got to write on a tile in the kitchen. This time we had an upgrade and were allowed to write in the entrance hall. On the wall. We wrote in Danish. We love you Peter Maria Schnurr…..rock on.

Peter and the missus !

After dinner talk….

My tile from last year..

Big smiles…

I shall finish this overdue review with a little reflection.

You guys out there. Including the whole staff at Falco. Keep on dreaming. Open up your heart. Keep a light burning. Then everything will turn out well.

To all at Falco, we love you.

To Astrid, I love you and thank you for the many outstanding moments we shared so far. I hope for many more to come.

To my boys, it was great to have a week without you, it is even better to have you back. You light up our lives.

Now give this song your attention for the next 5 min or so. This ones for you loved ones…