Can you believe it - last weekend is only just gone, and I am already writing about it! Usually, it takes me one, two or more weeks to catch up on my blog with what I've been doing, but not this time.
And the headline of today's post? No, of course I wasn't really in China. And it has nothing to do with the Olympics (I am so NOT interested - sorry!). But you'll see what I mean in a minute.
First, let me go back to an after-work walk with my sister last Thursday, which was the mildest day of the week at about 10C. We walked for almost exactly two hours, covering the palace grounds and the deer park. By the time we were on our way back, sunset showed its most glorious colours, even from where we were between buildings and behind the high fence that separates the railway from the houses:
Saturday was sunny and windswept, and I had a particular path in mind where I'd not walked in years. That path leads across the fields from Ludwigsburg's suburb Eglosheim to Freiberg, and to the China House.
If you don't know that it is there, it is quite a surprise to suddenly come across this authentic China house and garden at the outskirts of a rather ordinary small town in southern Germany. It was prepared in Beijing and built by 30 Chinese workmen right on Freiberg's doorstep.
I am not going to bore you with the unpleasant details of bankruptcy and changing hands, but nowadays the place is owned and run by a man who aims to keep the house and garden going as a restaurant/beer garden/culture and events center/design furniture store/gallery.
Two years into the pandemic, it looks boarded up, but I am not sure about that; could be that we were just there at the wrong time. A high wall surrounds the house and garden, and when O.K. lifted his mobile phone to take pictures from above the wall, an alarm was triggered. But nothing more happened, and we walked on, downwards to the river and into Freiberg itself.
Last time I'd been down here was almost two years ago with my sister. You can compare pictures from that day and find more information about Freiberg, the church (Amandus) and the old castle in the 2020 post.
It was a really pleasant walk there and back last Saturday, not very strenuous. But after 15 km and with nothing to eat or drink since breakfast, I was glad to be home and sit down for coffee and cake.
Sunday was a rather different story weather-wise: It was grey and dismal, very windy and threatening to rain. We still braved the cold wind and went for a short run on the fields. The rain and forceful gales arrived in the afternoon, increasing in strength by the minute. Time for comfort food!
Kässpätzle are great for a cold, stormy evening in winter, with the oven keeping the kitchen cosy and the warm food filling your tummy. You can see how they are made in this old post of mine; I now make them without the ham (not traditionally part of it) and make a different cheese and cream mix.
Anyway, they came out nicely, and it was good to know O.K. was not going to starve on his 150 km drive back home an hour or so later. He did not have an easy drive through the storm and rain; in parts, the water came down in buckets and made it hard to see anything - sounds dangerous on the motorway, doesn't it! But much to my (and his) relief, O.K. made it home alright. The storm caused quite a lot of damage; not in my place or his, but generally in the area, and we are glad to have been so lucky.
Well, I shall be damned, Meike. Looked at your previous recipe: In the oven? Never seen a concoction like that called "Kaesespaetzle". Auflauf more like it, don't you think? A riff on Kaese Fondue comes to mind (in your defense). Or maybe you are pining for Yorkshire, and a good old Macaroni Cheese bubbling away in the oven.
ReplyDeleteSpaetzle were cooked, drained, mixed with butter and copious amounts of cheese (Emmenthaler plus, sometimes, Gruyere) and that was that. When my mother felt in the mood we had fried onion on top. The luxury of it! I myself also add Pancetta cubes or Speck (fried) to keep carnivores happy. Other than that, yes, Spaetzle do go brilliantly with anything gravy like a meat stew (minus the cheese I hasten to add).
U
When I want to, I can be quite the Schwäbische Hausfrau, Ursula. And Kässpätzle ARE as schwäbisch as you can get, and they ARE made in the oven, like any good old Auflauf.
DeleteLinsen & Spätzle are another favourite here; we last had it for my sister's birthday on Jan. 10. Spätzle mit Soß are also brilliant, as are Kartoffelschnitz & Spatzen (also sometimes called Gaisburger Marsch).
You are right in saying that I am pining for Yorkshire. My last visit was in 2019. I miss family, friends and places there.
Isn't there a German word for being alone in the woods?
DeleteI wonder whether you pine for Yorkshire when you are out walking or alone in your apartment in the evening?
Is Sehnsucht the right word for longing or yearning?
A Chinese house, on the outskirts of a small town in southern Germany, is like the start of a good story.
In the film Wonder Boys, Michael Doulglas will begin a sentence like that, then get one of his writing students to begin a narrative which runs and runs.
In the Cotswold village of Winchcombe there was an exquisite tearoom run by a Japanese family, now closed.
There is a quiet sense of mystery when I walk Winchcombe's streets on a midweek afternoon, thinking that I am a long way from Glasgow now home to many Japanese and Chinese students.
Jack
Sehnsucht is indeed the right word for longing or yearning. As for being alone in the woods, I can't think of any term for that specific situation; loneliness as such is called Einsamkeit (and is not necessarily a bad thing).
DeleteWhen I am out walking, my mind is usually very much in the here and now, especially after the first half hour or so. That first half hour can be spent musing on the tasks of the day, past or future.
Alone in my flat, I read, write, play, watch TV and talk to O.K. on the phone; not much pining going on then :-)
Die Waldeinsamkeit: More a feeling than a place?
DeleteIch floh in die grune Waldeinsamkeit.
I fled into the green Woodland ... ?
We have no idiom in English, unless I can find an equivalent in Shakespeare.
And the German word is quite different from the opening of La Commedia Divina, where Dante in the middle of the journey of life, finds himself in a deep wood.
No pleasing solitude here. This is midlife crisis.
I am not trying to pick your brains, an infelicitous expression.
Saul Bellow said Edmund Wilson only spent time with him if he wanted to check a word in Hebrew, otherwise the learned critic had not much time for Berllow.
JH
Waldeinsamkeit would literally be woodland loneliness, but the German term is one that you don't see often apart from in older poetry and/or song books.
DeletePeople can feel ill at ease in the woods, scared of what for them is unfamiliar territory. Others embrace it (sometimes literally) and love what appears as peace and quiet (when really there are countless battles for survival going on all the time), and the air that is so much better for our lungs than what we breathe in the city.
The China house does look both intriguing and somewhat "out of place" all in one :) (I notice there are parasols at the tables outside, one would think that if they were closed for a longer period of time they'd have taken those in?)
ReplyDeleteThat's what we thought, Monica; it looks like the beer garden would still be open at a more favourable time of year. According to their website, they ARE open for business, just not when we were there - on the other hand, the "events" section on the website was last updated in 2019...
DeleteI visited China when my middle son got married to a woman from China. It was my first international trip and it was amazing! We toured for 12 days and saw Shanghai, Beijing, Xian. I even got to walk on the Great Wall. You and OK should go there if you ever get the chance!
ReplyDeleteChina is a very different world from ours, isn't it, and I don't doubt it is well worth a trip. But long flights have been putting me off such faraway destinations for many years now, and my aversity to long trips has only grown during the pandemic. I won't say it will never happen, but it is highly unlikely.
DeleteThe China house is lovely and hopefully will reopen. Fascinated by the dish you made, looks quite time consuming. Sounds a tasty comfort food.
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly that, Cathy, tasty comfort food. And it is quickly made, really; the Spätzle take about 10-15 minutes to make, and while they are in the oven for half an hour (or more, depending on how golden-brown you want the top to be), the pot etc. can be washed, the lettuce prepared and the table laid.
Delete