Stories – Coffee, Cows & Robots

When Life Gives You Lemons…

…then you are probably in an amazingly beautiful place called Menton!

When I visited Menton for the first time in 2020 (when Covid19 gave us a short, deceivingly hopeful-looking break), I was positively mesmerised. The place is simply beautiful! The pastel colours everywhere, the palm trees, the happy people, the sunny blue sky and landscape…I fell in love immediately.

It reminded me a bit of the first time I ever visited a “proper” beach. As I grew up in Hamburg, most of my childhood I would visit the Northern beaches in Germany, and for the longest time I thought, beaches are quite cold and windy places, with funny chairs everywhere, where spiders or other bugs could safely hide. Once I went on a pre-school trip to the German Island Föhr, where it was raining the whole trip, so we had to bundle up with raincoats and rain boots and play in the cold, wet sand. I delegated the task of making sand castles to my classmates, which apparently displeased the teacher (though I don’t remember her touching the sand, either!).

My memory of beaches in Germany.¹picture from https://www.schoensten-orte.de/timmendorfer-strand-urlaub-an-der-ostseekueste/

To be fair, I have of course had many fun times as a child, no matter how cold the water, because even German sand can be turned into cool shapes. Also, my parents would usually treat me for lemony ice-cream, which made my day.

But I distinctly remember the time, around age 9 or 10, when I went on my first vacation to the Côte d’Azure, with my aunt, uncle and cousins. I remember arriving in Saint Tropez, sunny blue sky, palm trees everywhere, putting my feet in the water, and thinking: Arnaque! (French for “I have been scammed with a fake beach all these years!”)

I believe around that time I also developed a strong sensation of clearly having been born in the wrong place. Or of thinking, humanity in general had made a mistake, because why would anybody live in the North, when one can live in such a beautiful, colourful, sunny place?

Although I have not set foot on a German beach in over a decade, arriving 20 years later in Menton made me remember, why I thought this.

Road Trip

Since the Covid situation was looking reasonable, but unstable at the time, my boyfriend and I decided to take the car and drive from Switzerland to the South of France. The trip itself was extremely beautiful, as we passed through the Swiss mountains, and through parts of Italy, where we got gorgeous views of Lake Como in Lombardia, Tuscan-looking landscapes in Southern Lombardia, and the Coast of Liguria, home of the famous Cinque Terre (which is still on our bucket list!).

Arriving in Nice

We first arrived in Nice, where we stayed in a holiday apartment with an incredible view. Nice is a vibrant city in the French Côte d’Azur and seventh biggest city of France. What I love about Nice is the big-city feeling mixed with the laid-backness of the South. When you go for a walk around the streets, you often discover unexpected gems, little cafés or shops, filled with bright patterns and colours.

Angea Les Macarons in Nice: Macarons filled with ice cream. Need I say more?

What I don’t love about Nice is anything on wheels. Driving in Nice is just a disaster. The worst is, YOU are the thing that is wrong in that traffic, because likely you are trying to follow rules, and that just doesn’t work there. People in Nice seem to have some internal agreement on how to collectively understand the chaos. Scooters slalom and zigzag through traffic, there is no sense of priority, all fend for themselves.

But well, I guess that’s a less charming side-effect of the otherwise charming city. Afterwards, you can just go to Hobo Café in Nice: extremely good coffee, extremely good Sangria, extremely handsome waiters, makes up for all the traffic in the world.

Happy Diego and his Sangria. Although he didn’t like so much the handsome waiter.

Menton

Only 30 minutes by car east along the coast, after passing through Monaco, at the border of Italy, there lies beautiful Menton, the city of lemons. Known for their yearly Fête du Citron (lemon festival) in February, this city is so bright and happy, I could not help but walk around the whole day smiling.

You can easily see the old town and harbour in one afternoon, which means you can take some time to enjoy the place and the sheer vibrance of the houses.

As Menton is in a perfect geographic location to cultivate lemons, they are extremely juicy and fragrant, and therefore the jewel of the Côte d’Azur. Lemons are everywhere in this city, in desserts, in oils and soaps, posters, even the Menton Flag has lemons in it.

Speaking of desserts – one of the best desserts to make with lemons is the Tarte Meringuée au Citron and that is just what I did, when I got home from this trip. If you would like to get a bit of Menton feel at home, check out my recipe. You will have a smile on your face once you eat it, like us the whole time we were visiting the Côte d’Azur!

Got any recommendations for things to see/eat/drink? Leave a comment below, I will make sure to try during my next visit (hopefully in 2021!)

Please, Sir, Can I Have some Smørrebrød.

For my 30th birthday, mid-October 2019, my wonderful boyfriend took me on a surprise trip to Copenhagen, a city that had been on our bucket list to visit.

The trip started with the pilot announcing after 30 minutes of flight, that we have to return to the departure airport, because of “a funny smell” in the back of the plane. I was entirely certain, of course, that we were going to die — the smell was clearly an indication that some highly essential fluid was leaking in gas-form, or that some new form of terrorist attack involving toxic gases was in process.

We ended up landing back in Basel, Switzerland, and it was not entirely re-assuring to see a crew of security personell and fire fighters running towards the plane (at that point I was entirely sure it was going to explode). I should perhaps mention that my boyfriend had been watching a flight crash series for weeks before this trip (thank you, honey!), which had added extra fuel to my generally well-developed imagination regarding potential causes of death.

In the end, we arrived safe and sound (thanks to a replacement plane, because the first one surely exploded), in rainy Copenhagen.

Colourful Copenhagen (when the sun is out that is)

As per usual, we started our sightseeing via breakfasts and coffees. I personally love the Scandinavian breakfast style, which reminds me of my childhood in Hamburg. Lots of dark breads, topped with meats, cheeses and eggs (also known as Smørrebrød). Good and hearty stuff, your bones have to weather the year-long cold and rain afterall.

Mind you, the prices are Switzerland-compatible, so we needed to keep our coffee and breakfast splurges in check. I didn’t think it was possible to beat the breakfast bills we have seen in Zurich, with 5+ CHFs charged for a simple cup of coffee, but Copenhagen was right up the same alley. Craziest of all were prices for alcohol — I believe Copenhagen managed to beat Zurich in that.

“I can see Sweden from here!”

After day 2 of exploring Copenhagen and paying multiple arms and a legs for coffee, we thought “Hm, Sweden is just a bridge-crossing away, what if their coffee only costs an arm there?”

Travel- and coffee-enthusiastic as we are, the next day, we took an early-morning train to Lund, a small and quaint town, home to one of the oldest universities of Scandinavia, Lund University, and presumably the oldest town in Sweden (in fact, archeologist date it back to 990¹ https://kulturportallund.se/en/notes-to-the-history-of-lund/),

At 9am we arrived and took a beautiful fall stroll around town, visiting the University area and Botanical Gardens. When we enthusiastically entered a beautiful little café, called “Love Coffee Roasters,” to compare prices to Denmark, we got a heart attack, though. It appeared at first, that we would not only have to pay an arm and a leg, but also a liver for the coffee. Fortunately, we then realised that the Swedish and Danish crown are not exactly the same currency and 45 Swedish crowns are roughly the equivalent of 33 Danish crowns. Or 5 CHFs. Phew, just another arm-and-leg situation, no livers involved!

Time for some Fisksoppa

After that we started to look for lunch options. A quick Google Maps search showed us the Market Hall in the center of Lund, where we found a promising-looking place called Malmstens Fisk & Kök.

Malmsten Fisksoppa – I know, the picture will not receive an award for instagrammability, I am still learning.

We saw many people eating an orange-ish looking soup, which seemed to fill the air with a decadent scent. The waitress informed us, this was the “Malmsten Fisksoppa.”

We ordered it and wanted to cry (no, really), it was that delicious. Imagine an immaculately successful fusion of a Bouillabaisse and Fish Curry. Add to that freshly made, warm bread and butter, which, as the waitress informed us, we could serve ourselves, unlimited! We wanted to cry even more.

I vowed that day to try to make this soup at home and after several trials, I succeeded to copy it! I wish I could capture smell and taste in words, but trust me, this soup is amazing. If you would like to try, check out my recipe.

And if you are ever in Lund, don’t forget to stop by Malmstens Fisk & Kök!

Malmstens Fisk & Kök website. Wouldn’t you trust him to make a badass soup? I would.

Gazpacho 2.0

I believe I have a funny way of travelling. See, some people mark monuments or historical or touristy sights on their Google map and then plan breaks in between to find something to eat. We do the opposite. We mark places to eat and drink coffee on our map and then plan breaks to find something to look at.

Mjam, Taberna Las Beatillas. Oh look, next to it is a historical landmark!

I actually spent some time on Wikipedia to try to see, if I am a bit weird, or if there is other people like me. Then I thought, is the fact that I am looking up if there is a category for me in itself something weird? After reading about foodies and culinary tourists and food nomads, I came to the conclusion that it must be a Millenial kind of thing. I mean both, the travelling and the searching Wikipedia for a sense of belonging. Don’t judge, it’s tough being a Millenial.¹JP explains how tough it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=00FDR1E0zvE&ab_channel=AwakenWithJP

In conclusion: I make plans around food. Going to visit Cordóba in Andalusia on a road trip to Spain in 2019 was one of those plans.

Earlier that year on a long weekend trip to Madrid, I had discovered an amazing cold summer soup, a Gazpacho 2.0 really (an Andalusian may kill me for saying this). It is called the Salmorejo Cordobés. How to describe it? It is like the smoothest pureness of tomatoe purée you could ever imagine. Slightly sweet, slightly tangy, extremely refreshing, and actually quite filling (it’s basically tomatoes, bread and oil, with a bit of garlic, puréed until reaching heavenly smooth delight). Watch me eat it in the below picture and you get the idea of how amazing this stuff tastes.

Salmorejo and Gazpacho, in all its shades!

Do you see how the crackers just sit in there? It is THAT thick, THAT creamy, THAT amazing. As you can see, it is usually topped with some chopped eggs and Jamón, which is the cherry on the cake. Or frosting. Or both.

So, you see why I had to go to its origin.

The origin happens to be a lovely and colourful Andalusian city, which does not have a healthy relationship with Google Maps. To reach the hotel, Google leads one through the smallest of roads (and I did not have the smallest of cars), packed with Pedestrians, until finally a Taxi driver stopped me and asked what in the world I am doing. Upon explaining, he said “Google Maps? No. No coche aquí. Google no funciona aquí!”

(I still wonder why HE was there, if no car was supposed to be there).

The entrance of the parking garage of the hotel was so steep that upon entering, the car ended up stuck in the middle. I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but let me tell you, getting stuck with a car is one thing, getting stuck in the middle of a small pedestrian road with lots of Spanish folks staring, laughing and shaking their head at the Swiss tourist, is a very stressful experience.

The people from the hotel ended up coming to the rescue, explaining that there is a technique to enter the garage, by which you have to drive as much as possible to the left side of the entrance, which was apparently the only place where the architects designed it at the correct steepness, and then slowly slalom down (Duh! Such ignorant Swiss I am, thinking all garages have been designed to allow cars to actually enter them!). They then helped push the car out of its stuck-ness, and luckily it worked, because I don’t believe a towing truck could have made it anywhere near us.

After this adventurous first day, I was ready to admire the city, boasting with beautiful Moorish architecture, and most notably the Mezquita, originally a Mosque, now a cathedral, a gem in Spanish historical monuments and a UNESCO world heritage site.

Also, there is an excellent coffee shop next to it, the “Maddow Coffee Shop”

The city also has a thing for blue flowerpots (they are everywhere, though I never found out why). It makes sense that such a beautiful, colourful and sunny place would produce a beautiful, colourful and sunny soup.

Of course, I needed to reproduce this soup at home. For quite some time, I did not dare, because I thought something this amazing must require the most amazing tomatoes Europe has to offer, which could only be found in Spain (and definitely not in Switzerland, where most Southeners complain at the blandness of fruit and veggies). However, one day I gave it a try and I am glad I did. Not to dismiss the value of a good tomato — if you can get your hands on the freshest, sweetest, juiciest tomato, by all means, buy those, or better yet, grow those, it will be all the better. However, I regularly make Salmorejo at home with Swiss tomatoes and excellent Spanish olive oil, and let me tell you, it’s like bringing a bit of Spain into your kitchen. If you would like to try yourself, check out my recipe.

And if you are ever in that corner of Andalusia, make sure to visit Cordoba (preferably with a smart car or scooter, and definitely not with a BMW) and have an extra bowl of Salmoréjo for me! My suggestion for an excellent bowl: Taberna La Montillana.²https://www.tabernalamontillana.com/ And another excellent address for other types of Spanish food: Taberna Las Beatillas.³http://tabernabeatillas.com/