Ever since my trip to the Faroe Islands in May 2008, I have become a big fan of this pristine location in the North Atlantic Sea.

One of my facebook friends, Tollakur Hansen, is an awesome photographer and regularly publishes his photos on facebook.

Quoted from the Faroe Islands Tourist Guide 2011:

Take a deep breath ! Fill your lungs ! Let them open all their folds and leaves and cavities, and from all directions the clean air of the sea comes flowing towards you, into you and through you.
Suddenly the dusty continents of the earth are far away; right now it’s only the winds and the seas and you.

The Faroe Islands

A few days ago, I had to go to the pharmacy to get our son’s prescription filled.

I was surprised when the pharmaceutical assistant pointed out the issue date. It had been posted by error for 01 July when the current date was 02 September. She went on to explain she could not fill the prescription as is. Only if I paid in cash, I could take home the medication. I dished out € 469,90, picked up the prescription, and called the doctor’s office.

After I briefly explained the situation and asked for a correct prescription to be sent by mail, I heard the doctor’s assistant saying, “OK.”. I waited two more seconds to hear a simple “Tut mir leid”, but instead she responded with, “Yes, we will mail it to you”. And the receiver was slammed down.

I received the correct prescription in today’s mail and have to return to the pharmacy once more to reclaim the funds.

They must have had some office problems, obviously. But friendly customer service and the usage of a simple apology are not on their maintenance list.

Sorry to have bothered you, Frau Naumann.

After three years, five e-mails and one phone call from Canada, I finally sat down to write up the recipe for my hometown area Rouladen.

I had promised my best Korean friend residing in Canada a copy of my recipe for three years. Well, taking photos of the process, organizing my thoughts and remembering to do it, was always in the back of my mind, slumbering on the back burner.

I was finally prompted to clean up my act when she called me a few days ago, again mentioning the recipe.

Since this was such a strenuous act (not, it took me twenty minutes to write it up), I reckoned I might as well put it on my blog for future reference.

German Rouladen

Ingredients:

thinly sliced beef (any cut is OK, because they steam for a long time)

chopped onions

thinly sliced smoked streaky bacon (called Dörrfleisch in Hesse, Bauchspeck in Bavaria)

ketchup, mustard (optional)

Directions:

1. Add some ketchup to the flat beef cut (see Roulade in the front).

2. Then cover beef with strips of smoked bacon and chopped onions (see Roulade in the back).

3. Roll the meat, starting from the narrower end.

4. Tie with a typical Rouladen Nadel (see pin). If none available, you can also use old-fashioned thread. Be sure to remove this before serving.

5. Brown Rouladen in the frying pan before adding them to the steam cooker (Mine is so old, I don’t know if there is much pressure left, so any cooking pot might do).

German Rouladen

6. Cover with water. Add two bay leaves, some peppercorns and cloves (two or three each).

7. Let steam at medium heat – I have it on 5 (scale 1-10) for about 90 – 120 minutes.

8. Meat should be really tender when you test it with a fork.

 Recipe for gravy

1.  Use the meat broth instead of water for your gravy making.

2.  Prepare your store-bought gravy based on the directions.  Then before serving, add some ketchup, sugar (1 tbsp for 1/2 l of gravy) and a bit of German Maggi (soy sauce will do, too).

Best served with potato dumplings and red cabbage.

Option: Curly noodles also do fine, but then serve salad on the side.

Based on our local paper, Blitz Tip, parking rates in Frankfurt (a.k.a. Mainhattan) are equal to those in Manhattan, New York City.

This statement was worth a challenge. Granted, parking in Frankfurt is not so cheap at an average rate of 8 euro a day, or 2,50 euro an hour. But charges in Manhattan had to be higher than in Mainhattan.

I found my answer on Colliers International website in the article Parking Rates Broadly Up – Worldwide.

Its annual survey of parking rates found, with the exception of the United States, that the cost of parking for a day or a month has generally increased over the past 12 months.

On a monthly basis and quoted in US Dollars, London city and London West End occupied the top two positions, followed by Zurich in third place. The top 10 list was completed by Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome, Perth, Geneva, Sydney, and Oslo.

New York – Midtown ranked 17th, New York – Downtown ranked 18th, and

Frankfurt ranked 43rd in this chart.

In a post from a couple of years ago, I had written about growing strawberries in a flower box on the balcony.

The strawberries, purchased five years ago, were initially meant for my daughter to observe their growth and learn that edible things do not only come from the supermarket.

I expected the plants to die after the first winter. But low and behold, they survived a rather cold winter, unprotected in a flower box.

Now in their sixth year, they have decided to have off-spring.

Strawberry runners growing on the balcony

The newly-received runners are ready to be detached and planted now.

Strawberry runners with roots and crown

My brother, interested in organic fruit, already placed his first order for the young batch. Another reason which prompted me to write about this was the following article:

... six months ago, a dangerous ingredient got added to the production chain for this previously nutritious and delicious snack: Methyl iodide. Methyl iodide is a cancer-causing chemical that is linked to thyroid toxicity, and miscarriages. [1] This dangerous chemical was recently approved for use in California agriculture. That’s terrible news nationwide because California produces 80% of the nation’s strawberries.[2]

It’s time to take methyl iodide out of California’s farms and out of our strawberries before any more of this dangerous chemical is used.

*Tell the California Governor that we want safer strawberries for our families!  http://action.momsrising.org/go/1017?akid=2816.1916081.EAPbnH&t=4

You can raise your own strawberries even if you don’t have a garden. A sunny spot and a balcony planter are sufficient.