We found the most delicious little place that serves lunch and a buffet on Friday evenings. So if I ever need to test the elasticity of my clothing, I could just go here one Friday night and get so full that I feel (and look) like jolly old Kris Kringle. All in one sitting.
Oh you guys, if you could actually experience the desserts in person, you would understand the awe I felt when gleefully making my selections. But first, the main courses.
Let's start with the not so great.
The only entree I didn't like was the ham & beans with cornbread but that was because it was past it's prime. They replaced it after I had already started on dessert. The new batch (in the picture) looked divine.
Now for the mediocre.
The only item on the cold salad bar that I had was a deviled egg. It was just a plain yellow-mustard tasting deviled egg like you would make at home if you don't experiment or put anything special in it at all. It was OK. I ate one, but I didn't want a second one.
Now for the wonderful.
The German potatoes were wonderful. The polish sausage on a bun (kept warm by being wrapped in foil, which worked) with sour kraut and German mustard was really good. The schnitzel (breaded pork tenderloin) was OK, but once I added German mustard and sour kraut, I really liked it. The stars of my plate? The pierogies (pasta pouches stuffed with a blend of potatoes and cheese, fried in butter, and topped with grilled onions and bits of bacon) definitely shined as a highlight of this meal. The pierogies were traditional and fantastic. The bits of bacon on top were real pieces of crumbled bacon. Not bac-o-bits. Yum.
The other star of the night was the swinebraten with veggies. Let me tell you how amazingly delicious the swinebraten was--AMAZING! It looks like stew and it's actually super ugly. But my theory is, the uglier food is, the better it probably tastes. Ugly food doesn't get a fair shake. Anyway, the swinebraten was the most tender hunks of pork that were probably seared for browness and flavor, and then swaddled with veggies and sauce to simmer and get all tender all day long. The gravy it was in was really good. The owner said the secret ingredient is sour cream. It had a somewhat slightly subtle sweet flavor I think because of some spice I couldn't quite identify, but not in a sickeningly sweet way. It's not like they added vanilla soy milk or something weird. I would buy and eat a plate of this stuff any day.
Now for the show part of this show-and-tell.
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| Far left: potatoes, carrots (what?), and sour kraut Middle: pierogies on top, polish sausages in buns on bottom Far right: schnitzel |
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| Pierogies upper left, schnitzel upper middle, ham and beans with cornbread front left, and Swinebraten on far right--see, it's ugly! But oooh so good. |
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| The cheesy plastic table cloths add to the ambiance. Potatoes at 1:00, ham and beans with cornbread at 2:00, Swinebraten at 5:00, schnitzel at 8:00, and pierogies at 10:00 |
So that was it for the savory. Now let's add a little sugar to sweeten things up, shall we? In case you haven't noticed, I have a sweet tooth. As a matter of fact, every tooth in my head is a sweet tooth.
For the not-so-great.
One of their specialties is peanut butter chocolate pie. I don't like it because it wasn't peanut buttery enough for me. It's like everything is cut with whipped cream which dilutes the flavor for me. If you are looking for a light very subtle taste with lots of fluffiness, here ya go. It's not my thing.
Now for the pretty good.
Todd had the sponge cake with berry sauce and whipped cream. He liked this so much, he had this 3 times. I liked the berry sauce, but the sponge cake and cream was just blah to me. To bland for my taste.
Now for the good stuff.
The lemon bar was good but not a super-star. When I eat lemon, I want wow-ness and I want my taste buds to know I just ate lemon albeit a sweet lemon is preferred. The cherry cheesecake was yummy. Every bite made me want another. The coconut meringue pie was OK. Maybe it needed just an additional drop of vanilla or more sugar as it seemed to be missing something for me but that didn't stop me from eating the whole thing. Along with these desserts, I had my first half cup of coffee since I quit drinking coffee in April. It was worth any heartburn that I may have experienced. They grind their own coffee bean blend. It was smooth, exciting and tasty. Mmmmmm.
The star of my dessert line up was the LEMON MERINGUE PIE! This is REAL meringue folks! This pie rivals my mothers meringue pie, sorry mom. To me, meringue is an art form. It's really a LOST art form. So many times bakers take the lazy way out and cover a luscious pudding pie with whipped cream. I hate that. I love the way my fork sinks into the meringue and squishes it down to nothingness where my forks divides my next bite from the piece of pie on the plate. I love the way the light and fluffy sweetness sits on top of the pudding like a blanket. I love the lightly browned peaks and the sometimes weepy valleys. I really love meringue.
This lemon meringue pie was fantastic. You know what's even more exciting? The next time my dad is here, I can order an entire pie from them. We are going to love the whole thing.
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| Upper: lemon bars on left, lemon meringue pie on right Lower: apple or peach pie/crumble on left, berry cream sponge cake on right |
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| Lemon meringue at 1:00 (the BEST) garnished with a side of whipped cream and caramel (easy to ignore the garnish), peanut butter chocolate pie at 5:00 (blah), cherry cheesecake at 9:00 and lemon bar in the middle. |
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| More dessert buffet. |
So there you have it for divine German food. This was their October buffet line up. They change their menu monthly. I can't wait for the November buffet one of these Friday nights. It's so worth a few extra miles on the treadmill and wearing spandex.
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