A restaurant review - Herrenhaus Stockelsdorf.

We had been working very hard over the last couple of weeks, what with packing, moving furniture and boxes, wall  papering and painting so for Sunday lunch before I set off back to NRW we decided to go out for Sunday Lunch. We decided on the local restaurant “Herrenhaus”, this is a one time country house of a local Fayence and tile manufacturer (faience) from the mid 1700s.

We had been to have a look at the outside and the park a few weeks ago and thought it looked very nice and the menu well balanced and reasonably priced.

We travelled in our mobile home and very luckily got the only free parking space, so if visiting on a Sunday it is advisable to reserve and walk (Linda did walk home) it is only a short walk from our new home.

We arrived and it seemed that a lot of families from grandparents through to the very young had decided that the first spring weather was a good time to go out mob-handed for Sunday lunch, just our luck!

We entered into a large vestibule, with various pieces of pottery in a glass display case, there was a reception going on so we actually missed this on the way in and it was not until later after reading a bit about the history of the building that I went out and had a closer look.

As I said the restaurant was quite full, but we got shown to a very nice window table overlooking the park garden with its small lake (still in the main frozen, so the ducks and moorhens were skating on thin ice).

A very pleasant waitress came almost at once and handed us the menu’s, also delivering a silver bread basket with fresh backed rolls and a small plate of sundries tomato and herb butter. We ordered a bottle of water, as I was driving and scrutinised the well balanced menu. Linda had at first thought about having the duck with red cabbage, but some one on the adjacent table had just been informed that the duck was finished (probably fell through the ice). So she settled for the “Angebotsmenu” this is a set menu that they offer for a period and this is at the moment the braised leg of lamb menu.

I had, though I can never have enough, a surfeit of lamb over the past 2 weeks and had seen that they had Grünkohl on the menu and I must say that the last time I had Grünkohl had been before Christmas so it was time to get my winter fix.

So Linda’s fixed menu was:

Wild garlic cream soup

Braised leg of lamb in a rosemary sauce with green beans and potato gratin
Rhubarb compote with vanilla ice cream

Mine was a far more rustical selection:

I ordered the Brochette as my starter,

followed by one of my all time favourites, Green Curley kale with pigs cheek, Kassler, special smoked sausage and what was termed as browned potatoes.

Not only did we get a well stocked bread basket and the tomato butter, but along came the waitress with two amuse bouche served on those Yuri Gella presentation spoons. This consisted of a cream cheese filled smoked salmon roulade on a cucumber slice, a very nice touch and very tasty.

Linda’s Soup and my brochette arrived, Linda’s soup had a foam island floating in it, it looked very nice and she said it was excellent.

My brochette consisted of 4 nice sized roasted crouton topped with a very good portion of a diced tomato and herb salsa, these surrounded a small salad with a very nice raspberry dressing, I realise that it isn’t what one would or should call out of the ordinary, but it was well presented, well rounded and most of all tasted nice to boot.

Next in came the mains.

Linda’s lamb which she said was soft and tender and very tasty. The vegetables and sauce really well cooked and presented.

I had ordered the Grünkohl as having lived for the past 20 years in East Westphalia where they believe that they invented the dish, I always like to make a comparison. This was served with the Schweinebacke (pigs cheek), a slice of kasseler (cured and then smoked pork loin) a Kohlwurst (a sausage specially manufactured to accompany the curly kale) and what was termed “ gebräunten Kartoffeln” (browned potatoes).

I found the composition well rounded and was a bit perplexed when I was asked if I wanted sugar for the Grünkohl, now I had heard of this strange custom but have put it down to me not quite getting the dialect, but no they do actually sprinkle sugar on their savoury cabbage, ah well there is nowt stranger than folks.

On reflection, though it was very tasty, I think I prefer mine done in the Westphalian way, with cured ham hock, smoked mettenden, Kasseler and fried potatoes and no sugar.

We both thought the meal was very tasty and it showed on our cleaned plates.

 

Linda’s desert came it was a nice portion of stewed rhubarb with a fair dollop of vanilla ice cream. Here was the only part that didn’t turn out well, Linda discovered a piece of sharp plastic in her rhubarb, this took the edge (sorry, couldn’t resist) off her meal, the waitress was very apologetic but alas a minus point.

We had a very nice meal, with only the one small fault. I must compliment the waiting staff on their very professional and speedy service. They where very friendly and it was a joy to eat at the restaurant and we shall certainly return, I like the idea of them having various events, musical concerts etc in the park garden. So we are now planning for the Whitsun Brunch in May and also Swedish mid-summers festival in June.

Just in passing I do like the look of their vaulted cellar bar!!!!  

 

For anyone visiting Lübeck for the Christmas Market or the Travemunde Woche, it is well worth a small detour (it is signposted) but book a table as I am sure in summer places are at a premium.

 

http://www.herrenhaus-stockelsdorf.de/index2.html

 

Faience (Fayence Ger)

This was the forerunner of the fine Chinese porcelain of Meissen, Wedgewood, Limoges and Copenhagen, it was delicate earthenware pottery with a tin-oxide on a lead slip glaze. The process was first introduced into Europe from Faenza in northern Italy and was soon copied through out Europe. Delft being a famous production centre, as was many of the other pottery manufacturers in Northern Europe, one of which was the Georg Nikolaus Lübbers of Stockelsdorf .

The original process is thought to have been refined in Persia or the Indus region, but beads have been found in Egypt from pre-Christian times so the process may well have been first refined in the Nile valley and then taken to the land of the two rivers by traders only to return westwards via Persia and then on to Italy. A similar process was also used on the Balearic Islands and traces of this pottery can also be found in other Mediterranean areas, whether by trade or manufacturing process may be we shall never know.

Lübeck a night at the theatre

Lübecker weekend

Friday

It was the middle of summer and the weather is supposed to be scorching, someone hadn’t read the script, though dry it can no way be called above normal, in fact it was well below normal.
Never the less we from the NE of England are made of tough material, blue lips, shuddering and pouring rain and still enjoying oneself (did we really), I suppose we did, the ride on the Tyneside circular line was just as big an excitement as was the going to Cullercoats bay, visiting Uncle Joe Stoneman (not a real uncle but an old shipmate and workmate of “Wor Dads”) who had a coble and fished out of that little fishing harbour (the source of our crabs, lobsters and when running, salmon and sea trout).
I got to our hotel and was a little early so sat in the hotel lobby taking a little “snuff” while waiting for Linda, I will add I am a Sir Terry Pratchett fan and am reading his last book at the moment, I just love his sense of devilish humour and his matter of fact way of weaving topical threads into his mysteries and Folklore.
We got settled into our hotel, a very nice one, just south of the main Island “Altstadt” of Lübeck called the Visitor hotel, clean, friendly, good sized rooms and separate bathroom with a separate room with two, yes two wash hand basins , but most of all it was cheap, only €83,- per night for the double room  including the €6,- for the wonderful breakfast (German not English). WiFi LAN costs €1,- per hour (not very strong connection, but sufficient).

We had planned a cultural evening (well Linda had, as she had done all of the planning), it was first out for a meal and then off to the Music and Congress hall (MUK) to see a musical rendition of Turandot, this was part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music festival, the theme this year being China, the year of the Dragon.

We parked the car right outside of the MUK and went across the bridge onto the Altstadt Island,

we walked a little way and Linda was stopped by a call, one of her work colleagues was sitting with her husband at one of the many  street cafes we chatted and Linda asked about a nice place to eat, they suggested a place just around the corner called Die Schiffergesellschaft, “the guild of Mariners”.

We went around the corner and there is an old, nay ancient building was a surprise awaiting me that I had not been expecting, those that know me will realise I am an” Ancient Mariner” and here was a building that made my heart pound.

It is a fantastic red brick building (as the majority of the classical buildings in the old city) from the outside, but inside is what takes your breath away, it is truly magnificent (well for us mariners anyway), the guilds main hall has been kept in its original style, with the long tables that the guests eat and drink at still in the same position that they would have been when the ships crews, fishermen, bargees and Baltic werries and traders of past gone centuries ate and drank at. Wonderful, fantastic, it felt like coming home.

We ordered our meals, informing the waiter that we had to be at the MUK for 18:00, well I do believe he was an old ships boy, I thought for a moment he was going to touch his forelock, said no problem took our orders and off he went.  Next to us on the starboard side was a family that had one of the most well behaved “sort of collie” I have had occassion to meet. Then to the Port side came a young family with a little child (a girl, not so well behaved as the "sort of collie"), they came from Stuttgart, the man originally from Bavaria, in fact from Augsburg, my first place of residence in Germany, all  those years ago, 43 to be exact.

We had looked at the menu outside and I had all ready decided on the Fischteller (fish platter), consisting of cod, Pollock and a salmon roulade, served on a bed of curried vegetables and a potato and leek rosti, fantastic, well cooked and very tasty, I washed it all down with a couple of 0.2l Flensbergers, a very bitter pils from the North of Schleswig- Holstein.

Linda ordered the deep fried Gurnard filets with butter poatoes and a side salad, this was enjoyed with many oos and ahs, so I think it met with her approval.

On leaving I took a few close ups of the carpenters works from all of those years ago

And Jack the cabin boy gave us a hard stare (I've had a few of those from stewards in my time)

 

We then legged it down the Engelsgrube and then along the quayside to cross the bridge to the MUK,  with the figures on top

  The house was 90% full, good job Linda had bought the tickets up front. And boy had she bought the tickets up front, 1^st row, couldn’t have been better, even see the hairs up the first bass cellists’ nose (not a nice sight may I add). This evening’s performance was purely musical no stage scenery or props and just a little acting by the Princess (suppose she couldn’t help it really)

Waiting for the band as I believe it is termed now a days



Nice bunch of flowers (got to pass the time away looking at something)

When we arrived and I didn’t know what to expect, as I had heard this piece of music many times, but of course the most famous piece from Puccini’s opera being Nessun Dorma, I have heard it sung by some of the real greats tenors of our time (Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Tito Beltram) and the not so greats ,though good (Andrea Bocelli and Paul Potts) this evenings  Prince Calaf, Tenor Marco Berti came in between the first and the second lot, he was very good, but the girls outshone the boys as far as the singing went, the princess Turandot was sung by American Soprano Jennifer Wilson a Voluptuous singer that hit all of the notes and did act the part which is more than can be said of most. Also worth a mention was Liu the slave sung by the Polish Soprano Iwona Sobotka, with some beautiful sung arias.

The singers and orchestra receiving a much deserved standing ovation and then we headed back to the hotel for an nice nights sleep. But first seeing how Wiggo had done on the tour de France, keep it going boy!