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.