Fun Find - Bavarian food... at the mall?

The other day while walking around a local mall, my boyfriend and I decided to stop at this quaint little Bavarian deli just across the main food court.  We've seen this place before, and it looked intriguing, but we had never popped in until now.  Amongst the stale, plaster walls of the mall, this little brick-lined deli is cozily tucked in between a Radio Shack and a Journey's shoe store.  Just one step in, and you don't feel like you're in a mall any more.  There are Bavarian goodies, such as cookies, cake mixes, and canned goods, lining the shelves, and dried meats and cheeses hang from the ceiling.  There are a few tables and a counter where you can order food from their Bavarian menu (with a few non-Bavarian items, such as a Cuban sandwich... Only in South Florida....)  Items include knockwurst, bratwurst, bockwurst, leberkase, German-style potato salad, and an array of sandwiches including a classic reuben and egg salad, and of course, apple strudel.  At the counter, you can order a nice cold glass of Warsteiner beer, which pours out from a pretty large and elaborate tap.  Across the dining counter is a deli counter from which you can buy an array of Bavarian deli meats and cheeses.  There were deli meats (including various wursts) and cheeses that I'd never seen before, but that I would love to try some day.

So as we sat down to eat, we decided to order some traditional fair -- bockwurst and leberkase with a side of sauerkraut, German potato salad, and fresh pumpernickel bread.  We'd never tried bockwurst and leberkase, so we were very interested to taste them.  The bockwurst is veal sausage, and it was very juicy and flavorful, especially with some thick, grainy mustard and the freshest sauerkraut I've ever tasted.  The leberkase was good to try, but not my cup of tea.  It's really just like a less salty version of spam.  The potato salad was good, too - thin slices of potato in a sweet, vinegar-based dressing, with little bits of bacon or some other smoked meat.  And the bread.... OH, the bread!  The pumpernickel was so fresh and just the perfect texture!  I think it might have been some of the best "regular" sliced bread I've ever tasted -- I wanted to marry that bread.  Unfortunately, they ran out of apple strudel.  I'll definitely have to try that next time.

So if you're ever in the Boynton Beach area and just happen to be at the Boynton Beach mall, you should definitely check out Bavarian Colony.  Don't be put off by the deli's strange location.  It's a unique & pleasant surprise amongst commercial, factory-made surroundings.

Soy Rocks!

As some of you may know, I have a great love of soy... It can be used to make so many things -- biodiesel fuel, home insulation, wax for candles, and not to mention the numerous yummy food products like soy sauce, tofu, edamame (actual soy beans), an array of vegetarian "meat" substitutes, and of course soy milk.  

Now, growing up, soy milk wasn't a trendy item or even a milk substitute.  Being an American Asian kid, soy milk was a yummy little treat you would get from the Asian supermarket so that your mom could make you happy for dragging you to the store with her.  And it wasn't the same flavor or consistency as the now popular soy milk products like Silk or 8th Continent.  What I drank as soy milk was thinner and more earthy, and pretty sweet.  What most other people know (and often love) is the thick, creamy, more cow-milk-like liquid.  It still has that earthy flavor of soy, but just not as pronounced as the other stuff.  What's great about this thicker, more readily available soy milk is that you can use it with cereal and tea.  And more and more, I find other great uses for today's soy milk.  BUT, I do warn you NOT to have soy milk with coffee -- it's just a bad idea all around.  Even if you're lactose intolerant (like I sometimes am), it's not worth it to have coffee with soy.  This may sound gross, but this is the best way that I can describe the flavor, and others have agreed with me when they hear it -- coffee + soy = what I imagine nutty poo to taste like.  That's all I have to say about that.

More and more I am finding great ways to use soy milk in cooking.  I was very timid about using it instead of milk in recipes because, although it may not be true, I have in my mind that it just can't work the same because it does not have the same fat content that regular milk does that may play a critical part in the chemical reaction of whatever you're cooking.  But, when I have had no regular milk in the fridge, which is usually the case, then I have sometimes experimented and used soy milk, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.  And so far, I've had good to great results.  I recently used soy milk to make scones, and the scones came out super lovely!  (I highly recommend blending a mix of dried fruit and nuts to any scone recipe to make them delicious.  I used a mix of dried currants and cranberries and pecans and almonds).  I think I used soy milk to make muffins once, and those came out great!  I've also used a little bit of soy milk when making cream sauces, but only when I have some regular milk or cream already in the sauce.  It seems that soy can be ok to use in some baked good recipes.  You may have to experiment to know which ones for sure.  It's good to know that you can use soy milk in some recipes that you may not think it can be used.  I'm very interested in finding out what more I can use soy milk in.  And of course, if you have any successful recipes, I'd be glad to hear about them!