tim.jagenberg.info

Well, the next swabian food project: Schupfnudeln, a handmade type of pasta from half flour half potatoes. The dough is THE stickiest I have ever seen. It really takes a lot of flour to keep it from sticking to your hands and any tools.The shape of the pasta (not perfect in my case) is created by rolling a small portion of the dough between your hands, forming a oval noodle with pointy tips. This process is called Schupfen, thus the name, and is really tedious as every single noodle is formed individually! After this process the Schupfnudeln are boiled in salty water till they re-surface. Schupfnudeln are used as a side dish in many recipes back home. I chose to make my favourite variation which is often served at local festivals, Schupfnudeln mit Speckkraut (Schupfnudeln with Sauerkraut and bacon). The Schupfnudeln, bacon and Sauerkraut are fried in a pan and mixed together. Again everything worked well and it really tasted like back home.

Cheers, Tim.

We arrived at the festival around 3pm with the sun burning down on us. Hoping for a nice big German stein of cold beer we were pretty disappointed by the tiny glasses. After we got to the front of the first queue (which spanned across the whole street), we really got angry because those tiny glasses were only filled half way, because of some “sampler” regulations.

After standing in the queues for a while, downing the small sips they would give us, the atmosphere got more relaxed and the queues dissolved into scattered groups of random people chatting. We even won a free t-shirt by spinning a wheel, which was really good at protecting our heads against a bad sunburn. The Americans were really interested in getting in contact with the many Germans gathering at the Bierfest, so in the end it all was a really nice afternoon chatting with many people and teaching Americans the interesting sides of the German language (swearing ).
The funniest thing happened when we were just standing in a queue: Someone accidentally dropped his beer glass (which was the ticket for free beer) and everybody in a range of about 50 yards started screaming and booing (watch the video).

The small glasses and the lack of authentic German food aside, this Fest was definitely a good experience.
Cheers, Tim.

Really missing the local schwäbisches (swabian) Food, I decided to make some myself. The first project were “Maultaschen“, minced meat mixed with spinach and spices wrapped into a layer of pasta dough.
Though it was my very first try, the taste worked out very well, only the pasta layer was a little bit too thick, as we’re lacking a rolling pin.

The next food project will be “Schupfnudeln mit Speckkraut”!

Cheers, Tim.