A Little of This and That and ... Pub Crawl! Münster Style

First...

My very sweet sister sent me a case of individual sized packages of Frito Chips (having to pick them up at customs is a story for another blog). You see, I am from Texas and in Texas there is a special dish called Frito Pie. What you have to do is take the Chili of your choice and pour it over a handful of Frito chips. Top the concoction with your choice of delicious toppings such as cheese, sour cream, and onions.

Doesn't that look like a little slice of Texas?

I actually prefer my chili without the chips and with a slice, or wedge in this case, of fresh cornbread. The banana was thrown in for good measure. It was wonderful to have something closely tied to our home country. We can find or make almost anything we want to eat if we start to feel homesick, but Fritos are not to be seen in Münster!

And then ...

We have been playing a fair amount of board and card games lately. One game that we really like is called Quirkle. It is so much fun, plus it comes with 108 square pieces that are perfect for building things like Battlements. The littlest Haines was very proud of his military installation he built with Quirkle pieces, complete with Lego army guys. He begged me to put it on my blog.

Next...

I had another Arepa lesson! Just to remind you, an aprepa is made of cooked, ground corn. Here we are making Arepas de Queso (Arepas with cheese). First you mix the Arepa meal with water and a little salt. Here we are adding diced cheese.

Here they are cooking to a lovely, golden brown. You can't just leave them in the pan while they cook. Continuously flipping them over so they can cook evenly on both sides is necessary. When they were done, we ate them with a little salt and butter.

And then...

I tried making Yoghurt again. This little cupboard is where we turn on our heat. The pipes are full of hot water and if the heat is on, the cupboard is nice and warm. The last batch I made this way was a little on the thin side, so I wanted to see if using smaller containers helped with the consistency. The end result did seem thicker. The taste was unaffected. Both times the yoghurt tasted fantastic!

Again, to make yoghurt yourself, all you need to do is take a liter or quart of milk and warm it to about 42 degrees Celsius. Mix in one single sized serving of plain yoghurt. Stir it well and pour into very clean containers or a yoghurt maker. Let the yoghurt mix stand in a warm area for at least 12 hours. I am trying this as a potential alternative for when we get back to the States and don't have a yoghurt maker.

And Finally...

One of Russell's colleagues wanted to give us a taste of the Münster nightlife. He and his lovely wife picked us up on Friday night and we had no idea what was ahead of us! The first stop was a restaurant called Enchilada. It is really popular, especially with the student crowd because the "long drinks" (cocktails) are half price before 8.

One of the first things we saw at the restaurant was a young man wearing a sombrero and a poncho. When I pointed him out to our friends, they told us that he was probably enjoying one of the Germany wedding tradition. He was having what we would call a bachelor party (Junggesellenabschied), but of course it isn't quite the same. Basically, a group of the groom's friends go out and troll bars for the night. The groom's friends don't treat him like he's special like they do in the U.S. Here, the groom dresses up in a silly costume and must perform humiliating little jobs to earn money to pay his own way for the night. For example, the groom may set up shop and sell condoms or wash car windshields on a street corner until he has enough money. Our friend told us that he dressed up in a lion costume for his bachelor party.

The picture below is a little hard to see, but you can just make out the sombrero and poncho.

I was happy to hear we would be visiting a Mexican restaurant. Until, that is, they brought out our order of nachos. BBQ powder on nachos? The sauce was yellow, but not cheesy. Maybe the quesadillas were better, but if it follows the trend, that white sauce they are dipping into is mayonnaise.

We did, however, have a wonderful time with our friends. 

Our next stop was a British Pub called the James.

The inside really was like sitting in someone's library. It was nice and quiet. This is apparently the pub you visit when you want to have a nice conversation.

Or play a game! Our friends brought along a card game dealing with patterns and colors - You had to grab the round yellow thing (bottom right corner) when someone turned over a card that matched your own. You had to be fast...

Sometimes there were injuries because you had to be fast, but we all made it to our next destination in one piece.

By the time we went to the third Kneipe (Bar) it was about 2 AM and I was pretty tired. It was really cold outside, so I didn't linger to take a picture. By the way, we were of course riding bikes the whole time - we were informed that the legal limit for alcohol consumption while on a bike is 1.6 (which is triple what you can drink and drive a car). This last bar was loud, with metal music playing and German biker dudes filling out the atmosphere.

We were all tired, so we only stuck around long enough to get a good feel for the bar, hear some music, and then we finished out our night by partaking in another German night out tradition: Gebratenes Ei (fried egg on toast). This isn't something you buy at the bar. After a night of going out with your friends (and for the college kids maybe drinking a little too much), you would never just go to sleep without putting a little something in your stomach first when you reach home. It is very simple to make, just fry an egg, put it on toast and cover it in cheese. Oh, and you should eat it with a knife and fork. Only barbarians eat with their hands in Germany (This includes pizza and hamburgers). You can even put a topping on your toast like curry ketchup (which is how I ate mine).

When we finally arrived home (after a brisk bike ride back to our Wohnung (apartment), it was close to 4 AM. Our youngest, who is 9, generally wakes up around 6 and that morning was no exception. Sunday was a long day!