makfaulls in munich

always up for visiting a new city. love wandering aimlessly, taking in the sights and sounds and the general feel of the place. munich struck me as, dare i say, shabby? not as youthful and buzzing as berlin, nor as 'official' looking as frankfurt. it had a certain faded charm but not what i'd in mind for a large german city? then again i'm not articulating this very well. maybe i expected something new and shiny, swankier even. also felt i didn't really give it a chance as landed on friday night, spent saturday largely in the country and left on sunday evening. walked around on sunday and again maybe went to the wrong places but wasn't impressed? felt a wee underwhelmed and was even relieved that we'd spent saturday out of the city because i got a little bored on sunday and wondered if i was missing the plot. 

the food, however, was excellent. and one of the highlights (apart from all that deep fried goodness and white beer) was catching up with J&A. serendipity had it that this was my third makfaull sighting of 2015, and maybe fourth in 12 months! caught up with A when he was in london at the end of last year, meant to stay with them in KL over summer when i went for P's wedding but, naughty, they surprised me with a room at a lovely hotel i've since fallen for and gone on to stay at (incidentally in munich too!) because it's such a great brand. they were in singers soon after with J's parents who've kindly hosted me in aix a few summers now, and when A was seconded to munich, the far east's loss was the continent's gain! chuffed to have squeezed out extra time with them.

for people who move around as much as we all do, it's a homecoming to see a familiar face, to be spared what we've come to term 'friendship foreplay' with the usual FAQ and pre-amble about where we've come from. for them, they've to explain he's aussie she's french and they met on exchange in stockholm. after which she moved to australia (perth then sydney) before they relocated to KL for work and now munich. who knows what the future holds?! and for me it's the whole barrister-turned medical student spiel which i don't mind on a good day but am admittedly self-conscious of on a bad day because people then expect me to be cerebral when i'm far from, or start asking tricky medico-legal questions i can't always answer, or try to get free medical and/or legal advice which i feel doubly irresponsible dispensing. A put it so nicely when he described 'wafer thin' experiences and friendships in a new place. because one has to start all over again, establishing connections is such a painful necessity and there's the odd person where it all clicks but more often than not it's tedious and don't really achieve anything at the end of cursory pleasantries. hence it's a bonus to meet up and go straight into deep meaning conversation mode because there is quality time without quantity. 

had dins with my folks then escaped to J&A's beautiful apartment. they've impeccable taste and by chance had two of J's aix girlfriends and their respective +1s over too! funny story - i'd met the lovely girls summer 2010 in aix. one of them had a new bachelorette pad and we'd all gone round for the provencale cliche of rose on the terrace (with tapenade!). little did i know then that five years later our paths would cross once again in munich. the world is small and it shows just how J draws people to her from all over. was secretly relieved to be having a cosy night in with wine and chocolate because after a crazy week and marathon day out with folks the last thing i wanted was to be head banging in a grungy club. too old? or more like too lazy :P and with J&A i know they pick their nights and a grown up night in with riveting conversation (hitting one pressure point after another in a safe environment...) was just what i'd wanted. without going into two much detail, there was a german, three french misses, a frenchman, aussie and me and oh boy did we play to our national stereotypes ;)

munich eats

went a little overboard and researched where to eat in munich, only to have plans scuppered. but it's ok - book first, talk later! after a long day out to the castles, the last thing any of us wanted to do was to haul ourselves across town. cancelled original reso and got the hotel to book something closer by. not proud of it and ended up being half an hour late for that, because, well, inertia. so the queue was out the door by the time we got there and had to be thick skinned about the dirty looks (sent brother in! always send the scout hehe) as we walked to the head of the queue and to our relief found they hadn't given the table away. thank goodness had foresight to book in hotel's name (tip: resto less likely to cancel reso for fear of damaging goodwill!) and couldn't help but feel smug about not having to queue :) hearty german food and while i initially thought the waitress was trying to scam us (paranoia wahey!) what she recommended (two course traditional german taster with starters and mountain of mains) did work out well. although i think she was trying to push us to order for the table, i saw through her sneaky ploy and ordered two (minimum order) and supplemented that with small sides. hah! (like the bavarian ox tartare below)

german food does not photograph well!

lunch the next day was the only one of my original resos we made. it was a safe choice and surprisingly tourist-free and found ourselves surrounded instead by well-heeled locals. elegant sorts who waltzed in amidst a whiff of expensive perfume. must've sounded pleading in my reservation about being a family from singers on holiday that they gave us a lovely table with a view of the opera house :) gorgeous interiors too with frescoes and the food was excellent. prices up 30% from already touristy hotel muller but hey, go in with eyes open.

consome with dumpling

wiener schnitzel and rosti

venison goulash

deep fried pork (!!!) in bavarian beer

hamsteak under eggs

and i need to sing praises of white beer. i'm not a beer drinker, only starting to drink when i first moved for uni. but i do enjoy craft beer and local ales, and did try to drink something brewed (practically) on site at every pub in the lakes. but if i was in japan, i'd only drink sake and when in munich i only drank beer. no gluehwine, even! just lots and lots of wonderful white beer. so very good and doubt will find better any where else.

day in bavaria

didn't take much persuasion to get me across the channel. was bummed not to spend christmas with family and jumped at the chance for an early celebration on the continent instead. glad to be based on this side of the world and i'd never been to munich. the mister had been twice this year (for BMW driving course and oktoberfest!) so i was more than a little envious. of course the irony is that i get in on friday night and they've booked a whole day out on saturday. we ventured into the country with stops at lindenhof and oberammergau before rocking up to neuschwanstein. tell a lie, while it was my first time in munich, we'd done a similar castle tour about 15 years ago on a skiing holiday while holding out for powder (and not that icky artificial ice). this sort of gave us license to skip the castle tours in favour of food. 

joked that old schwanstein (above) because neuschwanstein (below)

don't usually name restaurants /  cafes unless they're really good because 1) i'm not paid (haha) 2) happy to share if someone asks personally but all too wary that the www is a public space. but hotel muller at the base of neuschwanstein (it's a 30min uphill trek from there!) has the most amazing restaurant. at first glance it looks like a tourist trap and the staff seemed a little overwhelmed by the sudden influx of tourists (weird, you'd think they'd be used to it by now!) and tried to get us to sit in the lobby (???). why on earth we'd want to eat off a cramped coffee table is beyond me. but maybe they thought we were in a hurry to join the castle tour (we weren't). so i held my ground and said, "no thank you, we'll wait for a table inside the restaurant... (bathed in natural light and stunning alpine views)" didn't end up waiting long and the food was served almost instantly. they must have a high turnover! 

so can i just say best. wiener. schnitzel. ever. you know how these things often look deep fried and disgusting? one can almost feel the heartburn from looking at a piccie? well this was different. the veal so fresh, tender and juicy, the breadcrumbs crunchy and fried to golden perfection but not oily (how???)  but it wasn't just that. everything else was amazing. even the salad. salad!!!! frau muller was also a reknown baker so the pudding was worth trying too but i was still reeling from that schnitzel. 

have to agree the best views of a castle are from the outside? or maybe that's me being sour grapes having not gone in but did go in as a teenager and must've been forgettable because i don't remember it now. and i do remember most other things, whether i want to or not! gimme food over culture anytime :)