March 5, 2022 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam. Dinner - Boiled and Sautéed Brats with sautéed Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes

March 5, 2022 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam. Dinner - Boiled and Sautéed Brats with sautéed Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes

Today I rested from brief writing.

I watched PL soccer in the morning, getting to see the last five minutes of Leicester beating Leeds 1 to 0, Then I worked and ate breakfast of tropical fruit salad, yogurt, granola and milk for breakfast.

Then I watched a bit of Chelsea beating poor Burnley 4 to 0.

Finally, Willy came over at 10:30 and we watched Liverpool beat West Hampton 1 to 0 in a spirited match of No. 2 against No. 5.

At 12:30 Willy left to go to work and Suzette and I went to 2000 Vietnam for lunch. It had turned cold, so I ordered duck leg soup with rice vermicelli noodles in a chicken broth.  It was delicious and I was brought a pile of Oriental Basil and cilantro with mung bean sprouts that I put into the soup.

Suzette ordered her new favorite, Flour sheets on a pile of sautéed mung bean sprouts, cucumber spears, and lettuce topped with grilled shrimp, grilled pork, and egg rolls.  2000 Vietnam’s policy seems to be, “we will prepare whatever you request.”  Suzette’s combination of meats did not correspond with any menu item but when it arrivedbit was a lovely dish of food and exactly what she wanted.

Neither of us could finish our lunch so we put Suzette’s leftovers into a box and my soup into a large sealed cup.

We then drove to Talin.  We bought a five liter jug of peanut oil, which we had run out of, plus canned pimientos, apple cider vinegar, a 1.75 liter bottle of sake, a 500 gram tin of Ahmed Earl Grey tea, rice stick noodles, snow peas, garlic/chili paste, and a Savoy cabbage.

We then drove home and rested until 4:00. 

We worked a bit more and then at 5:30 started cooking.

Dinner  

Dinner was destined to be another German dinner of Sautéed Brats and cabbage with mashed potatoes because Suzette had thawed some of the brats we bought at Costco last Sunday.

I shredded 1/2 cabbage into thin strips and helped Suzette find the caraway seeds.  Suzette then sautéed the cabbage in olive oil and butter.

I peeled and cubed three russet potatoes. Suzette then boiled the potatoes and then mashed them with warmed milk and butter.

I fetched two bottles of Magner’s Original Irish Apple cider and a bottle of Negra Modelo.

Suzette boiled four brats in the beer and when it evaporated she added butter to the pan and sautéed the brats until their casings turned brown.

The dish was simple, a pile of mashed potatoes on which a brat was placed with a spoonful of cabbage on the potatoes.

Suzette also made a sauce by combining some of the horseradish mustard Don and Bev gave us for Christmas with mayonnaise.

The reason I know it was a traditional German meal is because every time I made a suggestion that altered the menu such as adding onion and apple to the cabbage, Suzette would say, “That is not the recipe.”

I am glad Germans like Irish apple cider.

After dinner I ate a pineapple cake with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

Bon Appetit