To recap: My first week in Hannover was spent with Bernhard and Dagmar in the Hannover suburb of Berenbostel. It was a really nice little town, but it was also about an hour to downtown Hannover via public transportation (a combination of bus and stadtbahn). It was also a nice way to spend my first week adjusting to life in Germany and getting over jetlag--not to mention the awesome breakfasts and fresh fruits and vegetables from their garden.
I then spent the next month subleasing a room in Linden-Nord in a shared flat with three other people. Two of my roommates were pretty much out of university (one was finishing his internship) and the third was only in her second year at the University of Hannover. It was a great place to live, and I got to know the Linden-Nord neighborhood really well, but it never quite felt like home since I knew I would have to leave at some point.
I'm now living in Linden-Mitte, but my apartment is on the north side of Linden-Mitte, so I'm still really close to all of my old haunts on Limmerstrasse in Linden-Nord. The great thing about my new apartment is that it is in a nicer residential area than my apartment in Linden-Nord, is next to a quiet police station and quite secure and has even better access to Hannover Mitte (the center of downtown Hannover) as well as more nightlife possibilities! It's always interesting here and the vibe of the apartment is a bit more open than other places. Of my two roommates, Poisy is kind of the "landlady"/roommate and she is a little bit older than me and works at a big travel company based out of Hannover. The other roommate Christopher is close to my age and is actually doing his internship at the company our lady works for. They both work fairly long hours, but we actually have dinner together quite a bit which is a very nice change of pace. Chris pretty much goes home every weekend (to his parents' house), and Poisy travels quite a bit on weekends visiting friends--so it's nice to be able to relax on weekends and have the apartment to myself when I'm here.
My new home on Lichtenbergplatz (the red building on the left)
In more recent news, tonight I finally tried cooking a dish that I've been thinking about for a while as a way to ward off the early winter blues here in Germany. Gulasch (or goulash as it is known in English) is a popular dish in Germany with largely Hungarian origins. There are apparently hundreds of different recipes and various schools of thought on what or what not Gulasch should contain--but the recipe I used was modified out of German cookbook I bought last week. It was actually quite simple to prepare, and while I had my doubts at first, it turned out delicious.
German (Hungarian) Gulasch
- 500 g Rindergulasch (basically small pieces of beef stew meat--could use boneless chuck or beef shank)
- 2-3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 small onions (or 1 extra large) onion, chopped into large pieces
- 2 carrots, sliced thickly
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 2 cups potato, left in large chunks
- 2 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
- 650 ml beef or vegetable broth
- 1-2 bay leaves
- parsley, for garnish
- salt and pepper
- vegetable oil/butter
Season the beef generously with salt and pepper and brown in vegetable oil/butter (I melted about a Tbsp of butter in vegetable oil and used a mixture) on high heat. Remove browned beef from pot and mix with paprika and cayenne pepper mixture. Add tomato paste to pot beef was cooked in and stir for about 30 seconds before adding onions and carrots. Cook onions/carrots until slightly softened (about four to five minutes) and add garlic, stir for another minute, and add potatoes. After a few more minutes, add beef/spice mixture and stir for a few more minutes to allow paprika/pepper to heat up in oil. Add broth and bay leaves, cover and simmer on very low heat for at least 90 minutes until beef is tender. Season with additional paprika/cayenne pepper/salt/black pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley and serve with bread. Guten Apetit!
German Gulasch with bread and a beer (the perfect winter meal!)
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