Friday, January 30, 2009

Dinner Downtown

Last night Jon and I went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants downtown, Vapiano. It is an Italian restaurant that serves Pastas and Pizza. I like it because the atmosphere is laid back but the restaurant is super cute and the food is lovely.

When you order you walk up to a bar and pick out a type of pasta you would like and they cook it right there for you. Last night I had fusili with a cream sauce and sauteed mushrooms. Jon had this awesome pasta with Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts. Ya, I wish I would have eaten that instead, it's amazing. While we ate our pasta we had the Vapiano house red wine, it is sooo good. Let's just say we didn't stop at one glass.

Let me tell you a weird thing about Germany....
Jon and I are sitting at a table that has 6 stools and a booth type seat at the end of the table. We were sitting at the very end. Out of nowhere a couple sits down at our table and starts eating their food. This is a NORMAL thing here in Germany. As the night went on we continued sitting at our table, the couple that was there left, and two ladies sat in their place. Next, four individuals come to our table and ask if anyone is sitting there. Of course we say no, please sit, so now our entire table is filled with people we've never met and who speak another language!

Me being the chatty Cathy that I am started speaking to the four individuals that just sat at our table. Luckily they spoke perfect English and we talked like we knew each other for years. They left us their info and told us to come visit them in Mainz where they live, about twenty minutes from where we are.

While we were at dinner I made my way to the restroom. As I walked in I noticed there were several pictures of women on the walls. Some pictures of women in short shorts and skimpy clothing. I thought that was a little off but then headed for the bathroom stall anyway. As I was shutting the door to the stall I glanced in front of me to see a URINAL. Yes, a urinal. It took two seconds for it to trigger into my brain that I was in the men's bathroom. It took even less time for me to hall my hiney out of the men's bathroom. As I was walking out about ten people saw me leave the men's bathroom and of course we all got a chuckle!

But in Germany the men's bathroom door reads "Herren."
The women's bathroom door reads "Damen."

I got a little confused it must have been the wine ;) But come on..... wouldn't it make sense that the women's bathroom would be Herren, look at the first part of the word HER

and the men's bathroom would be Damen. Da MEN!
Come on GERMANY!!!!

Guacamole
I was asked to share my Guacamole recipe. It's really not much of a recipe, it's involves taste testing until it's right. ;)

You need:

Several Avocados
1 Small Red Onion
1 Jalapeno Pepper
1 Small tomato
Garlic Salt
Pepper

Remove the skin and the seed from the avocado. I use a potato smasher to smash the avocado once the skin and all is removed, that is so much easier. I leave it a little chunky because it's so much better that way.
I then cut up the onion, the entire pepper seeds and all, (to make it spicy) and the tomato
I mix the onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic salt, and pepper into the avocado really well. I stir in the tomato last.

Then I chow down! Hope that helps a little ;)

Hope everyone has an awesome Friday! Beware of men's bathrooms, urinals are scary!

12 comments:

~Mrs. Guru~ said...

It sounds like you guys had fun! I want to come visit you!

New Girl on Post said...

OMG! You are so hilarious! We have to get together sometime, I bet we'd have a ton of fun.

Oh..and the pasta? Sounds delish!

New Girl on Post said...

OMG! You are so hilarious! We have to get together sometime, I bet we'd have a ton of fun.

Oh..and the pasta? Sounds delish!

Allison said...

I still have to stop and think everytime I go to the bathroom here...damen, damen, DAMEN....

Abbie said...

Steph don't feel bad about walking into the men's bathroom! At one particular bar/restaurant here in town, the ladies room always, always has a line, so I purposely use the mens room. Forget trying to "hold it!"

Thanks for the guac recipe...I'm going to make it for the Superbowl!

d.a.r. said...

Yummmmm that pasta place sounds heavenly!! And I did almost die laughing at the bathroom story. I definitely did that in Spain. Whoops!

valerie said...

That's so funny about the restroom.
I was thinking...."Stephanie..just how much did you have to drink?" :)

I think your reasoning makes perfect sense....da men.

I have a problem with restrooms even here in the U.S. when they do fancy (or hick) titles for the women and men. My sister lives in Sulphur America ;) and we went to eat at this restaurant & I went to use the restroom and one door said "Hens" and the other "Roosters." (I'm not kidding!) But I was afraid to go in. I just wasn't quite sure. LOL!
My sister still cracks up about that because I went back to the table and asked her "which one am I?" Too funny!
I love the header you're working on for me. Can't wait to talk in the morning!
Love,
Val

Miss JC said...

Ahh..that food sounds amazing! I tagged you on my blog! :)

Impulsive Addict said...

Just stopping by from Miss JC's page. OMG! I have definitely stepped into the gents bathrooms a time or two...I just don't have a good excuse like the signs being in German. That was too funny!

I'm so glad I saw the guac recipe. It's my favorite part of eating Mexican food! Yummy! I'll try it out this weekend!

jlc said...

You are hysterical!!! AND you just made me soo hungry!

At least you didn't lock yourself in the W.C. --- definitely did that in Paris. Wasn't a highlight of my life. ;)

Lindsey said...

HAHAHAHAHA this is hilarious!

BrianB said...

I'm not surprised (at all)that you went into the men's restroom. At least you didn't think the urinal was some crazy European toilet and try to shimmy up onto it. That would have been really embarrassing when the next dude walked in.