That said, I made some fine schnitzel tonight and am kind of sorry I don't have any pictures to show you.
I happen to live in a town of wonderful food including three German restaurants that I have had the pleasure of sampling. There are many more German places in Portland and many more restaurants that aren't German. However, tonight I made schnitzel and I have only been to the three German places so we'll just talk about those.
The first German restaurant we visited was Rheinlander (http://rheinlander.com/). This was the place I first had fondue and schnitzel and it was love at first bite. I haven't been there for a while, so that's all I really have to say about the experience. Sidenote: I am personally terrible at making fondue. It always turns out grainy and gross. I believe this stems from my lack of patience when melting cheese. See #2 in the first paragraph.
The second German place I visited was Prost! (http://prostportland.com/), a fantastic place in the Mississippi area of Portland. Portland is divided up into little districts. For instance, we live in Sullivan's Gulch which abuts historic Irvington (big beautiful old houses), Lloyd District (shopping and crime), and Hollywood (don't know much about this area. There's a Trader Joes there that I've walked to.) Anyway, "Prost!" translates to "Cheers!" or "To your health!" which kind of gives you an idea of Prost! the restaurant. A lovely place where the table to your right might actually be speaking German and the table to your left is toasting the birthday boy. Prost! This is actually my favorite German restaurant so far and I really want to go back. It has a lively atmosphere and a big patio outside that I would like to take advantage of. Our table shared the braunschweiger which is a German pate they serve with apple slices. You know, I wouldn't have thought it when I was a kid, but meat paste is just really good. Definitely need more meat paste in my life. My dinner was the pretzel sandwich consisting of "Fresh Neumann's Pretzel roll served with Cervelat and Jagdwurst, Cheddar Cheese, Romaine Lettuce, Onions and Stone Ground Mustard." I don't what all of those words mean, but the taste was phenomenal! It is a goal in my life to someday make really really good pretzels for such a purpose. Oh, our table also shared a boot of beer. How festive!
The third German place we've tried out is Stammtisch (http://www.stammtischpdx.com/). This place is conveniently only a 20 minute walk from us. I've sampled some wonderful beers at Stammtisch including Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen, a wonderfully smokey beer. Smokey things are a delight. This beer introduced me to the whole smokey style of beer called rauchbier. I will learn more about this style. Anyway, Stammtisch is fancy. Think rabbit with pureed root vegetables. Honestly, the key to Stammtisch is to remember to ask for water. This is a fancy worldly place. The beer is strong and delicious and is brought out quickly, the food is equally delicious and takes a while to prepare (understandably so) and is a reasonably but modest serving, the water is not provided unless you ask for it. Strong beer now + modest portions later + no water = you might have a problem. Order a pretzel (served with little dishes of schmaltz, mustard, and some yummy camembert spread) to tide you over and always always always remember to ask your server for water. My goodness.
I've discovered my love of German food since moving to Portland which is a little nutty considering how much of Iowa's food has strong German ties. I mean, pork tenderloin. Thin, breaded, fried pork. Sounds an awful lot like schnitzel. Potato salad? Sounds suspiciously German to me. I will honor my Iowa roots and my German heritage by celebrating my love of German food in my own kitchen. Which brings me to the very title of this blog!
I MADE SCHNITZEL! I pounded out some pork loin real thin, dredged it in flour, dredged it in a mixture of egg and milk with a little nutmeg, dredged it in panko crumbs mixed with a bit of grated parm, salt/pepper, fried it up. The whole process was a lot easier than I was expecting although my kitchen is a disaster zone. This blog post has an ulterior motive. While I'm busy typing up my love of German food I am most definitely not cleaning my kitchen. It will get cleaned before bed. Anywho, served with my amazing schnitzel was homemade German potato salad! How neat! Steam and chop some potatoes. Fry a bit of bacon (I used salt pork because it was in my fridge. Sidenote, I learned about salt pork while reading the "Little House" books and have always wanted to try it and I finally have! It's...salty. It worked with the potatoes and made me feel close to Laura Ingalls Wilder who is my #1 childhood hero. Delightful!). Toss with the potatoes. In the same pan you use to fry the bacon (salt pork), fry up some onion and then toss the onion with the potatoes. In the same pan again boil up a quarter cup white vinegar, a couple tablespoons of water, three tablespoons of sugar, and some salt/pepper. Toss that in with the potatoes and mix it up. Potato salad! Also served with the schnitzel and German potato salad was some large curd cottage cheese. From a tub. Making schnitzel and potato salad was tiring and there was no more counter space to be had. Washed down with Velvet Merlin oatmeal stout by Firestone. Dessert was a chocolate chip cookie from the batch I made last night. How wonderful! :)
*I COMPLETELY FORGOT THE CHUTNEY! One of my coworkers was given some Italian plums by a friend of hers that has a tree in her yard. My coworker made chutney out of said Italian plums, whole grain mustard, and what I only assume is good fairy magic. Because this chutney is magical. I put it on the schnitzel and was very happy.
