Day 4
Tuesday, January 04, 2011My husband Matt and I are both full time college students taking classes online with schools back in North Carolina. Usually we both work all day and work on school work at night to try and leave the weekends open to spend some time together, go out with friends, and clean the house or do laundry. I can't even remember the last time we went out on a week night, not counting a quick dinner!
Our friend’s girlfriend was visiting him for a few weeks from New York City and we wanted to help him show her a good time so we agreed to go out to dinner in downtown Stuttgart. One of our favorite places to go for authentic Swabian food is Sophie’s Brauhaus. Sophie's is a local brewery with great atmosphere; I love that they offer a front row seat to the brewing process.
You might be wondering what "Swabian food" consists of, we were too the first time we heard of it. Swabia (or "Schwaben" in German) is the cultural, historic, and linguistic region in which our state, Baden-Württemberg is located. The Swabian dialect is a little difficult to understand if you are from another region in Germany and the food is absolutely what you would expect from German cuisine. My favorite meal at Sophie's is the "Tellerschnitzle," and Matt loves the Maultaschen.
Maultaschen (German meat-filled pasta dumplings) are a Swabian specialty from southwestern Germany. The word means "mouth pockets," and they are akin to Italian ravioli, Chinese won-tons and Jewish kreplach.
Our friend’s girlfriend was visiting him for a few weeks from New York City and we wanted to help him show her a good time so we agreed to go out to dinner in downtown Stuttgart. One of our favorite places to go for authentic Swabian food is Sophie’s Brauhaus. Sophie's is a local brewery with great atmosphere; I love that they offer a front row seat to the brewing process.
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| Sophie's |
You might be wondering what "Swabian food" consists of, we were too the first time we heard of it. Swabia (or "Schwaben" in German) is the cultural, historic, and linguistic region in which our state, Baden-Württemberg is located. The Swabian dialect is a little difficult to understand if you are from another region in Germany and the food is absolutely what you would expect from German cuisine. My favorite meal at Sophie's is the "Tellerschnitzle," and Matt loves the Maultaschen.
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| Tellerschnitzel |
"Teller" means "plate" in German and this particular Schnitzel is pork (although you can find chicken or wiener-schnitzel (veal) as well), served with a delicious salad (they always put German potato salad in their salads here, I think that's a Swabian thing).
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| Maultaschen |
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| Our typical "snack" at Sophie's |
Our friends Warren and Thilo first introduced us to Sophie's on a chilly day last November. We met up in downtown Stuttgart one Saturday afternoon to do some flea market browsing and became very hungry, and thirsty for some German beer (that's easy to do around here). I have always enjoyed pretzels and beer, so Germany has been heaven for my palate but hell on my figure :(
Since Sophie's Brauhaus is a brewery, they have a great selection of house brews. Our favorite is the "House Hell." "Hell" means "light" in German.
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| Sophie's Bier |
Sophie's house brew Hell:
A straw-yellow to golden-colored, yeasty and full bottom-fermented beer with an original gravity of 12% and 5.0% alcohol - aromatic hops and malzbetont.Sophie's Black Beer:
A dark, yeasty and full bottom-fermented beer with an original gravity of 12% and 5.0% alcohol by volume - the malt flavor dominates a pure, clear and balanced hop bitterness.
Sophie's Hefeweizen:
Amber, yeasty and full top-fermented beer brewing to Munich with a original gravity of 12.5% and 5.2% alcohol by volume - typical and easy to drink with a round Hefegeschmack. For at least 50% wheat produced, the hopping rates are relatively low
Sophie's specialty beers:
Seasonally, Sophie's also offers special beers. Among these are the Christmas beer and the legendary Maibock.
We were having so much fun with Jessica and Warren that we decided to move our little party to Biddy Early's, one of our favorite Irish pubs which also happens to be right next door to Sophie's. We spent a couple more hours getting to know Jess and listening to the band. After finishing our pitcher of Guinness we headed home at about midnight.
I'm so glad we decided to go out on a "school night."
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