08/28 - Whisky and... leg of lamb

The Restaurant Gemsle is closed in the months July and August because this is the main holiday season in the region and many people are not around. Yesterday evening Manfred opened his doors again for guests and we'd the big pleasure to get a leg of lamb which has been prepared in a wrapping of whisky-infused hay... Needless to say that it was mindblowing good. On the point and totally tender.

Manfred Leitner, Restaurant Gemsle, Dornbirn

Leg of lamb

The selection of whiskys was great as always... a lot of Single Malts - with the Springbank NC2, the Laphroaig 1999 Monier Bottling and the Aberlour from the SSMC as my personal highlights - but also some other stuff like a Nikka from Japan, a brandnew Compax Box bottling and two or three Austrian Malts...

Auchentoshan Three Wood, Uuahouu (Austria) in the background

Springbank NC2, Duncan Taylor

Highland Park 18 yo.

Clynelish Distiller's Edition

Aberlour, Scotch Single Malt Circle

Double Barrel, Bowmore & Highland Park

Laphroaig 1999, Monier Bottling

Waiting for the food

Enjoying some good Single Malt

Moses

Compass Box Delilah's, a brandnew limited release

Single Malt and Upmann Petit Corona

Nikka Pure Malt

Cooking makes thirsty

Slainte

Cedar wrapped salmon

Cedar sheets are an important component of most cigar boxes... and they're an excellent accessoir for cooking, especially if you have fish... salmon and cedar go together very well.

The dish itself is very simple: some green asparagus, cherry tomatos, a yellow pepper, some onion and salmon fillet, that's it. All is wrapped in the mentioned cedar sheet (which's been soaked in water or white wine before) and it's put on the grill for cooking... the wood gives a special taste to the food and I'm sure your guests will also like this special kind of presentation...

08/16 - 08/18 - A smoky weekend

I always like to come to Wörrstadt for the pharmacy smoke but the smokes in August are always special. People from different countries find their way in the little village to fire up tasty cigars, bring some food and have a lot of fun together. But it's not the only event... in the meantime it's a tradition that the Cigar Cult Club Mainz-Wiesbaden has its summer feast on the Saturday, and there's a brunch for many of the guys on Sunday... in the end this means: 3 days full of smoke and party...

This time Tanja came with me again and due to the fact that we'd to make some stops on our trip we left at home early... there's still some time left to make a stop for a delicious ice cream and the purchase of some Belgian beer. We're the first to arrive at the pharmacy at 2.30 pm where we received our keys for the room in the Fritz Carlton... ;-) which is closed officially right now for vacation but we'd a special agreement with Richard...

More and more people showed up and in the evening there was the usual crowd which occupied the old lab and the patio. Andreas asked me after a while if I could take care of the grill for some sausages later: I agreed not knowing that there were only 20 kg of lignite briquettes which were nearly impossible to light up with standard methods. Anyhow, they smell like hell and I won't recommend to use them for grilling food. Luckily we found an alternative and after a procedure which took much longer than expected there was enough heat to grill...

The event ended up in the early hours of Saturday morning, it was a pleasure to enjoy some Belgian beers with my friend Koen who also knew much side information about the background of this or that beer...

A short sleep followed... ok, honestly... it was longer than expected... no reason to hurry because we stayed there to join the summer feast of the Cigar Cult Club Mainz-Wiesbaden in the evening.

Due to this the whole day was very unspectacular: a late breakfast, a visit to a local winery owner with some friends where we picked up a few bottles. In the evening we made our way just around the corner to the so called Feierscheier where we spent a very nice evening. More or less we saw the same guys as the evening before but it's always a great occasion to meet people that you see just a few times per year.

Before we left the area to drive back home we enjoyed a brunch in Chez RW Restaurant. Koen was kind enough to bring a nice box of cigars (readers of my blog my remember this box), a very good breakfast cigar but definitely not "extra mild" in regards to today's standard... It helps you to imagine how strong Partagas cigars should have been in the 60s, that's the date this box is approx. from...

It was a great pleasure to come together for a awesome weekend like that... a special thanks goes to my friends Gino from Italy and Koen from Belgium...