NYT: Holiday Tables: Bon Appétit to Guten Appetit

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

December 20, 2009
Journeys

By GISELA WILLIAMS

DURING the holiday season, the already difficult task of deciding where to dine in Europe’s major cities becomes Herculean. Many restaurants, especially the more intimate, independently run places, are closed on Dec. 24 and 25; high-end hotel restaurants are more likely to stay open but can be stiff, expensive and full of tourists.

“Although I love Paris 365 days a year, Christmas can be a tricky time to visit,” Beth Marlin, the editor of Paris-Insider.com, wrote in an e-mail message. “The week between Christmas and New Years can be disappointing for tourists who expect everything to be open (museums, restaurants) according to a normal schedule. It is possible to arrive somewhere and find a sign in the window that says ‘Closed until after January 1st.’ ”

That doesn’t mean that tourists should avoid Paris during the holidays. On the contrary, Ms. Marlin writes: “A walk down the Champs-Élysées at night with the trees lit up, or along the Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré can be downright magical. With the right itinerary, it can be spectacular.”

Sometimes it’s a matter of planning. Take, for example, Le Jules Verne, Alain Ducasse’s restaurant nestled overheard in the Eiffel Tower. While it’s open on Christmas Eve and Christmas, only a few tables are available for lunch on Christmas Day.

Here are suggestions for places to eat in five European cities. Some are open on Christmas Eve, some on Christmas Day, some both. And many are offering special menus. (Call ahead for reservations and to check availability.)

PARIS

Just a skip away from Jules Verne is the well-regarded Au Bon Accueil (14, rue de Monttessuy, 75007; 33-1-4705-4611; www.aubonaccueilparis.com), a modern bistro owned by the restaurateur Jacques Lacipiere. The chef, Naobumi Assaki, turns out precise, elegant food in a friendly setting.

On Dec. 24 and 25, the restaurant will be offering a five-course Christmas lunch menu (60 euros a person, or $87 at $1.45 to the euro, without wine) that brings to mind the sort of fare a food-loving French family might dine on at home, including oysters, chicken with a turnip purée and black truffle jus, a selection of rich French cheeses and a dark-chocolate mille-feuille.

LONDON

The quintessential holiday meal in London is all about mince pies and puddings. Food-obsessed travelers can pick up preordered pies and puddings to go (until late afternoon on Dec. 23) at the widely acclaimed St. John Restaurant (26 St. John Street, EC1M; 44-20-7251-0848; www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk).

The Christmas Feasting menus being offered by Fergus Henderson, St. John’s pioneering chef, are available only until Dec. 23. But the Butlers Wharf Chop House (36e Shad Thames, SE1; 44-20-7403-3403; www.danddlondon.com) is open on Christmas Eve and for lunch on Christmas Day. Not only does the traditional British restaurant serve up an excellent holiday meal with all the fixings (mince pies included), it’s perched on the Thames and looks out over the Tower Bridge. The three-course meal is £170 for two, or $272 at $1.60 to the pound.

STOCKHOLM

On setting alone, Stockholm’s grand Operakallaren (The Royal Opera House, Karl XII:s torg; 46-8-676-5800; www.eng.operakallaren.se), situated near the banks of the Norrstrom and next to the Royal Palace, is a winner. But when it comes to the Christmas Eve Julbord — a holiday version of the traditional smorgasbord that includes specialties like glazed ham and rice porridge spiked with cinnamon — it’s the dining room of choice for many local families. In fact, according to the restaurant’s chef, Stefano Catenacci, a reservation there for lunch on Christmas Eve is so sought-after that the next opening for a table in the main dining room is in 2011.

Fortunately the Operakallaren has a lot of extra rooms. “We have space left, but not in the main dining room,” Mr. Catenacci said. “There are tables upstairs in the banqueting room, and just yesterday we chose to open up the opera bar, a small room where you sit up to 80 people.” The Julbord at Operakallaren starts at 750 kronor to 980 kronor a person, or about $110 to $140 at 6.95 kronor to the dollar.

ROME

Though fish plays a part in the Swedish Julbord, Christmas Eve in Rome takes it to another level: a seven-course dinner in which each dish contains a different type of seafood.

Jessica Stewart, the Rome manager for Context, a boutique travel company that organizes urban walking tours, recommends Casa Bleve (Via del Teatro Valle, 48-49; 39-06-686-5970; www.casableve.it), a palatial winte bar within the former courtyard of the 16th-century Palazzo Medici Lante della Rovere.

This is the first year that Casa Bleve will be serving its version of the traditional Christmas Eve fish feast (for 145 euros a person), and it sounds like one worth seeking out. Courses include a seared mackerel with buffalo’s milk burrata and roasted tomatoes, an octopus and chanterelle mushroom soup with fried purple potatoes and pasta stuffed with red shrimp on a bed of artichoke cream.

On Christmas Day, when most Roman families are eating leftovers at home, Ms. Stewart suggests booking a table at the popular Hostaria dell’Orso (Via dei Soldati, 25C; 39-06- 6830-1192; www.hdo.it), which is open on Dec. 24 and 25.

MUNICH

Around Christmastime, this Bavarian city becomes a winter wonderland, with its Baroque architecture and twinkling markets filled with red-cheeked locals catching up over sausages and mulled wine.

It’s also famous for one of the most decadent and delicious Christmas meals Europe has to offer: the traditional holiday roasted goose, typically served with dumplings and red cabbage. The century-old restaurant Spatenhaus an der Oper (Residenzstrasse 12; 49-89-290-7060), in an elegant historic building overlooking the opera house, will be offering freshly cooked goose on Dec. 24. Try it at lunchtime so you have a chance to walk off those calories. A meal is 24.90 euros a person.

Still hungry on Christmas Day after all that goose? Head to the city’s historic center to join the locals for a glass of beer and weisswurst at a beer hall like the Ratskeller (Marienplatz 8; 49-89-219-9890; www.ratskeller.com) or Weisses Bräuhaus (Tal 7; 49-89-290-1380; www.weisses-brauhaus.de).

DW: Germans remain the undisputed kings of travel

Thank you for your time with my blogs and welcome back in the near future.

05.12.2009

If there is one title the Germans appear unwilling to relinquish, it is that of travel world champions. Figures released this week show that no nation's feet itch like theirs, even in these times of economic hardship.

Wanderlust is alive and well, Klaus Laepple President of the German Travel Association (DRV) assured delegates attending the annual conference in Egypt.

He said that "almost as many Germans had been on organized holidays (in 2009) as in the previous year," and that the industry had only suffered a three to four percent loss as compared to 2008. He attributed this slight drop into sales volume to lower prices brought about by the global economic slump.

But it is not only organized foreign vacations that are thriving, short trips, tailor-made trips and sejourns on home turf are also popular with the German public.

So why, when other traditionally travel-happy nations are being forced to trade their two weeks in the sun for day trips closer to home, are Germans still gaily trotting the globe as if nothing were amiss?

Setting priorities

Part of the answer is money. Although Germans have also been hit by the financial crisis, their general antipathy towards overspending means they have more money stashed under their mattresses to pay for things they really want.

And what many really want, according to DRV spokeswoman Sybille Zeuch, is a holiday.

"The average worker gets six weeks of leave per year," she told Deutsche Welle. "And they want to use it to travel."

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Concerns about money and the environment are moving more Germans to holiday on their own turf

Zeuch says the chance to get away from it all is one thing that very few Germans are willing to do without.

"They want to leave the challenges of the daily grind behind them, to experience new things and to gain new impressions from overseas," she said.

Klaus Braehmig of the government committee on tourism says it is this impulse to expand their horizons by exploring new landscapes and cultures that keeps Germans on the move - come hell, high water or financial recession.

"They are open to the world which means they are curious about other people and their habits and customs," he said.

Following the literary leader

That interest dates back several hundred years. Braehmig cites Goethe's travel writing as a major source of inspiration for the German travel bug in that the renowned writer "made travel socially acceptable."

"And in so doing, he did his bit for European dialog," he added.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe documented his European travels

That dialog faltered twice along the way, with devastating consequences for the continent and a virtual eradication of the European tourism industry. But then the came the post-war years and the new-found freedoms helped out by Germany's 1950s-era economic miracle.

Add to that the fact that for 40 years citizens of East Germany were denied access to much of the world and it is not hard to understand why Germans appear to be on a mission to explore as much of the globe as they can.

"There are very few places Germans have not been to," Zeuch said, conceding that going to far-flung destinations is on a par in status terms with a sparkling Mercedes in the driveway.

"Of course people like to say they've been to Dubai or to Vietnam or on a safari," the DRV spokeswoman said. "Those are not experiences which everyone has."

Autor: Tamsin Walker

Editor: Kyle James