Day 80: Happy Father’s Day!
Same Old, Same Old
At this point, I have a routine for my Sundays. I usually sleep in and wake up at around 10:00AM, then I lazy around with a cup of tea watching sports highlights or news or something on Netflix, and then at around 12:30PM/1:00PM, I’ll head to a cafe for a few hours to read. Yesterday was no different, although I started the day a bit later due to some late night binging of Emily in Paris. There is no shame here.
A New Cafe
It was time to step out of the apartment in the early afternoon. It’s really easy for me to turn right and head straight down to Strohberg, but I wanted to check out something different today. As I opened the door, the heat from the sun hit me like a train. It was really, really hot. I’m glad I opted for shorts and a t-shirt.
I turned left (surprise!) and made my way over to the adjacent street. This is where LIST Cafe is, but I didn’t want to stop by there again. All the way at the end of the street is a cafe called Café Lang - My Best Espresso. I stopped by here once before and I really liked their coffee. My Best Espresso is a coffee company that operates primarily out of this location and their beans are 👌🏾.
The entrance to the cafe is in the corner of the building. Previously, I sat outside along the row of seats positioned against the building wall. I didn’t realize that the cafe extended inside into an open table area. There was one big, table, with lots of seats around it (probably 15 or so). Around it were shelves of beans from varying roast styles and brewing equipment for the every-day expert amateur. I grabbed a cappuccino and a yogurt parfait, and posted up for a few hours pouring through my Kindle.
At some point, the owner of the restaurant approached me with a tray, and offered me a croissant with a lemon-vanilla custard filling, free of charge. He needed to make space in the shelf and didn’t want to waste the food, so I accepted. When I took a bite of this croissant, I closed my eyes and thought I was transported to heaven, if such a thing exists. I have never had such a delicious croissant in my life. I didn’t even know they can come filled. Sorry, Strohberg. Looks like there’s a new #1 in my life.
Dinner + Stroll
After a few hours at the cafe reading, I made my way home and started a checklist for all of the things I need to do this week. I front-loaded some emails to make it marginally less stressful later on. After walking through my checklist, I decided it was time to grub.
I was craving Indian food for some reason. Luckily, there is a restaurant, Taj Mahal Indisches Restaurant (translation: Indian restaurant), not too far away. It’s about a 15-minute walk from the apartment, which is very convenient. This was the first time having Indian food in Germany. To be honest, I’m not sure why I didn’t have it sooner, because this place was pretty solid. Socially, there is a large footprint by the Indian community in Germany due to economic opportunity and trade that’s grown over the last few decades, and therefore a large collection of restaurants and stores are around Stuttgart and the surrounding area.
I always measure an Indian restaurant by their naan and chicken tikka masala. If you know how to make good naan and you can pull together a convincing chicken tikka masala, I expect your other dishes to follow in quality. I would rate this place 5.5/10 for flavor and quality (which is a solid rating IMHO), but a 1/10 for price. That was probably the single most expensive dish I’ve paid for so far in Germany.
Clearly, this place is popular given the reviews, but I just can’t believe they attract so many people with these prices, unless it’s considered really, really good. I’m on the hunt for another place tonight in the Stuttgart city center. You’ll get my review tomorrow.
After dinner, I made my way back to Marienplatz and grabbed a cup of ice-cream from the gelato store. The heat was killer and some spice lingered in my mouth from dinner. I strolled around the block and neighborhood before coming home and turning in for the night.
I’m going to really miss Sundays like this in Marienplatz.
Frieden und Liebe ❤️ (translation: peace and love)