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Archive for the ‘Food & Drink’ Category

Easter & May Stammtisch

Posted in Business, Film, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on April 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break – and those of you who were in Germany probably had to ‘endure’ the tropical climate there. And if you feel you had too many chocolate Easter eggs and are looking to watch future sugar intake, you might like this article in Stern on ‘Süssmacher’. It shows just how much sugar is in various (sometimes unsuspecting) products.

With Easter, Royal Weddings and so on, we thought April is just too busy for a Stammtisch. But in less than two weeks’ time – on Tuesday, 10 May – we will meet again. Ralph Sälzer, the managing director of the Liebherr factory in Sunderland has invited us to a factory tour, which will start at 6pm. From 7pm onwards, we will then be in the Irish pub TJ Doyles just up the road for German food (eg Schnitzel and Potato Salad) and German/Austrian beers. Dermot, who runs the Irish pub/restaurant, lived in Austria for a while and will make sure we have authentic food & drink. Please let me know if you will join us – either for the factory tour/for food & drink/or both – so that we can cater for this accordingly and I will also send directions to those who will come along.

Liebherr is one of the largest German family owned companies and employs around 32,000 people worldwide. It is not the only family owned company (Familienunternehmen) here in the North East, there is also Aldi, Lidl, Heraeus, Makro (Metro Group), Freudenberg and, of course, across the UK well-known brands such as BMW, Porsche, Dr Oetker, Bosch, Otto (they own Freemans/Grattan here), Würth, Haniel, Merck etc. Of Germany’s 1,500 world leaders (ie they are the number 1,2 or 3 in their particular sector), 70% are family owned and 51% of the largest listed 250 companies in Germany are also under one family’s control.

Just like anywhere else, family-owned companies in Germany face numerous challenges and a key one is to find a suitable and willing successor. The Handelsblatt has established a portal for business owners who are looking to sell their company. To see what type of businesses are available, visit the website Deutsche Unternehmerbörse.

Japan has dominated the news in recent months following the earth quake and subsequent impact on its nuclear industry. On a happier note, this year Germany celebrates 150 years’ friendship with Japan. Back in 1861 Prussia and Japan signed its first friendship and trade treaty, the foundation for this relationship. If you want to find out more about the background, activities and events that are taking place in Germany and Japan, visit the website. And do you know which German city is called ‘Klein-Tokio am Rhein’? In this German city, over 7,000 Japanese have found a new home and around 450 Japanese companies established a base in the region. The city on the Rhein will also be a focus for the 150 Year Celebrations with a traditional Japan Week from 21 to 28 May.

The Tyneside Cinema currently shows a new film directed by Wim Wenders. Pina is a tribute to the choreographer Pina Bausch and was filmed in Wuppertal. Click here to get to the film’s website. In the trailer you can see a famous train (Schwebebahn) and it’s safety was demonstrated in a very unique way. Does anybody know how and what happened next???

I would like to wish you all a great time on Friday whatever you’re doing and look forward to seeing you again soon.

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Helau Stammtisch!

Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on March 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It’s the final hours of this year’s carnival and maybe you had a chance to join in the festivities somewhere around the world (apparently they even have a pet carnival in Rio)? I was wondering if some of our Stammtisch members fancy doing something for Fasching 2012? This could be activities with local schools or even a carnival ball with lots of fancy dress. It would be interesting to see if there’s some interest in this. Or maybe we’ll just join in the UK traditions and have some pancake instead? To give you 2012 Fasching dates, their will be ‘Weiberfastnacht’ on 16 February, ‘Rosenmontag’ is 20 February and finally Faschingsdienstag on 21 February. And maybe it’s not a good idea to tell the kids that in Germany the women cut off men’s ties….

We’ve already had quite a number of acceptances for our next Stammtisch on Monday, 21 March at the Mansion House in Jesmond. Please let me know by latest Thursday, 17 March if you’ll join us to make sure we have enough food for all. David Faulkner, the leader of Newcastle City Council, will talk about the Ruhr Capital of Culture from 6.30pm onwards, followed by our usual informal get-together and German Linseneintopf mit Bockwurst at £7.95 per person.

The other dates for your diary are Tuesday, 10 May for the Liebherr factory visit in Sunderland followed by Schnitzel & Bier Dinner and Tuesday, 21 June back at the Mansion House for an evening all about wine.

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Congratulations to WEST in Glasgow

Posted in Food & Drink, Restaurants on March 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I would also like to send congratulations to the West Brewery in Glasgow. The brewery and restaurant, which looks like a proper Munich Bierkeller, not only brews beer according to the German Reinheitsgebot, but also has lots of tasty German dishes on its menu. The Scots seem to really appreciate it as West has just been voted ‘The Best Family Restaurant in Scotland’. But that’s not all – the West brewing team also received three medals at January’s UK keg beer competition – for further details see www.westbeer.com.

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Stammtisch Dates for March, May and June

Posted in Food & Drink, Stammtisch on February 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Just a quick reminder about our first Stammtisch of the year, which will take place on Monday, 21 March at the Mansion House in Jesmond.

The evening will start at 6.30pm with a presentation by David Faulkner, the leader of Newcastle City Council, about the Ruhr Capital of Culture. Gunther then has a Linseneintopf mit Bockwurst (lentil stew) ready, which will be £7.95 per person.

Please let me know if you’re coming – payment for the dinner will be again on the night.

On Tuesday, 10 May, we will take the Stammtisch south of the river to Sunderland. Stammtisch member Ralph Sälzer, who has been in charge of the Liebherr manufacturing facility for the past nine years, has invited us to a factory visit. Liebherr, a wholly family owned business, produces marine cranes for a worldwide market and employs around 200 staff at the Sunderland facility.

Afterwards we will head to TJ Doyles, an Irish pub just next door, which has Schnitzel and various Austrian/German beers on the menu. We will meet at 6pm for the factory visit, followed by dinner at the pub from around 7pm.

In June, the Mansion House will then host our next Stammtisch on Tuesday, 21, which will include a talk about wine, some samples plus German food. More details will follow in due course.

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New Year Greetings

Posted in Books, Business, Events organised by Others, Film, Food & Drink, Languages & Communications, Restaurants, Stammtisch on January 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

I hope you all had a great start to the snow free New Year and are enjoying the slightly warmer temperatures. We have now got another date for the Stammtisch at the Mansion House, which will be held on Monday, 21 March, starting at 6.30pm. Gunther will prepare a warming Linseneintopf mit Bockwurst (lentil stew) at a cost of £7.95 per person and the leader of Newcastle City Council, David Faulkner will also join us for a talk about the Ruhr Capital of Culture (Gelsenkirchen, Newcastle’s twin city in Germany was part of the celebrations last year). As usual, just let me know if you’re coming and payment will be again at the door.

We are also currently planning a German wine tasting evening later in the year, but more as soon as we’ve got this organised. If you have suggestions for future events/themes, please let me know – it would be great to get your ideas!

The Stammtisch also received an invitation from Newcastle City Council to the Holocaust Memorial Commemorative Event “Untold Stories”, which takes place on Sunday, 30 January from 3pm at the Journal Tyne Theatre at Westgate Road. There will be a commemorative performance, including keynote speeches from; Youk Chang, Professor Roberta Greene and Peter Kurer and a celebration of ‘The Galloping Stone’ an anthology of writing by clients, staff and volunteers from the Medical Foundation for the Care of the Victims of Torture, by Gillian Allnut and others from New Writing North. The programme will also feature classical and contemporary musical performances from Katie Doherty as well as a solo performance from Bradley Creswick leader of the Northern Sinfonia and a performance by Hotspur Children’s Choir. For further information about the event and to order your ticket – please visit: http://www.hmd.org.uk/events/find/north-east/11733newcastle-holocaust-memorial-commemorative-event-untold-stories.

The Lit & Phil also holds some events to commemorate the Holocaust and if you don’t know this landmark building next to the Central Station, go and check it out. It’s open to non-members and you will be impressed by this little oasis in bustling Newcastle. The Literary & Philosophical Society dates back to 1793 and some of the North East’s leading thinkers, inventors and business people have been amongst its members. The current building was opened in 1825 and today houses over 150,000 books and an extensive music library. To find out more about the society, the library and forthcoming events, visit www.litandphil.org.uk.

That a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, we all know. But last year the shelters were full of unwanted four-legged companions and many unfortunately had to be put down. If one of your new year resolutions is to keep fit, why not check out some of the local animal shelters (such as Brysons – www.brysons.org.uk) to get a suitable partner. And if you’re worried if you can take your dog to a pub for a well-deserved pint, there’s a great website that tells you where you both can go to – www.doggiepubs.org.uk.

And if you’re New Year resolution is to learn a new language – another Stammtisch member sent me this link to this free award-winning online language learning community: http://www.busuu.com/. If anybody has been on it and has some feedback, please post this here on our blog.

And if you’re a fluent German speaker, you might even want to head over there – apparently the German economy is doing rather well – with a 2010 growth of 3.6%. And the Handelsblatt recently reported that there are even 40,000 open ‘Hilfsarbeiter’ (un-/lower skilled labour) positions, which is surprising as we still have almost 3 million people unemployed. If you want to know what are Germany’s top 10 most sought after positions – Stern carried Adecco’s Stellenindex 2010. Click here for further details.

And if you want to know what Germans find entertaining – then just get ‘Hummeldumm’ – this is the title of one of Germany’s top selling books in 2010. I picked it up while on holiday last year and had a few giggles If anybody wants to borrow it, let me know. The author Tommy Jaud (a fellow Franconian) had already previous bestsellers with Vollidiot, Resturlaub and Millionaer. My personal favourite Resturlaub is currently being made into a movie – as I’ve just seen on Tommy Jaud’s homepage – http://www.tommyjaud.de/tommyjaud/home. Maybe when it’s out, we can persuade the Tyneside Cinema to do a special viewing for us.

Anyway, that’s it from me for today – if you can’t wait till 21 March for our next Stammtisch – let me know and I’ll ask the pub over the road here in Tynemouth if they’ll do us a very nice Schnitzel with Pommes.
Have a very enjoyable and successful 2011!

Warm regards

Manuela

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Autumn Update

Posted in Business, Events organised by Others, Food & Drink, Jobs, Languages & Communications, Stammtisch, Travel on November 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Dear Stammtisch Friends

In just over six weeks, it will be Christmas again and we have of course planned another Christmas Dinner (Weihnachtsessen). The Mansion House will look after us this year on Monday, 6 December and on the menu will be Christmas goose and dumplings (Weihnachtsgans und Kloesse). The overall cost will be £20 for a three course dinner.

The evening will start at 7pm with a Glühwein reception, followed by dinner at 7.45pm. You will need to book in advance this time directly with the Mansion House (Tel: 0191 281 0863), where you can pay either by debit card or cheque (credit card payment will incur a 2.5% surcharge). Please note that places will be limited, so if you want to join us, let them know asap.

If you can’t wait until December, why not come along to the annual Christmas Bazaar at St James United Reformed Church on Saturday, 27 November from 11am to 2pm, which is organised by the Pfarramt Schottland/Nordostengland. Or if you want to travel a bit further for some Glühwein, Bratwürste or Plätzchen – in Edinburgh they have a fabulous traditional German Christmas Market which starts this year on Thursday, 25 November all the way through to 24 December. Visit www.edinburghschristmas.com for further information. West Brewery in Glasgow also keep it festive with their special Weihnachtsbier – www.westbeer.com.

Last year Newcastle’s Christmas market featured in a recent service reisen clip from Hessen TV (HR), which I received through Stammtisch member Michael Waugh. It’s all about travelling from Amsterdam to Newcastle, with a special focus on our regional capital and Northumberland.

Back in Germany, you may know that they like to use a lot of English in German advertisements. Stern Online recently let you do a test to find out how well Germans actually understand these slogans. If you want to find out how good your ‘Werbe-Englisch’ really is, have a go yourself.

And if you think your English or German skills need to improve, why don’t you check out language learning materials from Spotlight Verlag. Spotlight, Spot On and Business Spotlight provide interesting news and feature articles from English speaking countries, while Deutsch perfekt covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Interesting articles about Spain and Latin America are in Ecos, France is featured in Écoute and for Italian lovers it has to be Adesso. www.spotlight-verlag.de publishes a monthly magazine for each language, accompanying CDs, exercise/grammar booklets and has online resources.

German language skills might just come in handy for those who might think that employment opportunities are better on the continent. Last month Germany’s unemployment figures fell just below 3 million (well, there are also a lot of people retiring….), but future skills shortages seem to become a real issue. So it might soon be again ‘Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’…..

But then again, wouldn’t it be nice to work in the comfort of your own home on a cold, windy day like today with no travel involved at all? Or enjoy more sunny hours in your garden or on the beach in our lovely region? Sensée is the UK’s leading homeworking specialist and last month the company started its first homeworking agent hub here in the North East. They are currently recruiting for inbound customer service for a major UK retailer, offering full-time positions for homebased agents. If you know somebody who might be interested, the website provides further details on current vacancies. All that’s required is a suitable workspace, PC, landline and broadband access.

See you soon at the Christmas Dinner on 6 December.

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Food & Beer – It’s Oktoberfest Time

Posted in Film, Food & Drink, Languages & Communications, Music, Travel on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Grisinagott!

Now that autumn has well and truly arrived, we can celebrate the Oktoberfest! This year it’s a pretty significant date, as the Wies’n celebrates its 200th anniversary.

For those of you who can’t make it to Munich – one of the North East’s pubs has embraced our Bavarian festivities and maybe you want to join us on Thursday, 14 October from 6pm onwards at the Brandling Villa in Gosforth. Please let me know who wants to come so that we can reserve a table. On their beer menu you can find many local beers, but also Erdinger Dunkel, Köstritzer Schwarzbier and Schneider Weisse. The food bar will offer typical Oktoberfest dishes such as Hendl (grilled chicken), Schweinebraten (roast pork), Brezel (Pretzels), Knödel (potato dumplings), Bratwurst and Currywurst. For further information on the Brandling Villa, its Oktoberfest (14 – 16 October), directions and the menu, click here.

The Hilton in Gateshead, who hosted last year’s Oktoberfest, have a typical menu again up until 7 October. There you can get dishes such as Kartoffelsuppe (potato soup), Aufschnittsplatte (selection of meats/chees), Matjesfilet Hausfrauenart (herring with apples and cream), Schweineschnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat (pork cutlet and potatoe salad), Hähnchen “Cordon Bleu” mit Bratkartoffeln und roten Zwiebeln (chicken cordon bleu with roast potatoes and onions) sowie Bratwurst und Sauerkraut (grilled sausage and sauerkraut). And if you still have space for desert, there’s a choice of Zwetschenkuchen (plum cake), Apfeltorte (apple gateau) and Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (blackforest gateau).

And if that has not satisfied your appetite, you can always head north to Glasgow, where the WEST Brewery and Bar run an Oktoberfest all through the month. They are even brewing their very own OktoberWEST and have the WEST Oompah Band playing live every Friday from 7.30pm onwards – www.westbeer.com.

Being a typical Munich event, I thought maybe you want to brush up on your language skills? The Oktoberfest site provides you with a lot of information about the event, the history and also the language: http://www.oktoberfest.de/de/navitem/Gaudi/. The online dictionary can also be downloaded as an app and you might also check out the Stern video about the best apps for the Wies’n.

If you want to work on your pronunciation, you might want also to listen to a real Bavarian band – the Spider Murphy Gang, who in the 80s were super successful. Another great programme promoting the Bavarian language was the 10-part series Monaco Franze, which played in Munich. If you can remember this fab programme and are feeling nostalgic, there are quite a few clips on YouTube and there’s even a very entertaining fan page on Facebook. Here’s one where Monaco Franze shows you how to drive a civil servant around the bend – click here.

Civil servants and food leads to another story that recently made the news in Germany – and hopefully both the Hilton and the Brandling Villa take note as it’s all about Schnitzels. A restaurant owner got into trouble with the tax man as he sold disproportionately large Schnitzels to his very hungry guests in Saxony. To read the full story on Reuters, click here.

However, some civil servants do have a sense of humour and Swiss Bundesrat Merz showed this when delivering a speech on a new EU law re a specific Swiss meat and ‘slightly’ lost his composure in the process. His ‘speech’ has now become a YouTube hit – click here.

Anyway, I hope you’re all in good spirits and we see many of you at our October meeting on 14th at the Brandling Villa.

Tschüß

Manuela

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BBQ Stammtisch at the Mansion House – 26 July

Posted in Food & Drink, Stammtisch on June 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We now have the date for our next Stammtisch – Monday, 26 July 2010. In the expectation that we will have a fabulous summer’s evening, we’re planning a BBQ at the Mansion House in Jesmond. The £15 menu will include:

Minute Steak with Mustard Peppercorn Marinade
Spare Ribs with Rich Barbecue Sauce
Original Bratwurst
Home-made Bulletten
Haloumi, Courgettes, Mushroon, Red Onion & Pepper Kebabs
Guacamole – Mustard – Lemon Mayonnaise
Salsa
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A Selection of Breads is served with the Barbecue Menu
Hot Minted New Potatoes
Mixed leafy Salad with Summer Herbs and Organic Tomatoes
**
Doddingtons Brown Ale Ice Cream
**
Dangerously Chilled Erdinger, Krombacher, Becks & Holstein
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Croquet & Boules on the Lawn

The bar & terrace will be open from 5.30pm, the grill from 7.15pm onwards. Please let me know again, if you’re coming as we need to know numbers for the catering.

Further information about the Mansion House in Jesmond, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Newcastle is available at the website: http://www.newcastlemansionhouse.co.uk/

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Spring Stammtisch at the Mansion House

Posted in Food & Drink, Stammtisch on May 6, 2010| 6 Comments »

The Mansion House in Jesmond will host our Spring Stammtisch on Monday, 14 June 2010. Gunther Seebacher has organised a very special ‘Blackforest Menu’ for us:

Ogen-Melone mit Schwarzwälder Schinken

**

Jägerschnitzel mit Spätzle

Bunter Salatteller

**

Apfelstrudel  mit Vanilleeis

**

Kaffee mit Mansion House Schokolade

Cost for the three course menu will be again £15/head. The bar opens at 6pm and dinner will be served at 7.15pm. The terrace at the Mansion House will also be open for drinks.

The Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Newcastle. More information on the venue and its location visit the website – click here.

To book a Stammtisch dinner on 14 June, email info@lexica-communications.com or call us on 0191 230 8037.

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Easter Stammtisch – 12 April

Posted in Books, Food & Drink, Stammtisch on April 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Our Easter Stammtisch will be on Monday, 12 April, starting at around 6.30pm, with food arriving at 7pm. The Easter menu will follow in due course – any suggestions for typical food for this season, let us know! The venue is again the Hilton at the Quayside in Gateshead.

The Stammtisch group is constantly growing and we expect another great turnout – make sure you let us know that you’re coming so we have enough food! Email: info@lexica-communications.com.

50 einfache Dinge, die einfach deutsch sind gives you an insight into Germans – for example their obsession with sitting outside, trying not to be typical German or avoiding fellow Germans when on holiday. It covers the ‘Fräuleinwunder’, our politicians, ‘Modern Talking’ and so on. One of our Stammtisch regulars has a copy, if somebody wants to have a peek on Monday.

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