Hahndorf

So yesterday Leng Hui and I decided to pay Hahndorf a visit. Jebbrine was too busy berkecoh-ing with the Village people plus they went to church so they didn't tag along. How unlucky...for them that is.
Hahndorf is, supposedly, a German town somewhere about 40 mins from the city. So it's supposed to be famous for the food, or so I heard. I could have gotten my facts wrong. After all I'm just a student who likes to eat.
Ok ok fine. So Yin Yee's parents have a chinese restaurant there. That's another reason why we went :P

Anyway the problem here is that on weekends the buses run less than weekdays so we really had to time our schedule properly. On the way out I noticed the sky was really cloudy - the kind of cloudy that if it were in Malaysia, you would expect heavy rain within the hour. Plus the fact that it was supposed to be kinda chilly according to the weather forecast. And I didn't bring my jacket along...
Seems like I'm slowly getting used to the weather (hopefully, toes and fingers crossed) cuz altho it was cold, more so when the wind was blowing hard, I weathered it without my jacket.
Woohoo!! I have gained Cold Resistance +1!!!

On the bus heading towards Hahndorf, I took out my secret-hopefully-boredom-preventing-item-for-40-minutes-or-so (anyone wanna guess what it is?) and actually stayed awake throughout the trip. That in itself is actually an achievement since I'm so prone to sleeping in public transport. The trip itself was quite nice, kinda like heading from IMU to KKB in a bus. The scenery outside was calming, sorta like on the way to Cameron Highlands, and before long we were at Hahndorf.



















1st thing we saw there was this sign

The chalkboard at the bottom reads:
HOFBR'A'UHAUS
Traditional Bavarian Cuisine.

Heh. We were wondering how in the world
would you pronounce that.

My first impression of Hahndorf was that it was a really nice, quaint little hamlet. It's basically a one road hamlet and the shops on either side are mostly cafes/restaurants and goodie shops. It really reminded me of Cameron Highlands as it was on a hill and the scenery was very green.
As we walked more along the road we came across this shop.














As you can clearly see it's really easy
to tempt me :)

Chocolate Shop!!!
Filled with all things chocolate.
One word describes it : Heaven
The shop had all these funny quotes on
chocolate too.















See, I really wasn't kidding when I
said they sold all things chocolate.

"Death by CHESS"

Not too sure if the board is chocolate but the black and white pieces sure are.
Bad present for me cuz I'll end up eating it and well, what's a chessboard without pieces?




This was on sale too!
Hahaha, we bought one to share :)









Since it's quite impossible to make out from the pic, here's what it said on the box (word for word):

CONFECTIONER ONLY REMEDY
Keep out of reach of chocoholics

BOCHOX (R) 100g NET
--------------------------
active ingredient cocoa solids 70%
For relief from the symptoms of wrinkles and crow's feet
Warning - may cause weight gain if used incorrectly
Directions: Simply break off the desired dosage and consume. You should quickly be overcome by stress-relieveing endorphins and no longer concerned in the slightest about your wrinkles.

IMPORTANT: THIS PACKET IS PROTECTED BY A TAMPER-EVIDENT PAPER WRAP. IF SEAL HAS BEEN BROKEN SUSPECT EVERONE. BOCHOX CAN BE HABIT FORMING.

STORE BELOW 18c

NOT TO BE TAKEN seriously

70% COCOA DARK CHOCOLATE

Fantastic description. There was another 'Emergency Chocolate' too but this was by far the better one. Looked at all the available temptations and finally decided to get myself a Dark Choc Rocky Road (looks like a bunch of marshmallows covered in choc).

Post-temptation attraction, we decided to go pay Yin Yee a visit at the restaurant since I had not had my brekkie and was hungry (you might argue that I'm always hungry but that's debatable). It was really easy to notice her place as it was the only chinese restaurant in the area.
















The sign reads:

HAHNDORF CHINESE RESTAURANT
and some chinese characters which I can't read (but you already knew that)

We went in, saw Yin Yee and had a seat after which she came to ask us what we wanted to eat. We settled for something "without prawns" and "spicy". Then she invited us to go into the kitchen and meet her parents and so we did.
Turns out her parents are from Kampar but have been around, and still speak with an obvious Malaysian accent :) Plus they actually conversed among themselves in cantonese. We had an interesting chat starting off with the typical rapport building stuff. Then we moved on to stuff like landmarks they knew but aren't there anymore, eating places(they actually know where Raju's/Paandi's next to LSPJ is!)(they also know about Ng Tew Lee in Medan Selera *grins*) about places and 'politics' and finally her dad and uncle decided to cook beef wat tan hor and curry laksa for us.

I must say it was the best and most authentic Malaysian food I've ever had since coming here. At that point I told myself that I should go up every month or so for some really good food. It came with sambal and cut red chilli too! Hahaha, instant heaven.















Ahhh yes, the lovely delicious tender beef
wat tan hor.
Notice the placemats seem to be part of some scripture, the teapot and teacups.

The place even had red tanglungs. Really quite authentic.














I was a tad shocked when the curry
appeared. It was chock full with food.
I was actually concerned we might not be able to finish it, then Yin Yee said she told her dad that I "eat a lot". That's why there was so much food.
After that, I had to finish it la. I mean have to give her dad face right? It was delicious anyway.

After that really filling meal, she asked if we wanted dessert so we agreed. It seems that Hanz (one of the 4th years here - a great guy) had this theory that everyone has 2 stomachs. Yep. 1 is your normal stomach and the other is your dessert stomach. Hence everyone can always have dessert no matter how full s/he is. I so totally agreed with that. Oh, the best part is that no matter how much dessert you eat, as long as it ends up in your dessert stomach, the calories don't count! Fantastic!
Anyway, we just asked for a scoop of each of the 4 flavours - they were all heavenly.
Choc fudge, Kahlua, Baileys and Rum & raisin flavours. *drool*

That was the 1st time since coming over that I've eaten so much I couldn't move for a bit.
When we were done, the place had closed for the evening (it would re-open later) so we chatted with Yin Yee and then went for a walk to discover more about the place.














View of a park near the restaurant.
Calming no?
Note: the sky actually was much darker than it seems in the photo.

As we walked around talking, I was looking for a German bakery. Since it's supposed to be a German town/hamlet and I heard German bread was absolutely to die for, I wanted to give it a try. It wasn't to be though as the only bakery we came across only sold the usual stuff.

Went into this shop that sold some really unique stuff like wild hibiscus in syrup (for use with champagne), a whole assortment of Beerenberg items of which Leng Hui bought a Red Wine and Garlic Mustard, very fragrant cinammon sticks and loads more which I can't remember.

Then there was this candle store which sold scented candles which could last forever - the average would be around 100 hours. I believe the largest lasted 400 or so hours. The moment I walked into the store though I was immediately reminded of the departmental stores back home where the entire floor sold perfume.

We also visited this store that sold German sausages. I had a taste of some and bought back a $5 garlic mettwurst (whatever that means, as long as it tastes good). When Leng Hui asked how long it would last, the answer was "ages" and "it just gets harder the longer you keep it". Wow.
Leng Hui got herself a garlic mettwurst too and something called a 'Bum Burner'. That basically looks like a sausage made from cili padi and dried. I had a fingernail-sized piece earlier this evening and, well, suffice to say that if one eats enough of this at one go s/he will definitely end up having a burned bum.















Somewhere up along the road we
came across this store selling funny signs.
Gotta love the Aussie humour.















Yin Yee and Leng Hui posing in front
of a fake horse and carriage.
Yin Yee claims she isn't very photogenic. I see nothing wrong. Sigh...females :P















A quaint old market wagon in
front of a cottage with lotsa flowers in the background.














A nice view of the canopy covering (almost) the entire street.















A German Sign!!!

The only words I can make out are 'Welcome' and 'Hahndorf' though.

No there were no 'one-way road' signs in German unfortunately.

Returning on the other side of the road we came across another sweet shop. Got meself a huge fudge bar for $3. Yummy!
There was also this museum of sorts where they were displaying Aussie aboriginal art which was really nice.

It was towards the end of the trip when we finally decided to get that Bochox. As you can imagine, we already bought quite a lot of stuff (read:food) and for some reason I was carrying it all. So much so that when I went to pay for the Bochox, the owner noted that I had a good day. Hahaha, it was very fruitful that's for sure!

Had to wait for the bus to get back to the city, so instead of freezing our gluteals off in the cold we took shelter inside Yin Yee's restaurant, which had conveniently re-opened by then. Well, I won't bore you with details except to say we left the restaurant with 2 packs of fried rice(delish!!) and a rather huge pack of prawn crackers ala Malaysia. Lol, for some reason her dad reminds me of my own grandfather :)















The end result of our entire day
'shopping' at Hahndorf.
The 3 bags had my Rocky Road, Leng Hui's Rocky Road and the Bochox.
Notice the white packet? 'Chilli Chocolate' drink...Leng Hui is quite adventurous.

Notice the 2 fudge bars on the lower right.
Notice the 'Bum Burner' and mettwurst.
...I'd point with a laser pointer if I could but unfortunately I can't.

There you have it. Our trip to Hahndorf was really grool. We're so planning on rocking up again sometime soon!
Note: Visit Leng Hui's blog for her version of events....well actually it's more like her album of events :)