Zacharias hat Geburtstag

Many of you know that Z's birthday was yesterday.  This is his first official birthday celebration in Germany, although we did celebrate his 6-month birthday one summer.

As always, we celebrate more than once - the actual day of, and then the 'party day'.  Z has opted for a family party, no school or soccer friends.  We will have burritos and carrot cake on Sunday (I actually scored some cilantro from Citti!)

Yesterday, we did gifts, cupcakes and gummis (these gummi-worm type things.  Yuck!) at school, and then dinner in the restaurant of Z's choice.

I think his favorite gift was a computer game called 'Minecraft'.  It has graphics that make it look like it's from the 1980s, but Z and J love it.  You basically create a world, gather raw materials and build.  He also got about 6 or 7 more English books, plus another book from the Warrior series, auf Deutsch.  If you have never seen this series, just think 'Lord of the Rings', except instead of Hobbits, the major protagonists are cats.  Of course, there was more Lego... and M decided that Z needed a new RC helicopter.  It works great, so now M needs a new RC helicopter.

Ok.  Those were the gifts, now, we get to the fun part.  We found a little restaurant called 'Waldschaenke'.  It is a pity that pretty much anyone reading this is in the U.S., because I would order you all to go and see this place - and eat there - the food is awesome.

The theme is a 'forest tavern', you know, where hunters might stop in for a beer and some schnitzel...  Here are a few pics from the decor:

Aren't they cute?  Too bad they're dead.  What kind of person sees two adorable little fox pups, decides to kill them, and then have them stuffed and posed so sweetly?  Multiple Personality Disorder?  Oh, so cute.  Kill them.  Oh, look at these adorable dead foxes, I think I'll have them stuffed...

Here's another.  Is this a ferret?

Oh, yes, there is more.  Every table comes with a little friend:

And hung high, for all to enjoy:

Just look at that smile.  What a happy dead wild boar!  This next 'display' is near the door, so you can warm up your appetite while waiting for you table.  It's Z's favorite, and he took the photo.

Yep.  That's a dead animal in the process of killing another dead animal.  And isn't he cute?

I don't know what it is, but we love this place.  I think the kitch makes us giggle so much, and then the food...  It is a Polish-German menu.  That basically means pork fat, cream, butter, lots of salt, butter, more fat, salt, meat and more meat.  Vegetables are basically a hidden garnish (mine were hidden under hollandaise last night).

M had perogis filled with meat and swimming in sauce.  I thought I was getting 'schnitzel', which I thought was a thin pork filet, breaded, fried and covered in sauce - but I got a plate with a small piece of pork tenderloin (wrapped in bacon, 'cause why not?), a small chicken breast and a piece of red meat of unknown origin all covered in brown gravy with mushrooms.  I gave the red meat to M, who eats basically anything.  On the side, was a large bowl of bratkartoffeln (potatoes, fried with smoked pork belly).  It was all so delicious - thank god I had M there to help me!  Otherwise, I might have eaten the whole plate and my arteries would have clogged instantaneously.  I know this description sounds maybe a little snippy - but I mean it in the best possible way.  It really was so yummy.

The kids had pizza, of course.  It really isn't pizza - it is more like a German dish called pfannkucken, which is a bit like the stuff they call 'pizza' in Chicago (which everyone knows isn't really pizza either.  By 'everyone' I mean New Yorkers).

Anyway, I think Z had a good time: