Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Today, since I had got myself in a teensy bit of trouble with the immigration department, me & Erik went over to the Auslanderamt. Speaking of the 1950s, this building is typical of Cologne's post-war architecture - at first glance nondescript and beige, but then you start to notice some pretty cool details like big portholes and original lighting fixtures. For some reason, both the entrance by the elevator and the 1st floor immigration department hallway were paved with orange juice and milk cartons. So I was glad I wasn't on acid.







After submitting some papers and promising to bring more, we thought we would have lunch at a big Brauhaus by the Dom cathedral, Früh. That's the Cologne coat of arms above the door. Who that friendly gentleman is in stone relief, I am not sure. He probably worked at the immigration department.





The sausage & cheese salad above was served with a side-dish of yummy bratkartoffeln pan-fried potatoes. The salad, too, looks like something from the 1950s - from one of those cookbooks that has pictures of stuff preserved in aspic, and weird joints of meat with frilly paper sockettes on them, and trifle.

Anyway, it was much yummier than it looks: thin strips of some nameless yellow cheese, really good pickled gherkin, and fleischwurst, which is sort of a cross between luncheon sausage and paté and kids eat it a lot here. I'm not usually a big fan of dill but it added a lot to this salad. Dill, I'm giving you another chance.

I ordered a liver dumpling which came in the usual nice clear broth, sprinkled with a tiny bit of fresh parsley, with a crisp on the outside soft on the inside rye roll.

It was good but the one I had at the Viktuellienmarkt in Munich was better. The Früh version was just a fraction more liver-tasting.

I wonder if I'll have to identify different types of dumpling as part of my integration course.

The server was a joker as is usual at the Brauhaus, and when a businessman next to us asked for an assortment of vegetarian things like plain noodles, the server looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and amusement. He gestured at a few vege dishes on the menu and gently chided, "is that really going to fill you up?"

After lunch we emerged into the warm light of a fading summer, on the small square in front of Früh where a guillotine once stood.