Stuttgart has these wonderful little hidden little charms that make it a really great place to live. One of our favorites are the Besenwirtschaften, which are traditional Swabian wine houses. They’re operated by the families that own the numerous vineyards around the Stuttgart area, and by law they are allowed to open 4 months out of the year. They are scattered throughout the city and its surrounding towns, and if you find one you can enjoy very simple (and cheap) Swabian food and fresh wine from that year.

One of my favorites is a place in Degerloch that a German woman introduced me to. It is essentially a living room that overflows into a side room, so the atmosphere is wonderfully warm and intimate. At the most, 20-30 people pack into these two small rooms, and the close quarters means that you are forced to meet and talk to your fellow wine drinkers. Two out of the three times we’ve been there, we’ve had Germans who were young kids during WWII come tell us about their first experience eating bananas and oranges given to them by American GIs. It really is quite nice of them to tell us this, and it makes us feel welcomed in Stuttgart, where our social circle mainly revolves around the large community of expats working for the many international companies based in Stuttgart.

Anyway, so we went last Saturday, which happened to be the same night as the big lunar eclipse. Between 5 of us, we had about 6 liters of wine, so by the time the U-Bahn got me home, I wasn’t as steady as I needed to be to take some good eclipse photos. I managed to shoot two frames before passing out. My next one is really a drunken picture, and the following night I took a few more frames since my camera was already out.

I was searching for food earlier this evening along Stuttgart’s Koenigstrasse, and as I was just congratulating myself for walking by McDonald’s without giving into the temptation of a quick, familiar meal, I saw a sign for the China Garden. The sign was right on Koenigstrasse, and it said to go up to the 2nd level to find the restaurant. I haven’t had good ol’ MSG-laden, sauce heavy, Chinese food in a while, so I walked right in without even glancing to see what was on their posted menu.

I must admit that as I walked up the stairs I wasn’t expecting anything beyond your average quick, cheap, and dirty chinese restaurant. At the top of the stairs, to my left was some sort of kitchen area (judging by the sounds coming from there) and so I deduced that the restaurant must be to my right since there was no other way to go.

I was completely surprised by how nice the interior was. There was a black baby grand player piano to my left, softly playing songs. The tabletops were light pink cloth, and every place setting had a perfectly folded pink cloth napkin flanked by perfectly arranged silverware. There were flower arrangements everywhere, including some flowers that ran along the ceiling, actually fitting in with the rest of the decor. Um, I may not be appropriately dressed, I instinctively thought, before I realized that I was in a Chinese restaurant, so of course I was appropriately dressed. I was instantly impressed, but maybe most so because I was expecting so much less.

After saying my best “eins” and holding up my index finger to the host, I was brought to a corner booth. The menu consisted of your standard Chinese dishes, slightly expanded, and was reasonably priced relative to the other restaurants on the Koenigstrasse. What really caught my curiosity was Shark Fin soup, and I was very tempted to order it, but then the bleeding heart liberal side of me thought about all the poor sharks that have to die for me to try this delicacy. I silently debated for a while, but probably my lack of German saved some sharks, because I just pointed to menu dinner #1, so that I didn’t have to really say much.

First I was brought some standard egg drop soup, which I was wolfing down when they brought me the 2nd course of random fried foods. There was a mini eggroll, battered and fried strips of chicken breast, some sesame covered ball containing some dark paste, and those fried white crunchy things you find in all Asian restaurants. I was still pretty hungry at this point, so I quickly finished everything in front of me, drinking about half of my Hefeweizen Hell in the process.

They brought my main course in parts. First a metal hotplate was placed on my table with an empty plate sitting on top, and then a little later a covered metal bowl of rice was brought. Then finally after a little longer a plate was brought containing deep fried duck and chicken cooked in some sort of sauce. The empty plate was moved to in front of me, and the new meat plate took it’s place on the metal hotplate. They also brought some thick soup, which I wasn’t sure if it was actually soup or some sort of dressing for my duck. I already wasn’t hungry anymore, but I knew I had to push on, fighting the good fight. The chicken was decent, and the duck was pretty good. Occasionally I would have a spoonfull of the “soup,” but not too much in case they were laughing behind my back because it was dressing. After that was finished I was brought a bowl of assorted fruit for desert, which was actually quite nice.

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