The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Rambling Around Riquewihr
This is the stage of the trip when we start counting. How many days left? How much ___ do we need to get through it
without having a lot to throw some away when we leave? How are we doing on laundry? Do we have enough clean ____ to see us
through? How long will it take to check out of the apartment? What time do we have to leave to turn in the car in
Strasbourg and make our train? It all gets very mathematical.
We've got lots of options while we have the apartment, but once we move into a hotel at DeGaulle airport for that last
night, those options go away. We're taking the TGV (bullet train) to Paris, so I can always stick a half-full bottle of
wine in my backpack and enjoy it on the way but the items in the refrigerator don't lend themselves to transport and I
hate to throw away good food.
The good news of the day is that Margene is mostly back on her feet and we spent the bulk of the day out of town. The bad
news of the day is that I've definitely picked up whatever bug laid her low for the past four days. So now it's my turn
for the dry cough and nasal congestion. At least we have all the requisite over-the-counter remedies at hand!
Margene wanted to visit the town of Riquewihr ("Rick-weer"), about half an hour's drive northwest of Colmar. I asked her why and she said "because it looks pretty." So we bailed the car out after a week in the parking garage -- MAJOR sticker shock! -- and headed off in search of Riquewihr. (Found it, too!) It reminded me of a scaled-down Colmar with a strong vertical component. The hills around the town are covered with grape vines, a reminder that Alsace is a big wine-producing area, primarily known for its Reisling and Gewurtztraminer wines. Pity that I'm a red wine guy (and their local reds are barely drinkable!)
We had lunch at Manala, a restaurant/winestube tucked into a narrow street at the top of town, part of the St. Nicolaus Hotel. Margene had a creamed vegetable soup and a green salad, I went for the chacroute, a classic Alsacian dish of various meats and sausages with sauerkraut and a boiled potato.
© 2016 Restaurant Doctor
[