Our friend Silverio invited us to dinner over the weekend because he wanted to show us his city and especially his cooking skills. For years he has been dealing with local cooking customs, some of which can be traced back to the ancient Romans in their recipes, and even partly reflect their recipes and eating habits.

In our article "Almost a national dish - Hamsi Kizartma" we reported on the fish dish of fried anchovies, which is particularly popular on the Black Sea and the Aegean coast and was served to us by the Senyer family during our stay in Istanbul.

In the meantime, Philipp and Micha have reported again, but this time from a somewhat unusual place, at least as far as their other activities are concerned: a Georgian bakery on the flat lands.

There are no other vegetables with so many anecdotes and myths about them as about asparagus, at least in Germany. Long before the asparagus was used as food, it found versatile use as a medicinal plant.

In every country, and often even in the respective sub regions, there are special foods and dishes that not only make experiencing unforeseen taste sensations but also often new cooking ideas in general.

As a typical pastry of the pre-Christmas season in Germany, the speculum, which originally came from Belgium and the Netherlands, are a daily addition to coffee or tea. In Dutch language is referred to as speculaas, French as spéculoos.

We had arranged to meet friends for a coffee in the Harz mountains. Since we hadn't seen each other for a while and therefore had to exchange and discuss a lot of information, we chose a restaurant at the Oker Talsperre as a meeting point, which is known far beyond the borders of the Harz Nature Park for its large and always fresh cream puffs.

After the successful musical conclusion of Sunday by the local band "Backdoor Connection", who had already travelled to Turkey several times for concerts, we set out on our last tour of the festival grounds for the day.

At this point we would like to continue the description of our typical Black Sea menu in the Senyer family's house. During a visit from friends to Ayvalik, we first heard about and tasted the delicacy of fried anchovies, which can be eaten as desired with or without the inner main bone.

At the end of Emin Senyer and his wife's visit to our trade fair stand in Istanbul, we were invited to dinner in the apartment of the well-known shadow theatre player (Karagöz and Hacivat).

Our visit to the new outdoor and ski centre at Erciyes was understandably primarily aimed at getting to know the options and offers for outdoor activities that have already been completed, but as always and everywhere, also the local cuisine.

The cocoa plant needs the tropical, humid climate of the rain forest. This became clear to us once again when we looked a little more extensively at a small museum near Amsterdam on the subject of cocoa, the plant cocoa tree and the seeds, and the products made from them.

Who does not know the small hunger in between, especially when you are on the go, have little time and actually just want to eat a little something.

The EU funded Project OAC Connects Us - OACCUs is delighted to announce the launch of its very own healthy cookbook "A Culinary Journey through Europe".

What the German has his roll, croissant or pretzel, the Turk has his simit.

The first night frost and a little snow is here, so the first kale of the year can finally be harvested. At least that's what the family always said when asked when the kale left on the field could finally be harvested. Is this condition for kale harvest actually significant?

In one of the fairytale legends of Greek mythology, Zeus is reported to be sleeping on a bed filled with saffron. Wealthy Romans scattered saffron threads on their wedding beds, which probably led to the Latin saying "dormivit in sacco croci" meaning "he slept in a bed of saffron".

If, like us, you repeatedly find yourself in unfamiliar territory, it makes sense to always ask about regional peculiarities or abnormalities. This was also the case during our visit to the Thuringian city of Mühlhausen, which is not only surrounded by a spectacular old town with a well-preserved city wall with numerous defence towers, but can also come up with some culinary specialties.

During our tour of Lesbos we had come to Skala Sikamineas, a dreamy fishing village on the island that we had already mentioned in our Lesvos article. In addition to the baked feta cheese, we were tempted by the fresh calamari that had been hung on a line to dry along the way.

We came across this typical Frisian-East Frisian pastry in the old port of Carolinensiel, where we had gone for the Christmas market.