"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 2 - OLD COMMERCIAL ROOM

Restaurant 2, 10/1-09, Old Commercial House - By Michaeli's Kirche

BACKGROUND: 5 days have passed since my last restaurant review. So what happened, have I not been to any restaurants since then? Well, I must admit I have been to a couple of places, but haven't bothered to write a review. So my new year's resolution is already starting to fall apart. But if I tell you that the places I've been to lately have been McDonalds and Starbucks then perhaps you agree that it would be a waste of time writing a review? Anyway, today I decided to go to a place I've been wanting to go to for a while, namely "Old Commercial House". First time I found out about the place was in September 2008 when I did a "Stadtrundfart", which is a guided bus tour around Hamburg. When the tour bus drove past the St. Michael's church I saw a sign across the street from the church saying something like "the best labskaus in Hamburg" or something. Ever since then I've been wanting to try out this lapskaus. Today I finally got the chance to do so!



FIRST IMPRESSIONS: One of the first things to struck me upon entering the restaurant was the social atmosphere. Customers were talking loudly with each other around the tables and laughter was hanging in the air. The waiters and waitresses were also spending time chatting and joking with the customers. One of the waitresses noted the new arrival and guided me to a nice table by the wall, close to a window with a view to the famous Michael's church. The walls were decorated with old black-and-white photos from Hamburg, many of them taken near the restaurant. Several photos were from the early 1900s. Some were photos of guests that had visited the restaurant before. The majority of the photos and interiour had a maritime theme. I liked the atmosphere of the place right away! 9/10 points for first impression.

WAITING TIME: I didn't have to wait long for anything. I was guided to a table just a few seconds after entering the restaurant. I spent a couple of minutes going through the menu, although I already knew what I wanted (labskaus). When the waitress came by I ordered the labskaus, and something to drink. Just a few minutes later everything was served and I was happily eating. Later, the dessert and coffee was also served promtly. 10/10 points, no issues with waiting time.

STAFF: The staff was very friendly. The waitress and waiters were taking time to talk to the customers, and repeatedly walked by to check if everything
was ok. The waitress who served me appologized for not speaking very good English, but this didn't cause any problems or misunderstandings with the orders. The first waiter who guided me to a table said "I have a beautiful table and a beautiful waitress for a handsome gentleman like yourself". I think the waitress was a bit embarassed by that. And I didn't quite know what to say. In my first restaurant review from Block House I mentioned that the staff there didn't really make me feel special, but here in Old Commercial Room I felt the waitress did a better job at it, and I did feel like I was being treated a bit special! I give 9/10 points to the staff here!

MAIN COURSE: The labskaus was served with two eggs, pickels and some red beets. The labskaus had a pinkish colour, and was very smooth. When I think of labskaus I usually think of my dad's labskaus, and that labskaus is usually quite rough, with whole pieces of meet and potatoes and other stuff in it. The labskaus at the Old Commercial Room was not like that, it was completely smooth, almost like mashed potatoes. But I actually think I would've prefered to have some bigger pieces of meat and stuff in it. The taste was good though! It tasted pretty much like I expect a labskaus to taste. But some spices or something would have been good I think. I had to put some salt and pepper on it simply to give it a bit more taste. All in all I was quite happy with it though. I mean, a labskaus is a labskaus, so it would take something really spectacular to blow me away, but I wasn't disappointed either. It was pretty much like I expected. I have to say, though, that just the fact that they are serving labskaus is great! You can't get that in many other restaurants these days! 8/10



Total verdict: Old Commercial Room was a very intimate and friendly restaurant in a great location, just next to St. Michael's church. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay this evening, and will definitely try to go back again later. Before I had even arrived at the restaurant I already knew that I wanted the labskaus, but when looking at the menu I realized that they also have many other interesting fish and meat dishes, so next time I'll try some other stuff. Old Commercial Room has been visited by several famous guests over the years, some examples are John Denver ("country road", "leaving on a jet plane"), Sean Connery, Jethro Tull, Dennis Hopper, The Beatles, Willy Brand, Jack White (White Stripes), etc. So the restaurant must be doing many things right when they are able to attract these kinds of guests!
9/10 points for a great meal at the restaurant!

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 1 - BLOCK HOUSE

Restaurant 1, 5/1-09, Block House - Kirchenallee

BACKGROUND: My new year's resolution is to write a restaurant review for every restaurant I visit. Today was the first, and the lucky restaurant to receive my visit was Block House on the Kirchenallee street, right next to Hauptbahnhof Sud in Hamburg. I had been down to the Hauptbahnhof to renew my U-bahn ticket, and afterwards I got hungry and wanted to find a restaurant nearby. When I saw Block House I decided to go there. This wasn't the first time I visited a Block House restarurant in Hamburg, but I hadn't been to this particular one. Still, from my previous visits I knew that Block House served quality food, so this wasn't much of a risk. Block House is a chain of restaurants in Germany. I think there are 34 restaurants in total, and many of them are located in Hamburg. But they also have restaurants in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.



FIRST IMPRESSION: The entrance to the Block House restaurant is easy to find. Just go to Kirchenallee and look for the big Block House sign (doh!). Upon entering I noticed that the place was quite busy already, even though it was only 17:30 in the afternoon. Several waiters were running around taking orders and serving food. One waiter rushed by me and told me in Germany to just take any table I liked. At least I think that's what he said... So I moved further into the restaurant and found a table pretty much in the middle of everything. The restaurant itself is quite large. One of the first things I noticed when moving a bit into the restaurant was the theatre kitchen where I could watch the chefs prepare the steaks and everything. That's one of the things I really like about Block House! It's quite entertaining to watch the chefs do their work, especially if you're just by yourself like I sometimes am. The style of the interior is plain and simple. White brick walls, and dark wooden paneling some places. Several wine racks were spread around the building. Nothing too fancy about the interiour really. I got the impression that this is a place where the food is in focus, and they haven't put too much effort into making the interior look spectacular. Nothing wrong with putting the focus on the food though! I give 7/10 points for the first impression.

WAITING TIME: Top score on this! I entered the restaurant at 17:20 and sat down at the cozy little table in the middle of the restaurant, quite close to the coat stand actually. Around a minute later I got the menu. I decided on what to order quite fast, and another waitress came by and took my order at 17:30. At 17:33 I got my salad appetizer. I finished it by 17:40. The first waiter then came with the main course at 17:42. Yeah..., I actually had my watch out and took a note of all of these times. Later, after I was finished eating, I got a coffee just a minute after I ordered it, and I also received the check just a couple of minutes after I asked for it. 10/10 points here!

STAFF: I've got no real complaints about the staff. Everytime I needed something I got the staff's attention pretty quickly. It could be because my table was right in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiters/waitresses walked past me all the time, so I didn't have to do more than look at them to get their attention. While I was eating I was left alone, except one time when one of the waiters gave me the mandatory question if everything was alright. I said "sehr gut!",
smiled, and continued eating. I did get the feeling though, that the waiters/waitresses only did precisely what they were supposed to do, and nothing more. To deserve a higher score they would've had to make me feel more special. 7.5/10

APPETIZER: The typical appetizer at Block House is their crispy salad with your choice of dressing. So that's what I took. I've previously had the American dressing with it, but this time I decided to go for the French dressing. Other alternatives are Italian and Greek dressing, and maybe even other types. The salad itself is very basic. Lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions etc. It's a salad that works fine as an appetizer, but doesn't blow you away. I felt like I could easily have made this myself at home in a few minutes. Except the dressing maybe, which is quite good! Anyway, the salad appetizer didn't impress me too much, so no top score for this one. I give it 5.5/10 points.

MAIN COURSE: The first thing that caught my eye when I opened the menu was the "New Year's Cut: Rib-Eye Steak 230g, mit Garlic Mashed Potatoes und
Knoblauchbrot". A red wine from 2006 (didn't get to read where it was from, the waiter took my menu before I got the chance) was also recommended, so I ordered
that as well. And let there be no doubt about Block House abilities to serve steaks, cause this was top notch! The medium cooked steak itself was just as it should be, tender, juicy and very tasty. And the mashed potatoes and garlic butter was a great supplement to the steak, and the tastes complemented each other in a great way. Not to mention the "Knoblauchbrot" which lifted the total experience even higher. The only thing was the "knoblauchbrot" could have been a bit crispier. The red wine was also good. I'm not a wine expert, but this was a very fruity wine with a gentle, but quite short aftertaste. All in all I have almost only positiv things to say about the main course! The only reason I won't give it 10 points is because of the "Knoblauchbrot" wasn't quite crisp enough for me. So 9/10 points on this one.

TOTAL VERDICT: I had a great meal at the Block House. My expectations were quite high, because I've been there before and have liked the food there, and I wasn't disappointed this time either. I would definitely recommend a meal at one of the Block House restaurants to anyone visiting Hamburg. The restaurant itself is quite large and on the night it was very crowded, so the waiters/waitresses were quite busy running around attending all the customers. I got their attention every time I needed it though. The only thing was I got the feeling they were in a rush all the time, and didn't feel like was being treated special in any way. Some places I've been to I do get this feeling, but that's mostly smaller places. Maybe it's the price you pay for being a big restaurant that you can't spend too much time with each customer? Anyway, it wasn't a big deal, and as I wrote in the beginning, I really did have a great meal. 8/10 points.

New year, new possibilities!

It's that time of the year again, when people say good bye to the old, and look forward to what the new year will bring. Some people say it's like closing a chapter in a book and starting on a new one, some say it's like putting the signature on a painting and start painting on a new white canvas.

Some people have new year's resolutions. Especially people who smoke. I think I've had some new year's resolutions myself up through the years, but I can't remember what they were. I've got one this year as well. It's simply to write a restaurant review every time I've been to a restaurant. Which is quite often considering how much I've been traveling lately! So since I'm working in Hamburg at the moment I'm going to start here. I'm pretty sure I'll get bored with it after a while, but I'll give it a go at least!

I'll probably put the reviews out on this blog as well.

Libya, Hamburg, and so on...

My last blogg entry was when I returned to Hamburg from Egypt, around one month ago.

I only spend one weekend in Hamburg before I flew down to Tripoli in Libya to work there for two weeks. Again I travelled with the three Germans from RWE Dea. Marcus, the project manager, was the only one who had been there before. We basically had no idea where we were going to stay in Tripoli. Our worst fear was that we didn't have any hotel reservation at all, but we also had a faint hope that perhaps we would be staying at the Corinthia hotel, maybe the best hotel in North Africa. We got something in between, a decent hotel called Thobacts. Quite small, very disorganized staff, but brand new and very clean.

Work in Libya was less stressful than in Egypt, but we still had to work almost every day. Over the two weeks we stayed there we managed to take two days off, both of them Fridays. One of the days we spent exploring the old part of Tripoli. It was certainly an experience walking through the narrow streets and looking at all the stuff people were selling in the markets. Some streets were filled with small shops selling various spices. The smell was wonderfully exotic! There were also plenty of shops selling fake stuff. Fake iPhones, fake D&G clothes, fake CAT choes, and so on...

The next Friday we went to Leptis Magna, an incredible place! It's one hour's drive outside Tripoli, and is an old Roman city that was destroyed by earthquakes and villains hundreds of years ago. As the years went by the whole city was covered in a thick layer of sand. But recently the old ruins have been excavated, and the old Roman city has been partly restored. So I was walking through the old streets of a once great city, admiring the great triumph arches, tall columns, and of course - the impressive theater! Sitting in the theater looking down upon the stage I let my thoughts drift and imagined being at an old Roman play, surrounded by soldiers, workers, traveling merchants... It was all very impressive!

We were working in Tripoli most of the time, but of course we had a trip out to a drilling rig to set up the system there. This time the rig was out in the desert. It was not the kind of desert with sand dunes, but a very rocky kind of desert. Me and a local Libyan IT guy flew down there, while the Germans drove by car. An 8 hour drive... The plane departed from Tripoli airport and landed in the middle of the desert, at "Mabrouk oilfield", run by the French company Total. We then drove from the airstrip to the oilrig. We stayed out there for 4 days, working quite hard. There wasn't really much else to do out there than work. I found it quite enjoyable though! The temperature was not too hot during the day, and not too cold during the night. And just being out in the desert for the first time was all quite exciting!

All in all I enjoyed Tripoli quite a lot! I felt very safe when walking around in the streets, and the people I met were very friendly. "Welcome to my country!", "Yes basketball!", "Hello long man!" were examples of what people were saying when they saw me. I did get the impression though, that it takes a long time to do stuff in Tripoli. For example, a year ago the government decided to demolish lots of buildings to build a new highway there. But still they haven't started the construction of the highway, so all the remains of the demolished houses are just laying there in piles... Not very nice to look at. On the other hand, the Libyan government seems to open up a bit more to foreign investors and so on, and I saw many new skyscapers being planned in the next few years.

After Libya I returned to Hamburg again, but I also got to get back to Norway in the weekend, for the first time in two months. My brother was also home from the US that same weekend so it was good timing. Now I'm going to stay in Hamburg until the 19th of December, hopefully not longer, cause I would like to celebrate Christmas at home as usual. I've never spent a Christmas away from my family actually! It will probably happen sooner rather than later, but this year it would be good to be at home, considering I've spent so much time away lately.

Cairo, Egypt

For more than two months I've been working on a project for the German oil company RWE Dea AG. I've mostly been working from Hamburg, but on Saturday 18th of October me and 3 Germans from the oil company flew down to Cairo in Egypt to continue the project there.

Today it's the 31st of October, and I'm returning to Hamburg for the weekend, after two busy and very challenging weeks. But we got the job done in the end, and our computer systems for real-time drilling operations are now up and running. So my stay in Egypt was all in all a success!

My time in Cairo was mostly spent working, but I did have some time to look around in Maadi (the part of Cairo I stayed in), and made a few interesting observations. The first thing that struck me on the way from the airport to the hotel was the traffic. I knew Cairo traffic had reputation of being particularly bad, but now I could see for myself how it was. And it was really bad... Almost all drivers seemed to be only thinking about themselves, and not minding the other cars around them. People were changing lanes at random without any signal, some cars suddenly stopped and went in reverse, some cars drove in the wrong direction, and the most obvious thing - everybody was honking like crazy all the time! I later heard from a Germany woman living in Cairo that some of the honking is done in a code language to communicate in a way.





In the evenings I usually went out to eat with the three Germans from RWE Dea AG. Most of the time we went to TGI Friday's by the river Nile, or Restaurant 55 on Road 9. One thing that made the Egyptian restaurants different than European restaurants was that almost all restaurants were serving "Shisha" - water pipe! This is a big cultural thing in Egypt, and almost everybody smokes it. You get all sorts of flavours - mint, apple, peach, anis, cherry, cappuchino - you name it! My German collegues loved the stuff and smoked it almost every night! I should emphazise that none of them smoked water pipes with hashis or marijuana or anything, only "harmless" tobacco with added flavour.





After setting up our computer systems in the office in Cairo we all headed for the "North-West Khilala" rig site for 4 days to set up the system there. We didn't really know much about what the rig site would be like. We knew it was in the Nile delta, and not in the desert, but we had no clue what the living conditions were going to be like or anything. But whatever expectations I may have had it turned out to be quite different than anything I had imagined! First of all, the drive from Cairo to the rig was a total adventure! The closer we got to the rig, the worse the roads got, and the scenery more and more interesting. We drove by small villages where farmers rode on mules or plowed the fields by hand, or with the help of some bulls. The women were washing clothes in the river, often dressed in a full burka. Kids and animals alike were all bathing in the Nile. It was facinating to see all of this! It was raining most of the day, so the roads got worse and worse. The last distance we drove to get to the rig didn't look much like a road at all!





I had to work almost non-stop at the rig site to get the work done, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, cause there isn't really much to do there. Only watch some TV, or perhaps read a book if you remembered to bring one. My 3 German collegues had brought a "Shisha" from Cairo, so they spent most of the evenings getting it to work, and then smoking it. One problem at the rig site was the cell phone coverage, it was very limited. But we found out that a small area in one corner of the rig site was a little bit better than other places, so we managed to stay in touch with civilization there.

One interesting thing I learned in Cairo was that foreign companies are required to hire 3 Egyptians for every foreign guy they hire. Naturally, for an oil company it may be hard to find 3 qualified petro-physicists or geo-physicists for each foreigner they hire, so instead they hire some Egyptians to walk around serving coffee or drinks to the staff. And also some to work as company drivers (which is very useful to have, since only the local Egyptians know the unwritten rules of Cairo traffic).

My birthday came up during my stay in Cairo, and the 3 Germans had somehow found out about this, so they arranged tickets for a laser show at the Pyramids, and then later a dinner at a superb restaurant at a hotel right next to the Pyramids. It was a big surprise, and a very memorable birthday!

Now I'm trying to have a relaxing weekend in Cairo before heading for Libya on Monday. That will be very intersting, and possible the most challenging job I've done so far...

Hamburg

The last three weeks I've been working in Hamburg, Germany. The project I'm working on is quite interesting, and will probably also take me to Libya and Egypt soon. I don't want to write too much about work though, so instead I will put down a few words about my expeiences in Hamburg so far.

First I should tell you that I've never really been to Hamburg before. I've driven through on my way down to Krefelt one time, but I never had the chance to stop by and check out the city. So I didn't know too much about it before I got down here. And I must admit Hamburg is a bigger city than I thought it was. With a population of 1,8 million it is Germany's second largest city, only Berlin is larger. Hamburg has also got the second largest harbour area in all of Europe! Only Rotterdam in Holland is larger! It is safe to say that Hamburg's maritime heritage and history of sea trade identifies the city in many ways. We in Norway will be familiar with the Hanseatic Union that Hamburg was a big part of. The city Bergen in Norway is also known for being a part of that.

When talking about Hamburg I guess it is impossible not to mention the Reeperbahn. Arguably Europe's most well known red light district. People come here to visit some of the many clubs and bars in the area, but some also head for the more shady places, like the closed off Herbertstrasse where a women of a certain proffession offer their services to men. I haven't spent too much time in this area of town, but I did notice that a lot of the hookers hang out around Burger King of all places.

The hotel I'm staying at is called "Hotel Smolka". It's a small hotel, probably no more than 50 rooms, but I really like it! The staff is very friendly, and the location couldn't be much better. I think the area is called Eppendorf (or perhaps Rothenbaum, one of those two definitely), and it's a very upper class neighborhood. The houses and apartment buildings in the area are very classy, and there are also a lot of consulates here. One of the guys working here has been all over the southern part of Norway, even in Spangereid where I grew up!

Most of the time I spend in Hamburg is work. And when I'm done working for the day I don't always have the energy to go out and do a lot. So my exploration of the city has mostly been done in the weekends. Here are some photos I've taken, and a description of what I was doing when I took them:

- Most of the work I do is done in an office in Hamburg, but I've had a few trips to this drilling rig to set up some computer systems.



- These photos are taken from "Miniature Wonderland", the worlds biggest miniature model train exhibition!





- In center of Hamburg you find the "Rathaus" (town hall). It was completely destroyed during a big fire in the 1800's, but was rebuilt and finished in 1896. I had a tour of this building. Quite interesting actually. Hamburg is both a city and a state in Germany, so they have both a city council and a state government. They're both located in the "Rathaus".




- This is St. Michael's church, often regarded as "the symbol of Hamburg". Walking up to the top gives you a brilliant view of Hamburg, in all directions.



- This is one of the oldest houses in Hamburg. It's located in the Rothenbaum area, where they have a law that says you cannot build a house taller than the trees already located on the property...



- The Planitarium is located in Hamburg's Stadtpark (city park). It's actually a movie theatre with a 180 degree screen in the ceiling. So you buy a ticket, lean back in your chair, and watch spectacular space themed movies! In the movie I saw they simulated a hyper-fast space travel from Earth to the closest galaxy (Alpha Centauri). It was really cool actually!



- One Sunday someone arranged a car race for veteran cars. Thousands of people bought tickets to come and see this! I was just walking around in the park when I suddenly heard some loud engine sounds. Naturally I was pulled towards it and was quite excited when I saw what it was! :)

Hotel booking - musical style!

My friends Yngve and Hannah invited me over for chilli the other day. Afterwards Yngve told me about this incredibly funny radio show he had heard. We spent a few minutes googling and managed to find the show on mp3. I've listened to it a couple of times now, and it really is funny! :)

The radio show is called "O-Fag" (it's Norwegian, it's the name of a school subject kids have in primary school). The hosts of the show are two well known Norwegian commedians, the "Ylvis brothers".

In this particular show one of the Ylvis brothers challenges the other one to call a hotel in London to book a room. But to make it more interesting the whole thing has to be done in the form of a musical!

I can't quite explain it, you have to listen to it yourself. Check out this link (it's in English)!

http://rita.nrk.no/community/o-fag/mp3/uploads/o-fag_hotellbooking.mp3