A Day out, Flowers, Caribbean and Dominican Tortilla

Finally we got the sunny weather. If you combine this with a day off and time to spare this makes for a good opportunity to have a day out. Accordingly we decided to take the train to Hannover, Germany, and look around of what is to see, buy some special food items and eat something special.

Arriving at the train station gives you the chance to have a snack right away, so we are having roasted pork in a bun. There is a place as well, that sells roasted pork in a bun nearby where we live, but that isn't half as good as the one at the train station of Hannover with soft onions on top of the meat. You could easily fill up on that, but ... I think it's better to leave some space for more.
For me, visiting Hannover means to go and see the Herrenhäuser Gärten. The gardens are really beautiful and you can enjoy them a lot. On this day it was quite quiet, if you don't count the workers. There are some days they have special events there and you can see a lot more. For the time being we enjoyed this quiet time, although it was that quiet, that they even turned off the water. If you want to see the grand fountain of water, which can shoot up the water even over 60 metres you have to be there before high noon or after 3 p.m.

Originally we only wanted to see the great garden, but the ticket came as a package with the mountain garden and the greenhouses as well. It's worth a visit as well. I would really enjoy to have some of those plants at home, too, but ...

Good there wasn't even a tiny cloud in the sky that day. So we could enjoy the gardens to the full ... with some bottles full of water.

So far regarding the cultural part. Of course you could do a lot more, but if you are walking around all the time and want to do a wee bit of shopping as well, the options are limited.
After walking around all day and buying a lot of chillies, platanos (plantains) and guandules (pigeon peas), it was time for more than a snack ... We set out for a place called Boca Chica. It's named after a place in the Dominican Republic. As we don't have the chance to fly every year to the Caribbean, this was the best we could do for now. The weather was right and they had a nice terrace where to enjoy the meal outside. We started with a mixed plate of starters ...

There was a lot going on on the plate: tostones (fried plantain), boquerones, aubergine salsa, plantain salad, yucca salad, mango, chicken, calamari and Dominican tortilla.
The Dominican tortilla is a bit like the Spanish tortilla, but instead of potatoes you use rice. This is a very good opportunity to use up leftover rice. Simple mix it with some eggs and if you like to get a bit more taste out of it add shopped up coriander or peppers. Then just fry it as small cakes. 
Next up the main dish with some fish ...

I decided to go for parrot fish as I never had it before. Seems quite healthy to me, but I still have to work a bit on my tastebuds regarding seafood. Well, that's not so easy around here as we don't have the chance to have it too often as no sea is nearby.
The rice had some guandules (pigeon peas) and that was something I had for the first time as well.
Something I didn't have for the first time was postre (dessert) ...

I have to try this one as home myself, if we ever get hands on ripe plantains around here. Well, it's not too fancy, but it makes for a solid dessert.
Anyway, it was a luvly day out we enjoyed very much. I hope I get my hands on some good and delicious cooking again soon.