March 2017 – Restaurant Critique

Restauracja Harnas

Rating ***

Price Performance ****

The Harnas, in Stettin’s ‘brand new’ old city is a pleasant place with hearty polish food. While popular with tourists, the service was friendly, facilities clean and the prices seem fair.

Inside, the Harnas offers a rustic beer house atmosphere, outside it offers covered tables, chairs and benches at the edge of the old town house square.

We had a pleasant, reasonably priced dinner. I recommend this place for visists to Szczecin’s Stare Miasto.

Restauracja Harnas

Sienna 7, 70-542 Szczecin

restauracjaharnas.pl

+48 91 813 76 55

How spices appeal to our senses – my cinnamon-ritual

Today I want to write about my sensual cinnamon ritual. Every morning I take the time to brew green tea and to slice some fresh fruit. I add oat flakes and creamy, full-fat Greek style yoghurt to my fruit, then I grate Mexican vanilla over it. In Papantla, where my vanilla rods originate from, the vanilla flowers are still pollinated naturally by bees. The fresh vanilla rods have much resin, staining my grater. Then I grate fresh Saigon cinnamon, filling my kitchen with a sweet cloud of a soothing smell, tingling my nose and awakening my senses. On my breakfast, cinnamon is my invigorating, fat burning sugar-substitute.

A second green tea infusion tastes good too. Not only do I add cinnamon to fresh fruit on my breakfast cereal, I also break off parts of a Ceylon cinnamon stick and add it to my afternoon tea. That way, the caffeine-free second infusion of the green tea gains flavour with a warming and invigorating effect.

My fruit muesli with Greek yoghurt and green tea are just two examples of food with a concentrated dose of nutrients and flavour, that have helped me lose over three stone / 20 kg and burn a lot of belly fat.

The fruit I usually buy from the local market, the porridge from a health food store and the cinnamon sticks I buy online from Cinnamonhill: http://iitm.be/cincasia

Heini am Stau, a restaurant on the river Hunte

Rating: ***

Price performance: ok

‘Heini am Stau’ is located on a former industrial site in Oldenburg’s harbour, near the rolling bascule railway bridge. The restaurant and terrace offer views over the Hunte river and one of Lower Saxony’s busiest river ports. However, the area is rapidly turning residential and upmarket. ‘Heini am Stau’ replaces the former upmarket eco / slow-food restaurant ‘Anna Hunte’, which operated at this site from 2011 to 2016 and is much missed.

Service

On Thursday lunch, the two young waiters who attended us were polite, though at times a bit slow and confused.

Food

‘Heini am Stau’ scores with a large range of ales and beers, where ‘Anna Hunte’ used to attract custom with fresh, organic produce. The food is tasty but unexciting and not much different from the usual offering in Oldenburg.

Coffee

Unfortunately ‘Heini am Stau’ uses UHT milk for their Caffè Latte, which is in line with the restaurant’s food and for which I subtract a point.

Ambient

The modern interiors, large windows and views over the river make visits to this restaurant special. The place looks clean, modern and well maintained.

Price performance

Prices at Oldenburg’s restaurants tend to be fairly reasonable and so they are at ‘Heini am Stau’. For four light lunches and some soft drinks and coffee with two desserts we paid €52.40.
I may return to Heini’s terrace on a warm summer evening.