Fergburger Phenomenon

The Queen of Queenstown

there is a burger bar in town that seems to be beating all boundaries of culinary fare. I refer to the legendary Fergburger bar in Queenstown, New Zealand . A seemingly insignificantly tiny space on one of the main thoroughfares which attracts a wild horde of ravenous diners for the legendary burgers it serves from hour to hour . Legend has it the space only closes for 3 hours cleaning  before it is up and serving again from dawn to veritable dusk.

Cue the Queue

Due to its extreme popularity ,it goes without saying that this is a place at which you have to queue to be served . Queue busters regularly patrol telling you how long you are likely to wait . Our time was a mere 15 minutes until being able to place our order with a follow on 15 minutes to receiving said order.

What is the Fergburger  Love all about ?

it is a simple formula of course – all you need to do is make a high quality , delicious, and  outsize burger – slightly spicy -served in a homemade bun with all the salad and sauce you can handle. Make some tasty Fries to match and you have  a winning formula fuelled with a cult status to boot.

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A christmas alphabet : back to C : Cologne Christmas Market & Cosima von Bonin

snapshot of loveliness

There is nothing more sure and more focused than a crowd of Cologne marketeers as they weave their unerring way towards a gluhwein stall in Cologne. We were there and we were borne along by that throng of happy revellers into the arms of the glorious and all warming mulled wine grottos. Yes indeed we have sampled the best and the worst of the Cologne tinctures and deemed them all to be perfectly acceptable as a christmas tipple of choice. It is all about the atmosphere isnt it .. the unending trill of the christmas songs , the ominous waft of the oil of a thousand Ribeskuchen (probably not spelt that correctly )but the gist of it is :potato grated into a glutinous flattened rosti which is then thrown into a seething boiling  bucket of hot oil and served with apple sauce) (despite the heartattack certainty , it does taste pretty delicious even though I say it myself and tastes ten times better in a cold winter setting) another important point to note is that Cologne is probably the only location where you can wear a Norwegian pullover and a down jacket and not swelter half to death with heat stroke . And then of course there are the hot pork rolls and thuringer sausages and a veritable cornucopia of  greasy , heartstopping fare coupled with the tooth aching gingerbread hearts slathered in tooth breaking icing in a multitude of unnatural enumbers and colour palettes. Love it !!

India , my India !

And I loved even more the quasi rajasthani tent set up near the Ludvig Museum serving all manner of tasty snacks.

Cosima von Bonin exhibit

Cologne was not all about eating, Paul and I also managed to grab some culture and two exhibitions “Me myself and I” an exhibition of photo potraits of Picasso  and Cosima von Bonin’s Cut ! Cut! Cut! for Museum Ludvig’s Sloth section Loop#04 of the Lazy susan series . Music stunning … could feature in Paul’s christmas stocking !!!

all about Christmas

Back to reality at home and the disappointing let down of an advent calender without any christmas puppies in santa hats, kittens in stockings or baby donkeys in the snow. I’m bored of bling and  baubles, tired of timeless tat and tinsel  and cursed corny crackers !tally ho for Christmas !

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