I have done something appalling. Here is the breakfast I ate this morning at the Westin Munich buffet:
Fruit plate (mainly kiwi)—1
Yogurt—2 spoonfuls
Baguette sections—2
Salmon—2 slices
Nutella—1 spoonful
Raspberry jam—1 spoonful
Deli meats—2 slices
Chocolate croissant—1
Fruit croissant—1
Brie cheese—one slice
Weisswurst—2
Small chicken sausage—4
Rosti (hash brown)—1
Pancake—1
Roasted tomatoes—2
Bowl of cereal (corn flakes & sugar smacks)—1
Glasses of OJ—4
Pot of black tea—1
What the hell is wrong with me? To wit, when I came in to the hotel last night, the lady mentioned the breakfast and offered to include it in my hotel bill for “only” 20 euros. This seems scandalously expensive, but also I suspected, based on previous experience with fancy German hotel breakfast buffets, that this fruehstuck was not just a broetchen or two with tea, but a heart-stopping (perhaps literally so) spectacular spectacular of a spread, and this was exactly right.
So, when it opened up at 6.30am, I was there, appetite ueber-whetted, and attacked the buffet with gleeful abandon. I think I made four return voyages in total, amassing the above roster over the course of at least an hour. During that time I perused the Zurich city guide I brought (there’s only one I could find that’s specific to Zurich, and it’s by the hoity magazine Wallpaper, and it’s only OK—lots of good pics but short on useful info, and with an overbearingly unselfconscious hipster agenda), and was careful not to eat too fast (to avoid der upchucking) or too slow (to avoid the very rational signals my stomach was bound to send me when I reached its natural limit).
Much credit is due to me for what I did not have, viz., an omelette (delicious but commonplace in the US and would have taken up too much precious gut-room), and champagne (which was available in great quantities and looked delicious but I don’t think it would have been a good idea to show up at the MPI boozed out of my gourd).
And so now here I sit, laid low by Teutonic fruehstuck-excess. I hope to take a strategic nap before continuing the day, though it’s always a crapshoot whether this will actually happen. Final thought: do I regret this morning’s gluttony? Well, from a purely health perspective, it wasn’t great, and my gut/arteries are likely unhappy with me about it. But hell, it was a rare opportunity to have some really excellent food, and to try lots of different things in new setting, so what the hell? And at the very least, I got my 20 euros worth, and then some.
