K-town

On Saturday, John and I headed to Kaiserslautern (known as K-town by the Americans), which is about an hour away, for a little day trip. Truly, we made this journey just because we heard there was a Chili’s there. We were desperate for good American food, and we weren’t disappointed…not at Chili’s anyway.

The night before, we went with a few people from John’s office to a bar on post for karaoke night. John got up and did a wonderful rendition of Boot Scootin’ Boogie. Thankfully, no one forced me to sing. It would have been worse than that scene in My Best Friend’s Wedding where Cameron Diaz sang karaoke.

Saturday, we headed out around noon in search of a rumored American-style Tex Mex restaurant. We found it on a street in K-town that caters to Americans. Signs and everything were in English — we even saw a number of American flags! The restaurant was called Cantina Mexicana, and the interior did a good job of looking the part. The food, however, didn’t taste the part. It was ok, but not for the price. My queso-topped shredded chicken enchiladas tasted like king ranch chicken. That sauce was definitely not queso. John’s enchiladas verdes were at least a little spicy. We both got margaritas which were decent, but the bartender used table salt for the rims…not so bueno.

After lunch, we headed toward Ramstein Air Base. The Chili’s was in the Enlisted Club on base. It was REALLY cool to be at such a big air base. I wanted to take pictures, but that’s not really allowed. Ya know, security and whatnot.

We explored their huge BX (Base Exchange, which is kind of like a WalMart in that it has everything) and shared a small Cinnabon. We wanted to catch a movie, but they were showing This Christmas, which we saw last week. We drove around some more on a search for the Enlisted Club. Seriously, there weren’t any signs anywhere for anything, so we drove in a lot of circles before finally finding it. It’s funny, though, we weren’t hungry when we found it. It was only about 5, and we had not eaten until about 2:30. We decided to head back to Kaiserslautern to explore their downtown.

Even though it was VERY cold, and I wasn’t as prepared for walking around outside as I could have been, I am glad we did that. We ended up stumbling upon their Weihnachtsmarkt (by the way, Heidelberg has them beat on that), and we found a music stage where two guys were playing American music. We listened to them do a cover of Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.” They also covered Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” By the end of that song, I think you could say my face was comfortably numb. The cold had really gotten to me. We headed back to the car and back to Ramstein for Chili’s.

When we got there, there was a wait, so we went downstairs and tried our luck at the slot machines. I ended up winning $30! John lost $10, so we came out $20 on top. I’d say that’s pretty good. When I won all that money, I had only placed a 3 cent bet, too!

We got a table pretty quickly, and we were so excited to get to eat Chili’s that we ordered quite a bit. I don’t regret any of it either! :o) We each ordered a presidente margarita, glass of water (yay it’s free! you have to pay for water on the German economy…ugh) and skillet queso for an appetizer. I ordered the quesadilla explosion salad for my entree along with a coffee. John got the chipotle ranch blue cheese bacon burger and a Coke. It was all fantastic. The chips weren’t the same as the ones they use in the states, but they sufficed. We also indulged when it came time for dessert, and we ordered the chocolate chip paradise pie.

We declared December 15, 2007 as eating day. It was fabulous.

And now, for a few pictures…

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