Final Patio Café offers German cuisine

Special to Leader-Press

The Central Texas College (CTC) Culinary Arts program will host the final Patio Café Cuisine Nights dinner of the semester this Friday, May 5. The evening’s fare features a German cuisine. Dinner will be served from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in the culinary arts area of the CTC Student Center (Bldg. 106).

First choice is the appetizer, soup and salad. The appetizers are Octoberfest crostini ($4.75) - crispy baguettes topped with spicy brown mustard, house-made bratwurst with onion, sauerkraut and garnished with sour cream; and Zwiebelkuchen or onion bacon pie ($3.75) – a slice of savory pie baked like a quiche; filled with sweet onions, cream, bacon and sprinkled with toasted caraway seeds. The soup of the day is Rhine river soup ($6.75 for a bowl or $2 for a cup with an entrée) - a blend of potatoes, leeks, carrots, cabbage and diced bratwurst in a chicken broth with a dollop of sour cream. The featured salad is the lila-salat ($7.50) - three traditional marinated German salads: beet, carrot and cucumber all adorn a bed of Romaine lettuce tossed in oil and vinegar, then topped with sliced grape tomatoes. Or diners can choose the house salad ($4 or free with an entrée) - a blend of carrots, cherry tomatoes, cheese, cucumbers, bacon bits and croutons served with a honey oat roll and a choice of dressings.

The entrees are jaeger schnitzel ($12.50) - boneless center-cut pork loin tenderized, breaded and fried golden brown then smothered with a red wine mushroom jaeger sauce; halfte hahnchen ($14) - a half-bone-in-chicken roasted with a herbed compound butter and topped with a Hungarian paprika sauce; and German roulanden ($13.50) - three bundled beef rolls stuffed with bacon, onion and pickle braised in a rich pan sauce.

Each entrée is served with a choice of two side dishes. Choose from spätzle - delicate dumplings simmered in chicken stock; “himmel und erde – red potatoes mashed with tart apples, bacon and onion; grilled asparagus - asparagus lightly tossed with lemon and oil then grilled; and braised cabbage - red cabbage and carrots braised in vinegar and sugar. Each side dish is also available a la carte.

Complete the dinner with a dessert of either apfel strudel ($4.75) – individual-sized puff pastry strudels filled with Granny Smith apples accompanied by cinnamon custard ice cream and drizzled with an apple brandy caramel sauce; or schatzi kaffee ($4.75) – a deconstructed confection of hazelnut torte, espresso mocha Chantilly cream, dark chocolate-covered coffee beans and a candied Mandarin orange.

Reservations are required and can be made by calling the CTC Hospitality department at 254-526-1515.