ES Must Do: Munich Oktoberfest
Remember when I swooned over the 24 oz beer I got at a concert?
Forget it.
Far, far away from Scranton, Pennsylvania is a place called Munich, Germany (München, in German). They hold Oktoberfest during the last two weeks of September. But you know this already.
I was in attendance at the Spaten (ochsenbraterei) tent. No, we didn’t tent hop, but that story is for another day. Now, they only serve one type of beer in each tent (that brewery’s beer, obviously), along with alcohol free beer, and the lemonade-beer mix (shandy) for people who are too drunk to drink more beer. Or, at least that’s why I had to have one. The beer was absolutely delicious. It TASTED like beer (not the American water we call beer) and went down very, very easily. It was also brewed stronger for Oktoberfest, so it was about 6% abv. Not terribly strong, but enough to knock you on your ass after a few liters.
A beer stein (pictured above) holds one liter of beer. For those of us not in metric mode, that’s nearly 34 ounces for 8,75 Euro, or about $12 plus tip. 7 million liters of beer were served (who knows if they were all consumed).What’s better than that? Food.
Some must trys:
- Grosse bretzel, or really big fucking pretzel.
- Bavarian cheese spaetzle, or kaesespaetzle
Other must eats not pictured:
- Roasted chicken they serve in the tents. It smelled absolutely TO DIE FOR.
- Schnitzel burger (just be careful not to drop it on postcards at the souvenir stand)
- Candied nuts
- Bratwurst
- Giant pickle for the walk to the tram
Also, it’s customary for people to buy these huge gingerbread cookies decorated with icing. My dear friend Ashleigh bought one that may have said “golden angel” or something similar. I wore it proudly all night. However, we’ve learned that you’re not actually supposed to eat these, which is probably why it tasted like shit.
Oktoberfest exceeded my expectations and was more amazing than my wildest dreams. I order you, little ES lambs, to get there immediately. Consider it the first on our ES Must Do list.
Not only does the beer and food sound amazing, but maybe for once in my life the people running my credit card wouldn’t snicker because my last name is fuchs.
Great post though you managed to make me miss Germany and drool on my keyboard! I would also add that weisswurst is a must try as I have found it almost impossible to find a good reproduction here in the states.
Also props for the Scranton reference. At one point Scranton had more bars and funeral homes than any other city in America and they still take their drinking seriously. The St . Patrick’s Day festivities are the 3rd largest in the country as well!
I want to know more about the training program for Oktoberfest.
WIES’N!!!!!!!! i went in 2005 with my bavarian cousin. there *is* Lebkuchen made for eating which is WONDERFUL, but yea, don’t eat the decorative ones! yech. it’s meant to hang on your wall or be worn around the neck. i asked her what “leb” means, as “kuchen” is cake… she said it means Leb. so.. that’s the official word.
the food item that impressed me the most about Weis’n was the sandwich vendor selling what appeared to be whole fishes, on a roll, with radish and onion. also, the vendors walking around the beer tent selling huge chunks of giant radish.
but i would go again just to sit around and sing “ein prozit” every half hour with the band and watch the underage kids and italians (ok… and bavarians) get drunk off their asses. Weis’n <3 <3 <3
Borracho- you bet your ass I am in Scranton for St. Patty’s day every year. Already booked my hotel room for 2011
erica- I did see those fish sandwiches and wanted to write about them, but every time I think of them I actually gag. I don’t even understand.
..and kalle, training starts as soon as you arrive at my place.
oh yea, i didn’t mention i didn’t eat the fish sandwiches.