T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
Greetings from Oktoberfest 2008! We are still alive and well. The city is awash with drunken tourists and locals alike, most of them wearing some kind of tracht, or at least funny hats (note to self: take more photos of funny hats). Many precious memories are in the making here, I tell you, and we … Read more
You’ll be pleased to know that the beer was paraded in and arrived safely at the Wies’n. The first keg was successfully tapped by the mayor at the stroke of noon. Here we go!
While I admit that nearly 8 months in Munich has possibly skewed my perception a bit on such things… doesn’t 2 dl (less than 7 oz) seem a little too small to be considered a ‘beer’? (Note the fork I placed in the photo to the left, so you can appreciate just how ridiculously diminutive … Read more
Last week we went to a Pfarrfest at a small parish church in Munich. A multi-generational crowd was gathered for food, drink, socializing and music. The preist worked the crowd, greeting everyone and making them feel welcome (upon learning I was from the US, he even broke out with a couple words of English). Dessert … Read more
See, it says so right on the bottle.
Home again after a lovely Easter weekend in Berlin. One of our stops this trip was the Brokers Bierbörse, a relatively normal bar with a small twist – beer prices vary over the course of the evening based on demand. Prices are displayed on flatscreen TVs around the bar, and you pay the price listed … Read more
You didn’t really think the city of Munich was going to make us wait until autumn for a beer festival, did you? The Starkbierfest, or Strong Beer Festival, take place every year for a few weeks during Lent. Drinking beer doesn’t count as breaking a fast, you see, so rumor has it that the monks … Read more
Finish this phrase: “Gut, besser, ____” (“Good, better, ____”) I’ve always been under the impression that the correct answer was, of course, “Paulaner”. So why is it that I keep seeing these commercials for Gösser, a little-known Austrian beer? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVpOhEYguM] I was starting to think I was going a bit crazy, but recently a German … Read more
Still in Montana, having a fabulous time. We spent a day in Bozeman, which I found to be an absolutely charming little town. Not to outdo the NYT guy, but we covered quite a lot of ground during our short visit: Lunch at Pickle Barrel, a famous Montana chain of sandwich shops. I kind of … Read more
Sure, plenty of good beers come from Europe. But my favorites tend to be ales, and the continent just doesn’t make many of those (this is one of the reasons I’m sad we won’t be moving to Ireland). But here in the northwest United States, microbrews are everywhere. The variety is staggering. And delightful. Bars … Read more