Oktoberfest!

October 19th
One of the last places on earth I'd ever expect to have any sort of German influence is Taiwan. Of course one of the last places I ever expected to be living is Taiwan so you see, strange things do happen. And then of course, strange is in the eye of the beholder. Howevery, I suppose that the idea of a German bakery is not so much strange as it is the last little bit of home I ever expected to find here. And I mean home home. Like the home where I grew up. Gazing through the window takes me back to my first job at Nussex Farm and their glorious German baked goods. All the same pastries greet me here only they are smaller and fancier. Perfect for trying a whole bunch at one time!!

From what I understand, Wendel's is a 4th generation German bakery that is very well known here in Tianmu. Matt and I stopped there for lunch when we were here on our survey trip in July. It's about a mile up the road from our house. Our friends, Adam & Sara, had never been to this area of town. They heard about Oktoberfest and found that to be excuse enough to get over here. So we got a hold of our favorite local babysitter and joined them. Thank goodness I thought up the babysitter idea! This was no place for Caitlin!! There were rows and rows of tables crammed under this tent. Everything was really crammed in there with little room to move. There were smokers (yuck!) flanking either side of us and it was very, very loud. Not to mention the fact that you just can't consume vast amounts of alcohol and chase your toddler around. Compared to our dear friends that went to the actual Oktoberfest in Germany this year, we really didn't drink much, but it was more beer than I've had in one sitting since college. Or maybe since I lost my shoe in the Schuylkill River in Manayunk one night. Ahhhh...those were the days.

Anyway, the evening was a funny mix of German/Asian fusion meets the eyes of a girl who just can't believe what she is seeing, hearing or eating. Based on what Matt has told me, Asians don't drink all that much alcohol. So I think a lot of the people there really didn't know what to make of all this. When the German band started to play, they asked everyone to link arms with their neighbor and sway and cheer to some beer drinking song. I think we were the only "swayers" in the tent. No one understood what we were doing! Language barrier. A few beers later our neighbors raised their glasses to us and started to sway along. Gambe! (That is my phonetic spelling for the Mandarin word "cheers.") So along the line of other funny things was the band playing many rounds of "Happy Birthday" to random people and a few locals chugging beer...they did about as well as I would. It wasn't a pretty sight - although there was this one skinny little thing that got up on stage and absolutely housed her beer! Rather impressive. We also noticed that the bakery had imported some actual Germans to work the tables. They dressed them up in lederhosen and other traditional garb. The Germans took the food/beverage orders and the local workers delivered the food. There seemed to be some confusion built into this system, but in the end we got our grub and all was well. Speaking of food...

The pork knuckle turned out to be a rotisseried portion of pig that simply fell off the bone when served. The meat was very tender and the mustard was every bit as good as I remembered the mustard being when I was in Germany. Mmmm. It was served as an appetizer along with the German cheese platter I decided I needed to have. Matt & I enjoyed bratwurst with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Also quite good. I finished off this culinary experience with a delicious piece of chocolate cake topped with gooey raspberry sauce and some sort of crunchy-crumbly stuff on top. It was the best chocolate experience I've had in Taiwan thus far. Can't say it pairs well with beer, but it was a great way to end the night. Matt topped off the eveing with a big soft "bretzel" which I swear is a pretzel spelled incorrectly. Either way, it was yummy.

Here is a link to our pictures from Oktoberfest. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/taralheller/20081019Octoberfest?authkey=nOu2ArF-pjI#