I love this time of year. Summer is winding down, football season is upon us, and Oktoberfest is rockin at Snowbird. As a bonus, it is always occuring during my wife's brithday, which is always a nice, ready-made idea to do since she loves German food and culture. The booths are sparse but alright...get your fill of knick-knacks and such as you make your way through. We found one place where we seem to get sucked in to buying the boy killer vests and coats each year, and another with some really cool steins and a wide selection of Ritter Sport candy bars :)
The real reason we go up, of course, is for the fantastic German food! The menu at Oktoberfest is pretty limited, but thankfully had most of my favorites. The wife and I opted for Paprika Chicken. This differs from my favorite Hungarian dish, Chicken Paprikash, in that the chicken is cooked quartered and on the bone rather than shredded and swimming in scrumptious sauce. Although I like the Parikash preparation better, this was not too shabby. Big pieces of white meat (you have to peel the skin off if you are health-conscious) came off in chunks and were dipped into the very good sauce, of which there was a tad too little. It's a bit of a mess, but worth it. The entrees are served with a big heap of sauerkraut, which was very mild. That's a good thing for me, since strongly-flavored sauerkraut does not make my list of foods I enjoy. As a side, we had spaetzle in gravy. Spaetzle are tender little dumplings and are the perfect compliment to any German meal. This particular spaetzle was very good. My kind of comfort food! My parents, who accompanied us on the journey, opted for Beef Rouladen. This is a dish of bacon, onion, mustard, and pickles wrapped up in thinly sliced beef. The beef was tender, the flavor was unique and savory, and the sauce was the right accent. Very good dish. This also came with sauerkraut, and a side of pickled red cabbage that was tasty in its own right. All of this was washed down with the traditional Black Bier (Beer), which does not taste like the dark beer that I ususally avoid, but rather substitutes flavors of chocolate in place of the hoppiness that usually dominates its similar-colored brethren. Nice change :) For dessert, the folks bypassed the delicious-looking German Chocolate Cake in favor of Apple Strudel. The strudel was good, but didn't light my world on fire. Still, a solid meal. They also have bratwurst available if you are in the mood for something tubular. Definitely worth a trip up the canyon, and you get to hear great live polka while you are eating to boot. Honestly, how can you listen to polka and not be happy? Bloody shame if you can't, I say. I was even in a good enough mood that I let my wife talk me in to going up and trying my luck on the Alpenhorn. You know, those long suckers that the Ricola guys play? Let's just say that they are a lot harder to play than they look! The sound that emanated from my vain attempt at music sounded something like cattle getting fondled. Not pretty. While you're up there, you may as well take in the Alpine Slide and Zipline, two of my favorite Snowbird activities. Just remember to use the brake every so often on the slide, as a friend of mine who moved from Puerto Rico recently discovered!
The real reason we go up, of course, is for the fantastic German food! The menu at Oktoberfest is pretty limited, but thankfully had most of my favorites. The wife and I opted for Paprika Chicken. This differs from my favorite Hungarian dish, Chicken Paprikash, in that the chicken is cooked quartered and on the bone rather than shredded and swimming in scrumptious sauce. Although I like the Parikash preparation better, this was not too shabby. Big pieces of white meat (you have to peel the skin off if you are health-conscious) came off in chunks and were dipped into the very good sauce, of which there was a tad too little. It's a bit of a mess, but worth it. The entrees are served with a big heap of sauerkraut, which was very mild. That's a good thing for me, since strongly-flavored sauerkraut does not make my list of foods I enjoy. As a side, we had spaetzle in gravy. Spaetzle are tender little dumplings and are the perfect compliment to any German meal. This particular spaetzle was very good. My kind of comfort food! My parents, who accompanied us on the journey, opted for Beef Rouladen. This is a dish of bacon, onion, mustard, and pickles wrapped up in thinly sliced beef. The beef was tender, the flavor was unique and savory, and the sauce was the right accent. Very good dish. This also came with sauerkraut, and a side of pickled red cabbage that was tasty in its own right. All of this was washed down with the traditional Black Bier (Beer), which does not taste like the dark beer that I ususally avoid, but rather substitutes flavors of chocolate in place of the hoppiness that usually dominates its similar-colored brethren. Nice change :) For dessert, the folks bypassed the delicious-looking German Chocolate Cake in favor of Apple Strudel. The strudel was good, but didn't light my world on fire. Still, a solid meal. They also have bratwurst available if you are in the mood for something tubular. Definitely worth a trip up the canyon, and you get to hear great live polka while you are eating to boot. Honestly, how can you listen to polka and not be happy? Bloody shame if you can't, I say. I was even in a good enough mood that I let my wife talk me in to going up and trying my luck on the Alpenhorn. You know, those long suckers that the Ricola guys play? Let's just say that they are a lot harder to play than they look! The sound that emanated from my vain attempt at music sounded something like cattle getting fondled. Not pretty. While you're up there, you may as well take in the Alpine Slide and Zipline, two of my favorite Snowbird activities. Just remember to use the brake every so often on the slide, as a friend of mine who moved from Puerto Rico recently discovered!
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