Summertime! Parties everywhere!

For the past week, Unterhaching has been having their Burgerfest. Unlike the other towns around here, which have a 1-day 'Sommerfest', they put up a tent, and the carnival came in and the festival was on for a week, with a different band every night. A ‘tent’ here is like an Octoberfest tent. It has joists & metal supports, a wooden floor, a kitchen and several food vending counters, and a stage for the band. The tables are picnic style with benches, each table seats 8. There were 10 tables deep by 10 or 12 tables wide in this “tent”. The carnival stuff was mostly smaller rides for little kids, 3 shooting booths with the obligatory cheesy stuffed animal prizes, a cotton candy booth, an ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries, and a 38-meter high Ferris Wheel. These rides were the cleanest, shiniest and quietest that Logan or I had ever seen. Absolutely no qualms about going on one of these!

We had first gone to the fest on Tuesday, for dinner. The band was Cagy Strings, ‘rock & roll’, which started with Motown and the pop hits from the 50s & 60s, wandered briefly into AC/DC and Elvis, back out to ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’ (Bryan Adams, I think.) These older UK/American songs are extremely popular. There were some people ‘dancing on tables’, which is what they call standing on the bench of your table & bopping up & down in time to the music. Had 2 Mass bier (2 of the 1-liter gigundo mugs between us), and the most excellent rotisserie chicken. Yum, yum!

Speaking of that, like any good foodie, I have been looking for the foods that we like here. I have successfully found: molasses (key ingredient in the baked beans recipe I use); Hellman’s Mayo (Miracle Whip is much easier to find – bleech); Cranberry Juice (Logan likes it, Germans don’t); Peanut Butter (getting more popular here, can find it in most markets); and just today, Pepperoni (Germans don’t eat it, and apparently Italians don’t either. ‘Peperoni’ here means pepperoncini peppers.) We have eaten at excellent Italian and Indian restaurants and have a line on Chinese.

One thing that I have not found, however, is a good sandwich/sub shop. The Subway chain is here, which I may go to if desperate. But, bleech. So I have kept my eyes open for a sign of a good sandwich – the ones that are sold in most of the plentiful snack shops are OK, but they are all about the bread. A little roll (called ‘semmel’ here), buttered, with one slice of lettuce, one of tomato, one slice of ham or salami, and one slice of cheese. Not NY-deli style at all, nor even a proper Dagwood/sub/hero/or what ever you call it where you come from. I have also not seen anything in the delis except for salamis, and they have a zillion types, and ham, ditto. No roast beef, no pastrami.

So I thought I saw something very interesting at the festival on Tuesday night – a couple walked in with a long, paper-wrapped parcel, just about the size & shape of something yummy on a baguette, and sat down near us. (People who have been to one of these festivals are already laughing.) I watched as they unrolled it, preparing to mime ‘where did you get that?’ when it was revealed to be – a fish! Yup, a whole long fish. They put them on a stick & smoke them. They’re served up with little wooden mini-forks and people tease the meat off & eat it with the little forks. Needless to say, my disappointment was vast.

Capping off the festival last night was to be ‘grosses feuwerwerks’ – big fireworks – so we had to go for that. We also planned to get dinner there, and hang out until the fireworks. All the tables were pretty much full. We squeezed into a table, after asking ‘ist dis platz frei?’ and getting an affirmative. I ordered the chicken again, but it turned out the kitchen had just run out. Last night was the final night of the fest. So we had a medley of sausages instead. I was really jonesing for that chicken, though. The crowd turned rowdy early, by 7:30 there were several tables of people up dancing and bellowing along with the songs. The band was Manyana, and they played both English & German songs. The mix of tunes really surprises me. From Shania Twain, to Lynrd Skynrd, to Deep Purple (Smoke On The Water still gets radio airplay here!), with rock & roll oldies mixed in. Again, ‘Rocking All Over The World’ and then, once again ‘Summer of 69’. I think every band does them.

The waitresses were awesome. Mostly older women, I’d say in their late 50s to early 60s, in costume: dirndel and blouse, heavy skirt. Running up and down the aisles, carrying 6 to 9 Mass (how heavy is a liter of beer, anyway?) and running food too. I never saw them sweat, and they were always pleasant.

The fireworks were pretty good, they set them off over a cornfield. All in all, a pretty good party. And we needed it, too. The weather here has been cool & rainy for the past few weeks. Sure doesn’t feel like summer.