Bars

OKTOBERFEST

11/06/2007 05:58:00 PM

Bratwurst und Bier

Melbourne's own version of the infamous German festival was a rather more restrained affair than I had imagined. Held last weekend in the Dandenong Showgrounds, a 5 minute walk from the infamous Dandenong station, I was imagining rivers of beer, mountains of bratwurst and cakes from the famous Cuckoo restaurant in Olinda, and dozens of Maedchens und Jungens in their Dirndls and Lederhosens.

Not quite.

It wasn't the massive celebration of German culture that I thought it would be. But it was still fun. Melbourne's Oktoberfest ran over 3 days, and we went on the last day, by which time I think the festivities were winding down.
Big Bavarian tent

A group of us rocked up in the early afternoon, braving incredibly strong winds and the hot sun. As far as German treats go, I had a sweet pretzel (apparently they don't have sweet pretzels in Germany, but they still tasted good!), the delicious bratwurst you see at the top of this post, and a good amount of Bitburger beer.


My mate George with a dark beer

Bizarrely, there was also Dutch poffertjes stand, a Spanish stand, and a Nando's. What's up with that?
Dutch poffertjes. What the?

I searched for the cake stand from the famous Cuckoo restaurant, but to no avail. We saw a good floorshow from the team at the Cuckoo (Victoria's other German restaurant), but the cakes were sadly missing. Oh well, nothing to do but to drown your sorrows in another tasty beer. Repeat: "Bitte, ein Bit!"

You Might Also Like

1 comments

  1. Thank God Nandos was there and I love those little dutch treats, I mean really, all the Germans eat is sausages!!! I nearly starved in Germany except that I lived on studel!!! Vida x x x

    ReplyDelete

CONTACT ME

My email address is sarahcooks [at] hotmail [dot] com.