Alpine Brauhaus - Webster, Texas

A small unassuming restaurant located in a nearby strip mall has come to my attention. Nothing too unusual about that you say, there are restaurants in strip malls all over the place. Well this one is not your usual strip mall chain offering. This mall is home to the Alpine Brauhaus, a German restaurant. I love German food. It's easily up there at the top of my favorite-food-ever list.

When I think of comfort food one of the cuisines that comes to mind is the food of Germany. Sausages, potatoes, bread, cheese, I love it all. And the beer. My love of German beer goes back many years (more years now than I want to think about). Round all of that out with strudel or a Linzer Torte and maybe a glass of my favorite Riesling and I am one happy diner.

Which leads me to Alpine Brauhaus. Having lived for many years in an area abundant with German restaurants I've kind of taken them for granted. Sadly, good German food (or even not so good German food) is not so easy to come by in some parts of our country. But I'm in a lucky spot right now and there are several to choose from in the area. Alpine Brauhaus is the first one of these that we tried.

Quick aside, I just recently realized that Chicken Fried Steak is just another type of schnitzel. It was actually brought to the area by German settlers. Seems so obvious right? I can't believe that I never knew that. From the Kitchen Project website:

Schnitzel morphs into Chicken Fried Steak

In the mid 1800's German Immigrants flocked to Texas. Beef was more plentiful than veal or pork and something needed to be done with the . So instead of using veal or pork for schnitzel they used beef.
Looking for a way to sell the tougher cuts of meat they pounded it and tenderized it a bit. Legend has it that a cook accidentally grabbed one of these steaks by accident when doing an order of fried chicken. The accident was loved and became known as Chicken Fried Steak. 

Well, maybe that wasn't so quick. Anyway, we've been to Alpine Brauhaus a couple of times so far, once for lunch and once for dinner. When we were there eating lunch we had a chance to check out their dinner menu and decided that we had to come back again some evening. 

I didn't see a menu online but I have a couple of pictures of them.

Lunch Menu

 

Dinner Specials

Dinner Menu

The dinner item that caught our eye was the Bauernplatte (Farmer's Plate) for Two on the Specials menu. I love being able to sample a variety of what a place has to offer and this covered a lot. 

Potato and pea soup

Seeded rye bread

Krombacher Dark beer

Dinner started with what was clearly a made from scratch soup. This one was potato and pea, some rye bread and a nice Krombacher Dark beer. My only complaint was that the beer was served too cold. After I let it sit for a bit I was actually able to taste the flavor notes in the beer. A nice dark beer, I liked it. 

Then onto the main event.

Sausage, Smoked Ham Haxe, Leberkase, potatoes, purple cabbage

Green beans, sauerkraut, purple cabbage and more sausage

I'm not sure that the pictures tell the whole tale of the volume of food here. We took enough home with us for a couple more meals. While this is listed as dinner for two I would guess it could easily be dinner for 3-4. 

Everything was good and exactly what we expected. German food is very mildly spiced, some might even say bland. The most notable flavor profile in German cooking is the play of sweet and sour. A combination that I happen to love. While the flavors are definitely subtle they are all there. The sweetness of the purple cabbage and sauteed onions, the vinegary taste of the sauerkraut all play well against the rich tastes of the smoked ham haxe and the snappy, grilled sausages. And then there's the leberkase.

Leberkase

One of my favorite things on the plate is the Leberkase which is a mix of meats and onion that is ground together and then baked in a loaf pan. The loaf is then sliced and either grilled (shown here) or served cold in a sandwich. I really like meatloaf and this feels a lot like meatloaf's European cousin. 

After all of that deliciousness we couldn't eat another bite, not even with the siren call of Apple Strudel begging to be tried. For that reason and a few more menu items we want to try, we'll be back to Alpine Brauhaus.

When you add to that the cozy and inviting atmosphere, the grandmotherly servers and the good food this place is a gem and well worth a visit or three.

Happy dining!

A drop in The Bucket

I can't be the only one right? You all have a culinary bucket list too, don't you? My current list is pretty short, only two entries, dinner at Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin in New York City and Thomas Keller's French Laundry in Yountville, CA.

My culinary bucket list goes back quite a few years. One of the first entries was Commander's Palace in New Orleans and dinner at Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen. It also included breakfast at the Cafe du Monde. We've been lucky enough to knock those off of the list.

Over the years the list has included restaurants of specific chefs, specific restaurants and dining experiences. One of the dining experiences was put on the list and knocked off in short order, eating at the lechoneras in Guavate, PR. We saw it on No Reservations and we went for it. It ranks as one of the most memorable dining experiences I've had anywhere. Eating roasted pork served right off of the spit at an open air roadside stand. Accompanied by local beer served ice cold. Perfection.

We've been lucky enough to have moved a few places to the done column. Lunch at Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless' Chicago restaurant, dinner at the Haufbrau Haus in Munich, Germany and dinner at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons. With a little luck and determination we've managed to whittle the list down to the restaurants I mentioned above and one relative new entry Mario Batali's Del Posto.

When we head to New York City, maybe later this year, Le Bernardin will be ticked off and we'll probably knock Mario Batali's Del Posto off as well. I can't wait. 

The French Laundry on the other hand has been on my bucket list for years. Point of fact, I've never been to the West Coast. I know right? Who hasn't been there? Well, me. I plan to remedy that in the not too distant future, after all a very good friend and family member lives out there. And I have no idea what I've been waiting for.

So if you see me out, I'll be the one taking pictures of my food. (When we had dinner at Five & Ten I overheard a women say "look, she's taking pictures of her food".) Yes, I know, it looks weird. But I never use a flash, I stick to what I can take pictures of from or on my table and try not to be too distracting to my fellow diners. So sue me, I'm a blogger and I take pictures of my food and all sorts of stuff. I love being able to look back at what we've done and where we've gone.

Do you have a culinary bucket list? What's on it? What has been one of your favorite dinning experiences? Please share thoughts here as I'm always looking for new places to try.

Roll Out the Barrel! - Oktoberfest - Munich Germany

Standing at our gate at the Minneapolis airport I still couldn't believe we were headed to Germany. We were going to be attending what I've come to think of as the worlds largest county fair, Oktoberfest! I still can't believe it. I heard our flight being called to board and this was it, we were on our way.

We arrived in Munich mid-week, a few days before the start of the festival. The main Oktoberfest events take place at the Theresienwiese (field, or meadow, of Therese), near Munich's center. The origin of the festivities were to mark the marriage of King Ludwig I to Therese of Bavaria.  During the 16 day long event, as it is celebrated now, millions of people will visit the fair grounds and millions of liters of beer will be consumed. Along with tons of roasted chicken, pretzels, potato dumplings and best of all roast pork.

After having a couple of days to explore and get the lay of the land, the first day of the festival was finally here. We headed out pretty early in the morning so we could stake out a great spot from which to enjoy the fun.  Some of the most coveted spots are in the huge beer tents that line the fair grounds. We walked around the extensive grounds taking in all of the sites, sounds and smells.

The midway is much like any county fair midway you've ever visited. There are food vendors, games of chance, souvineers. And people, lots and lots of families with kids, tourists, just a ton of folks milling around.

We finally settled on the Winzerer Fähndl tent (the one with the giant Paulaner beer on top of the tower) and headed that way. We walked into the tent and it was starting to fill up but not too crowded yet. There were a lot of reserved seats but still open spots for the taking. We noted as we came in that there was a huge deck on the front of the tent and decided to go back out there to check things out and decided to grab seats at a picnic table on the deck.

They we were, sitting at a picnic table on the deck of the Winzerer Fähndl tent looking around and having a pinch-me, can-you-believe- where-we-are moment.
Because we arrived early beer service hadn't yet started. We ordered a couple of half liter sodas and settled in for the day.

With the tapping of the first keg at noon and a cry of "O'zapft is!", Oktoberfest officially started. Let the beer drinking begin! So there we sat, at our picnic table, in the sunshine, drinking liter mugs of beer. As the afternoon wore on we were joined by 4 Italian guys and three local girls; from that moment on known as the Italians and the Heidis. They all spoke a little English and we all spoke beer so there was no communication barrier at all. Having happy birthday sung to you by a table full of VERY happy Italians and Germans is something you just can't adequately describe. It was amazing.

That was just day one, we would be back again.

Our time in Germany was amazing. We went to the famous Hofbräuhaus for yet more beer and schweinshaxe (crispy roasted knuckle of pork), we toured  the city by bus and train and enjoyed time at the viktualienmarkt.

We visited the Deutsches Museum and saw the Glockenspiel, it was all wonderful. Munich is an amazing city and very easy to get around in. We met a lot of nice people, ate wonderful food, drank awesome beer and just had an amazing time.
There's still so much more to see and do. We'll definitely be back.