Note: My wife cooked the food this week, and guest wrote this entry! Enjoy.

Most people that celebrate Oktoberfest today would never know that the tradition and festivities originated in the early 1800’s as a part of a wedding celebration. It does seem odd that a wedding party that ended with a horse race in the fields in front of Munich would someday morph into a party that seems to revolve around drinking beer. After the first Oktoberfest in 1810, more and more points of interest were added to the event including agricultural shows, a carousel and other amusement park types of rides as well as small beer booths that grew in number until there were tents and breweries that would showcase their beers-and now we have the Oktoberfest we recognize today.

I grew up in a family that celebrated and enjoyed both our Irish and German heritage. My eldest sister knew from a young age that she wanted to be a German teacher. She went out of her way to teach all of her siblings about German culture, history and (of course) food! When we had German food growing up, we did it right: all from scratch and authentic.

First, let’s recap what we’ve experienced so far with regard to German cuisine in Maryland:

Das Bier Haus

The thing that sold me on this place was the very “punny” sign out front referencing a Bratwurst, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the menu. Then again, as a restaurant and bar in Fed Hill, the restaurant’s menu primarily caters to the Fed Hill bar scene, and not the German food purists. That being said, the website indicates that Das Bier Haus has expanded their menu to include classics such as käsespätzle (German-style mac and cheese) and kartoffelsalat (warm potato salad) and Wienerschnitzel. But on our visit, I was a little disappointed.

Old Stein Inn: While its not in the city, its probably the high water mark of German restaurants in the area. The food was exceptionally good and it was some of the best bratwurst and schnitzel I’ve had. Their desserts and beer selection were also top notch. However, their spaetzle was not quite what I was looking for and did not have any cheese.

Cross Bar: We visited this in week 9. While the food was good, it was not authentic German food.

Sour Beef Dinner: Our last entry on week 15 was for the authentic German experience of Sour Beef and Dumplings at Zion Church. When Brian said that was some of the best German food he had ever had, the gauntlet had been thrown.

No one beats my German food.

**Threatening music intensifies**

I told Brian that I was going to make some homemade German food that would blow all of these places out of the water. I would make several dishes that I had not seen done to my liking previously. For dinner, I tried to focus on:

Käse Spätzle

Basically ‘cheese noodles’, tts a German dumpling with a little nutmeg flavor and LOTS of tasty cheese as well as caramelized onions. Think of this like German mac and cheese. For the cheese blend, I used emmenthaler cheese, which is a swiss variety of cheese that is very mild and nutty in flavor, and butterkäse cheese, which is a hard to find, semi-soft cow’s milk cheese. I also added onions caramelized in plenty of butter.

Wienerschnitzel

The prep station for the wienerschnitzel

Wienerschnitzel is a dish consisting of meat that is pounded thin, dredged in flour, egg-wash, and then seasoned bread crumbs and fried to a golden perfection. Traditionally the meat is veal and…I stuck with tradition this round (insert angry and indignant comments about eating baby animals here). Typically, this is served with simple lemon juice, and not with sauces or gravies. And we went with tradition for this dinner.

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

This is a traditional German dessert, consisting of chocolate cake soaked with cherry brandy, known as Kirsch, and layered with Kirsch flavored whipped cream and kirsch-soaked sweet cherries. It is then topped with decorative chocolate shavings. THIS is something that was missing from every single one of the other restaurants we tried. They had plenty of German chocolate cake and apple strudel and even a Schwartzwalder brownie (SMH), but no one had the traditional German Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.

But in their defense, this cake took a lot of effort to make. So unless a restaurant has a lot of time to make fresh desserts from scratch, it would be asking a lot to have it available on the menu all the time-not to mention the whipped cream would go flat unless this was made fresh daily. It was a bit labor-intensive, but well worth the effort.

And of course in the more modern tradition of Oktoberfest, we washed this all down with some tasty beer including a lovely Klosh, WeiBbeer and some pumpkin ale. I may sound a bit critical of the German food available from restaurants here in the city limits, however, I will say that both places are well worth visiting even if only for some sausages, beer and a beautiful and fun atmosphere.

Prost!