Wedding Week - Part 4

After a fun week of visiting friends, luncheons and rehearsal dinners, and the wedding ceremony itself, we could take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy the festivities. 

When we first talked about the wedding, we both immediately thought "wouldn't it be fun if we could bring Oktoberfest to Charleston?"  Well, we couldn't do quite that, but we did bring some Bavaria to the festivities. 

We held the reception back in Charleston, at the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. Not only is a beautiful and historic venue, but we also thought it would be pretty cool to offer a dungeon tour at our wedding reception!  So, during the cocktail our, the guests had a tour of the dungeon, where pirates and confiscated British tea were held and also where you can see the only remaining parts of Charleston's old city walls. I had no idea Charleston was a walled city, or that the water used to come up to the building. 

One of our hopes was to figure out how to get hops and good German beer. Luckily our wonderful florist and caterer were able to come through for us!  We decided to offer a selection of Munich beers - a Weihenstephaner helles, a Paulaner Weissbier, and a Franziskaner Dunkelweissbier. 

And of course some mini pretzels to snack on before the reception began. 

While our guests enjoyed beer and pretzels and a tour of the museum, Herr J and I stopped at our hotel to change into our Bavarian party clothes. 


Our bartender gets into the spirit, thanks to some dirndl and lederhosen aprons Herr J found online. 

However, my favorite party favor he found online was the Maβ coozy, lederhosen style.  (Luckily he saved one for me, and it took a trip to Oktoberfest this year)



Again, Sara, our awesome florist somehow divined from my explanations and random Pinterest ideas exactly what I envisioned for simple centerpieces... of course in Maβ glasses. 

Luckily the lebkuchenherzen we had shipped over arrived at the last minute and we were able to put them out on the table as decorations and more fun Bavarian things to take home. 


The father of the bride and ushers. 



Two of my favorite things about the room were the two fireplaces on each end, and the gorgeous caribbean blue ceiling that you can see in the mirror. 


And one of the moment's we'd been eagerly awaiting....the cake. Again, another example of a wonderful vendor who was able to create exactly what we wanted from what I'm sure was a very poor description.  If anyone in the Charleston area needs a cake (birthday, wedding, otherwise), I highly recommend our baker Tammy at Cakes by Kasarda... especially the "moist chocolate" flavor.  If you're getting married in the area, it's worth a visit to sample her cakes. We were blown away by the taste and by the presentation.  This was my first cake tasting ever, though Herr J had been with friends and to the wedding expo with his brother. So, when she brought out little slices of several types of cake, and then a plate of scoops of several frostings, and yet another plate of several fillings....well, I thought that was the normal way cake tasting went and was pretty excited for the next one. Though I did think it would be hard to top her cake - at least 3 flavors were the best example of that flavor cake I've ever tasted. 

Herr J tried to warn me that we should probably just cancel the other appointment and book Tammy, but I thought cake tasting was fun. As usual, he was right. The next place just brought out different samples of pre-frosted and assembled cakes. And they all had pretty much the same frosting and taste and I was wishing we'd skipped it.  

I will say that choosing the cake was really difficult, but we got exactly what we wanted thanks to Tammy's tasting where we could mix and match. And when I was having trouble deciding between the American buttercream that was just too sweet and the Swiss buttercream that could be a tiny bit sweeter, she suggested that she often just blends the two. So, we created a cake with perfect frosting and were able to alternate layers of cake - alternating vanilla and almond on the bottom tier, alternating vanilla and strawberry (and she blends fresh strawberries into the batter), and chocolate on top. I don't remember if the chocolate is mixed with vanilla or not....we'll see when we next visit my parents and take it out of the freezer! 





A toast by the best man...

... and the maid of honor.  We realized with a laugh when they signed the marriage book as witnesses for us that we chose well...between the two of them, we have attorneys licensed to practice in at least 3 states. 

And then it was time for the dances. First, father and daughter.
 

 And then our first dance together.

And then, time to eat!  When we started this process, I was a little worried we wouldn't find German food. I'd found what looked like a good German restaurant in town, but it had closed. And caterers mostly focused on Asian, Mexican, or Southern food.  Had we gotten married 3 hours west in Spartanburg (home of the BMW plant), I think we would have had a plethora of options for Bavarian food. But, luckily my father found a local caterer who said "you want to do Oktoberfest for your reception? We've never done German before, but that sounds fun!" And when she came back with a proposed menu based on internet research, she said that the one dish that kept popping up as classic German food was this thing call currywurst.  

In the end, we went with our favorite German dish (actually Schwabisch, not Bavarian), zwiebelrostbraten and käsespätzle. For those who haven't had the pleasure, it's basically steak with fried onions on top. It's often served with a beer sauce and with käsespätzle, which I like to call German artisanal mac and cheese. Yum!  

 

And we did have a sausage and sauerkraut bar. They found some great bratwurst and served it on a bun with mustard or as currywurst. And did a realy good job with the sauerkraut. We also had some green asparagus, rice pilaf, and baked apples.  We weren't sure how it would work, but Cru Catering did a fantastic job. They also managed to serve incredibly tender steak, which is always a big risk to cook for such a large party. 

 
I think we should have practiced cutting the cake - I had no idea it would be so difficult to get the slice out of there! 

 

One thing that was difficult to find in Germany for an American wedding was a cake cutter. I'm not well versed enough in German weddings to know if a ceremonial cake cutter isn't normally used, or if the cutting of the cake just isn't a big thing (or the cake itself).  In any event, when we described to a sales lady at a big kitchen store what we were looking for, she said they didn't carry anything like that, but they did have a ceremonial knife for cutting stollen. Dresdner stollen, to be precise. We figured it was pretty cool and sword-looking and we could combine another German state into the mix, so why not?

Apparently this is a replica of the Giant Dresden Stollen Knife, which was 1.6 meters long.  Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was said to love holding festivals. In 1730, he held a magnificent baroque festival for which he commissioned an 1.8 ton (18 yards long by 8 yards wide) stollen (traditional Christmas cake).  It took 8 horses to bring the stollen to the table and in order to cut such a cake, he had a 12 kg silver knife forged. 

After going into the Saxon treasury and surviving the November Revolution, it was lost after being hidden away from the advancing Red Army at the end of World War II. 

After much research, a replica was created and they market more manageable sized versions.  Next Christmas, we'll be cutting our stollen in style and remembering our wedding day. 
 

We had the chance to catch up with family and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in too long.  And to learn something new about some....for example that our cousins knew every song and every dance....we were impressed!

 

A little more dancing before the night ended. 

And the last minute gummis we'd ordered to replace the favor bags that hadn't arrived.... 

....but luckily arrived the morning of the wedding!

 
After the reception ended, we went up to the rooftop of the Vendue Inn for a drink with friends.  

We then returned to the hotel, just to add a little more laughter to the week.  After we'd finally cleared off everything we'd left on the bed in our haste to get ready, we finally went to bed. I thought it was strange the duvet was wet, but it seemed to just be water, and it wouldn't surprise me if I left a wet towel or spilled water on it or something like that. Not 5 minutes later I jump up as something wet starts coming out of the ceiling. The mystery of the wet duvet is solved by the water leaking out of the vent in the ceiling. Luckily they had a vacant room across the hall and we just slept there - in a nice clean and uncluttered room. 

The next morning we hurried to pack everything up and met some Dallas friends at High Cotton for breakfast before we all headed out of town. 

I can't say enough about the food in the area. There are so many great restaurants around, and not only in downtown Charleston. Here's a sampling of the wonderful breakfast. 

Johnny Cakes
 Biscuits and Cornbread (with sweet butter)

Chicken and Waffles

Corned beef and hash

 

shrimp and grits

And one of the most thoughtful (and tasty) gifts we've ever seen.  My oldest friend (we go back to 3rd grade) came to the wedding. She's a pretty excellent baker and cookie decorator and she left a box of homemade love heart cookies for us at the hotel.  And she took the time to look up a bunch of different love sayings in German to write on the hearts. So cute! And they were really tasty, melt in your mouth shortbread kind of cookies. 

 

 

With full bellies and a few hours before I had to fly out for business meetings (sad to leave my new hubby, but he was flying home the next day), we decided to go back to Frankie's Fun Park for some mini-golf. We didn't have time for golf the day we drove the go-karts.  

This time, with wedding rings!

I've always been pretty terrible at air hockey, but I think getting married changed that. Best air hockey performance of my life!

 

We finished up the day with this crazy Speed of Light game they have. We took a video of some other people playing it. You compete against each other and earn points for hitting the lighted buttons. I think you get more points depending on how quickly you hit them in a row and may lose points for mistakes. And then there's a bonus round to hit as many as you can in a short time. It's out of control and addictive and fun. 

And then Herr J dropped me at the airport and I spent the week in New York.  We had a friend getting married the following weekend in another part of Germany, so I flew into Frankfurt. Coincidentally another friend from London was attending the wedding and flying in from New York, so Herr J picked us up in Frankfurt and we all went to the wedding. 

And when we finally returned to Munich that Sunday, we dropped off the rental car and had our first meal in Munich as husband and wife and had our first Oktoberfest beer of the season. A lovely evening at Augustiner am Dom

dining on our favorite zwiebelrostbraten!

A huge thanks to all of our family and friends who travelled to celebrate with us, and to all of our amazing vendors who made this work for two crazy people trying to arrange a wedding by phone and internet. And to our wonderful pastor who was willing to work outside the box and did many of our pre-wedding counseling sessions by Skype.  With everyone's help, we had our dream wedding!

All photos of reception by Marni Rothschild.

The Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr Helles Faceoffs

One of our first rounds in the Helles Bracket pitted two Paulaner beers and two Hacker-Pschorr beers against each other.

On the food side of the equation, we stuck with tradition and ate Schnitzel and Roasted Chicken...there's no better meal to pair with the Helles style beers. Add a couple pretzels, and you're done! (And there's no cooking involved...all are available from your local Vincenzmur or grocery store).

Hacker-Pschorr describes its Münchener Hell as: 

belong[ing] to Bavaria like pretzels and white blue sky.

It's a classic, light and clear helles beer.

The Münchener Kellerbier is beer, as they made it in the 1400's. It's a darker golden beer, with some cloudiness and sediment. It also has more carbonation and has a slightly bubbly feel to it. It still has a light flavor, but slightly more flavor due to the different yeast style. The name "Kellerbier" refers to the fact that it's like the beer that was pulled straight out of the celler (where it lagered and fermented, with the air in the basement as the source of the yeast) and served to guests.

We preferred the Kellerbier and it's flavor and carbonation. Score one for "the old ways!"

Next up, we had the Paulaner beers...we had no idea how these two would differ.

Similar the Hacker-Pschorr beers, the Original Münchener Hell is their classic hells, while the Original Münchener Urtyp is closer to the old beers. The Hell was light, golden, and clear. The Urtyp here is classified as an Exportbier and thus was brewed with a higher wort to help it withstand transportation. These days transportation is no issue, but many still enjoy the slightly maltier flavor and darker color.

You'll see the word "Urtyp" often on beer labels. It just means "traditional style." This doesn't always tell you how the beer will taste, but gives you a clue that it's closer to the old style of brewing. Or you'll see combinations wtih just the prefix "Ur-" (e.g., "Urhell"), which means "traditional" or "ancient."

Surprisingly, we prefered Paulaner's Helles to the Exportbier. We typically go for the maltier and darker beers, but we just really enjoyed the crisp Helles.

But how would the Paulaner Orginal Münchener Hell compare to the Hacker-Pschorr Münchener Kellerbier? We actually chose the Kellerbier, though they were very close in taste.

It was still light (compared to many of the beers we have tasted), but with a bit more interesting flavor than the Helles. Also maltier.

This is the beer to drink when you don't like the taste of beer!

Krapfen Season

Germany has many "seasons"....asparagus season, mushroom season, truffel season, starkbier season, fruit season, etc.

After New Year's comes Krapfen Season...and this year brings new varieties!

What are krapfen? In their original form, they're basically jelly donuts. Known in other areas of Germany as "Berliners," which is what JFK amusingly called himself in his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.
It's yet another example of German linguistic diversity - In most of Germany they are "Berliners," but in Bavaria they are "Krapfen" and in Berlin and the surrounding states of Brandenburg and Saxony, they are Pfannkuchen (which are what the rest of Germany calls pancakes).  And they have other names in other very small regions. Yes, confusing...especially to us non-native speakers. I've only lived in Bavaria, so I sometimes discover that what I think is German is really Bavarian.

But, back to the tasty pastries... Traditional Krapfen are light, sweet donuts filled with jam (usually apricot, plum, or berry) and topped with powdered sugar, glaze or chocolate. They also are often filled with custard or chocolate.

Since krapfen are traditionally eaten on New Years Eve and during Fasching (Carnival, Mardi Gras, etc), the krapfen season runs from New Years to Lent. We are in full swing now!

Normally, we don't see too much beyond chocolate, but this year, they've invented some new varieties. Some are traditional filled donuts, but others are more like deconstructed jelly donuts....with the filling sandwiched between two halves of the donut and with a topping.

Here we have traditional krapfen (apricot filled with powdered sugar), then Heart Krapfen (straberry jam-filled with a heart-shaped sugar dusting), and the Tiramisu Krapfen. More on those later....

From left to right, Raspberry Krapfen (raspberry mousse filling with raspberry glaze), Black Forest Krapfen (cream-filled, with chocolate topping, chocolate flakes, and cherry), Tiramisu Krapfen, and Vanilla Krapfen (vanilla mousse with sugar glaze).

 And of course, Chocolate. Not sure if these are filled with chocolate cream or custard, but they look delicious!

Herr J and I tried the Tiramisu and Vanilla. (We'll try the others soon....Black Forest and Chocolate are high on the list!)
Both were great choices, but we both liked the Vanilla slightly better. The Tiramisu did indeed taste like tiramisu, with a fluffy espresso/kahlua flavored cream in the middle and cocoa powder on top. But the Vanilla would be my choice for eating a whole one. It was the same fluffy filling, but with a very delicate vanilla flavor, balanced by the sugary glaze. And the donut part of both were light, chewy, and perfectly flavored.

Just be careful eating them...they're impossible to eat without spilling sugar (or cocoa) on you or dripping some cream out of the other side. Happy eating!

The Company Cafeteria, Part II

Frau A and I recently met up with a friend of mine from high school.  Her sister lives in Germany, and she & her husband were visiting the sister's family and traveling around southern Germany, Switzerland, and France.  We had dinner at one of the nicer Bavarian restaurants in Munich, Wirtshaus in der Au.  Thanks for stopping by, Heidi and Chris!  (Great German names, BTW)

Our dinner together was a reminder that the first German corporate cafeteria post deserves a follow-up.  Here are some more offerings from the office food service.

One common item in colder weather is the "eintopf mit wurst".  This is a bowl of lentil soup with two frankfurters thrown in.  A German food site has over 50 recipes for this!  It can look a little mushy, and tends to be a bit bland, but with a little salt, pepper, and maybe paprika added it's pretty good.  Perfect for you low-carb dieters too.  You just get a strange feeling cutting up a hot dog with knife and fork... in soup.

Unfortunately, the "wurst" in the soups is not the highest quality in a corporate cafeteria.  And it is not bratwurst, but just a standard hot dog style weiner.  No grill here either.  Boiled.  See them floating on the left here:

The above photo is also a warning about a typical mistake in Germany.  If you order "Pizza Pepperoni"  over here you will not get the pizza you expect.  Pepperoni means the vegetable, not the meat.  You will get what you see above, a cheese pizza with a long green pepper on it (or a bunch of smaller ones).  You need to order "Pizza Salami" instead (although they do put salami on it, not the pepperoni style used in the U.S.).

Then there is leberkäse, or shortened to leberkäs.  It's the German meatloaf, made with pork instead of beef, so it looks and tastes completely different.  It is typically Bavarian comfort food, found at every train station (a slice of it is eaten in a roll with mustard), and often even served for breakfast!  In my experience, quality varies greatly (like meatloaf, I guess) but I think there is a reason that the Germans eat it with a lot of mustard, if you know what I mean...

Need something with your leberkäs?  Looking for big and starchy?  Go right for the knödel.  It's a mammoth dumpling -- usually potato but can also be bread-based.  You will need some kind of sauce to add moisture and get it down, that's why it often accompanies roasted pork dishes that come with sauce, like schweinebraten.

Finally, I need to end with something positive: another photo of bienenstich.  Love it.  In the first post it was a stock photo from Wikipedia.  This time, they were serving it in the cafeteria and I grabbed one.  Didn't last long...