It’s fine blue sky day today, a good day to be out and about. Also a good day to hang the washing outside to dry.
It’s October and consequently lots of places are advertising their Oktoberfest. According to something I read, “The original Oktoberfest was held in Munich in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, later King Ludwig I, and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. It involved a horse race and a five-day party; the latter was such a hit it has been repeated every year since – except during wars and pandemics – and now lasts more than two weeks. Despite the name, Oktoberfest mostly takes place in September (19 September to 4 October this year).”
And now in cities all over the UK enterprising people are organising similar events, with lots of beer and German style food, kn much the same way that pubs and restaurants serve “tapas”.
I’be never been to the Oktoberfest in Bavaria. Nor have I been to an Oktoberfest in the UK. I have been to restaurants her serving “tapas” and I know they don’t really resemble what is served in Sam Sebastian or Santiago de Compostela, where a vast array os small tasty items are displayed on the counter and you select one of two to accompany your glass of wine. Usually the tasty items are speared on toothpicks and when you leave they count up the toothpicks and charge you accordingly. Or at least that’s what used to happen. It’s a while since I spent an evening going round the bars of the old quarter of those cities. Nowadays they might well just clock everything up on a tablet.
The pub next door to us doesn’t serve “tapas” as such but you can order “small plates” which is effectively the same thing as when you order stuff off a “tapas” menu in a central Manchester restaurant, for example.
I was going to comment on how the British like to recreate something they enjoyed on holiday - Spanish tapas, the Italian gelateria, the German Oktoberfest - but it’s not really so unusually British. How many Irish pubs have you come across in Spain and Portugal? In Figueira da Foz in Portugal we discovered a very British pub, of the old fashioned kind, called The Fogg. Then there are “hamburgueserías” serving American-style hamburgers just abput everywhere, if you want something more than the stuff served by the ubiquitous MacDonalds.
It’s quite odd how many people go away on holiday, often to strange and exotic places, and don’t want to eat the strange and exotic food eaten by the locals. Of course, what you should do is try the local food and maybe seek out a recipe so that you can replicate at home something you enjoyed while away. Or you can just make note of the ingredients and hope that what you produce in similar to the original. I have done this with interesting ways of serving fish. And I now have my own version of Portuguese “ovos totos”.
I’ve just had-yet another phone call from an unknown number, one of those calls where honeyed tones tell me: “we have a part-time job opportunity for you”. Really? Was I looking for a job? Of course not. I”m fortunate enough to have an adequate pension. This happens crom time to time!but it could be worse, accotsing to this cartoon by Madeline Horwath on the birthday greetings that nobody wants:-
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment