Late Nite Adobo

by Tondagossa

National Harbor – September 26, 2009

On a pleasant, overcast afternoon, my friend and I set off to National Harbor for our first Oktoberfest experience. We had been looking forward to it since that fun-filled day at the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival. With all that history making Oktoberfest one of the most well-known annual celebrations, how would we NOT enjoy it?

Oktoberfest was first celebrated in Munich, Germany to honor the marriage between Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. These celebrations continued annually, with a few exceptions due to certain important events. Up to this day when anyone mentions Oktoberfest, whether or not we’ve been there, we are filled with thoughts of music, food, beer – basically joy.

$25 (online, $30 at the door) bought us enterance from 2-8pm, the tasting mug, and 6 tokens. VIP passes were available for $50, which also gives access at the earlier time of 12pm (drunk by 2pm?) and a reserved bench seat at a table so you can pass out under a tent. Those sold out online before we could get our anxious hands on them. One token granted us a little less than half a mug from our generous beer masters. Two gave us a full mug. Extra tokens were provided at $1 a piece. Not bad at all.

It was basically one huge, albeit rainy, party and pub crawl. Trotting from tent to tent, zeroing in on beer we’ve never tried before, we were surrounded by incredibly friendly people. Nevermind that we’re all crowding under the tents to avoid getting soaked, wet shoulder to wet shoulder. In fact, let’s just have random conversations with each other! Don’t feel like talking? Let’s just start singing random drinking songs together! It was great.

Then take into consideration we we’re surrounded by what was basically wonderful street food. I didn’t catch anything that seemed too “out of the box”, which was a little disappointing. The German potato pancakes were great, as were the streudels. What stood out for me were some delightful beef Wellingtons, cooked in flaky streudle dough. Believe it or not, I managed to miss having any brats. There was a ton of great food there. Don’t know what it is, but food at a fair always seems so good.

So was it all roses and streudel under the clouds? Nah. There were issues with the insufficient amount of port-a-potties. Other than that though, it was a blast. We shuffled on home, drenched in rain, buzzed and content, making plans to do it next year.

Note: there’s actually one going on right now up in Baltimore, MD!  If you live near there, I hope you’re not sitting around reading this at the moment.  😉

Tags: beer, DAS Best, DC, food, MD, National Harbor, Oktoberfest, roses and streudle, VA